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Commentary - Jul 16, 2007 - Printable Version
- Censorship at the Speed of Light: US considers sending more troops to Iraq� or not
by Mark Faulk
(Editor's note: As I was writing this article about instantaneous censorship in the media, and going back to reference my sources, I watched the articles change, and some were even deleted altogether and replaced with an entirely different article. Frankly, it scared the hell out of me.) "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen�"
~George Orwell, the opening line of "1984"
The Associated Press reported today that the U.S. military's top general, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, said "that the Joint Chiefs of Staff is weighing a range of possible new directions in Iraq, including, if President Bush deems it necessary, an even bigger troop buildup."
Or did he?
I received a message today from an American soldier on the ground in Baghdad, linking an Associated Press article from Yahoo news, along with this direct quote from the article, followed by the soldier's comments:
"Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the U.S. military's top general, said Monday that the Joint Chiefs of Staff is weighing a range of possible new directions in Iraq, including, if President Bush deems it necessary, an even bigger troop buildup."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070716/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
"'if Bush deems it necessary' -- well of course he will...he doesn't know when to quit, and if he wanted this all to end in my opinion he could...he is just afraid to use TOO much force."
Yep -- an even bigger troop build up on top of what we just did. Well my opinion on the whole thing is to go on a major offensive throughout the country. Currently hands are tied to a certain extent as to how much force can be used in order to "win the hearts and minds" which is total B.S.
A model offensive based off Fallujah's operation phantom fury would be suitable for provincial missions."
But when I clicked on the link to the article -- the quote he cited was nowhere to be found. I reread it three times, and then Googled the quote to see if it was anywhere on the Internet. There were ten matches, and the first one I clicked on, an article on Forbes.com, had almost the exact same article that Yahoo had posted.
Almost.
The AP article that Forbes posted, entitled "3 Bombings in Kirkuk Kill More Than 80," was written by Yahya Barzanji, and posted at 11:14 AM EST. The last three paragraphs of that article read:
"'All of the support efforts, logistical and medical and so forth, they are not close to being able to meet,' Hamilton said.
Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the U.S. military's top general, said Monday that the Joint Chiefs of Staff is weighing a range of possible new directions in Iraq, including, if President Bush deems it necessary, an even bigger troop buildup.
The Iraqi parliament convened Monday as politicians tried to end boycotts of the legislature that are holding up work on crucial reforms sought by Washington. The slowness of the reforms has fueled U.S. calls for the withdrawal of American forces."
But when I went back to the article on Yahoo, where the soldier had originally read the same quote, the article had been retitled "Bombings kill more than 80 in Iraq" and the ending had been altered to read:
"'All of the support efforts, logistical and medical and so forth, they are not close to being able to meet,' Hamilton said."
Period. THE END. No mention of the quote from Gen. Pace, not a word about "an even bigger troop buildup."
Incredibly, the final two paragraphs had been deleted within two hours of the article's release. And if that weren't enough, the writer was now listed as Bassem Mroue, even though several of the paragraphs were exactly the same as the earlier article, with a footnote at the bottom of the article that said: "Associated Press reporter Yahya Barzanji contributed from Kirkuk."
Of the other nine exact Google matches for the same quote:
Three still had the original A.P. article as posted by Forbes with the last two paragraphs included (KMSB-TV, a local FOX affiliate in Tuscan, AZ, the Helena Independent Record in Helena, Montana, and CTV.ca in Canada).
Three had the later "edited" (read: "censored") Bassem Mroue version that Yahoo posted after deleting the original version by Yahya Barzanji. Those three websites were the Houston Chronicle, Lycos.com, and Chattanooga Times Free Press (which apparently isn't so free after all).
On the Los Angeles Times website, the entire article had been deleted, and replaced with an AP article headlined "Hamilton Worries About Prospects in Iraq," written by Calvin Woodward.
And finally, two so-called "news organizations" replaced the same article warning about the possibility of sending even more troops to Iraq with another AP article released at 4:23 PM EST and entitled -- believe it or not -- "Bush Announces Mideast Peace Conference."
That's right, in the space of less than six hours, history, or in this case current events, was rewritten so that a warning from our military's top general about the possibility of Bush sending more troops to Iraq, and an article about escalating violence in Iraq, was replaced by the announcement of a scheduled Mideast peace conference.
When I messaged my friend on the ground in Baghdad and told him what had happened, he didn't actually sound that surprised:
"It was deleted already? Amazing....I'm sure the White House made sure it got taken off there before too many people saw it....now that I think about it Bush would love to send more troops over here. If he wants the job done then let us do our job instead of playing politics over here...I have buddies losing body parts because of bad choices made in Washington, and by this administration."
Amen to that.
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
Here are the links to the various articles, all of which according to Google were originally the same one posted on the Forbes website, entitled "3 Bombings in Kirkuk Kill More Than 80" By Yahya Barzanji. Go read them now, before they all magically disappear along with the final remnants of Freedom of the Press:
"3 Bombings in Kirkuk Kill More Than 80"
Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/16/ap3917344.html
KMSB-TV, Tuscan, AZ
http://www.fox11az.com/news/topstories/stories/kmsb-20070716-apjc-3bombingskill.7f56c64e.html
Helena Independent Record, Helena, Montana
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/07/16/ap/headlines/d8qdonfo0.txt
"Bombings Kill More that 80 in Iraq"
Houston Chronicle:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4972097.html
Lycos.com
http://news.lycos.com/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=LYCOS&SECTION=home&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
"Hamilton Worries About Prospects in Iraq"
L.A. Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top14jul16,0,1689330.story?coll=la-ap-topnews-headlines
"Bush Announces Mideast Peace Conference"
South Florida Sun Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_top11jul16,0,406168.story
Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_top11jul16,0,1589208.story
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