Psy Ops – Moon of Alabama

November 16, 2004

Psy Ops

A few days ago, Amnesty International issued a carefully worded statement about the situation in Fallujah.

Amnesty International is deeply concerned that the rules of war protecting civilians and combatants have been violated in the current fighting in Falluja. Dozens of civilians have reportedly been killed during the fighting between US and Iraqi forces and insurgents. Amnesty International fears that civilians have been killed, in contravention of international humanitarian law, as a result of failure by parties to the fighting to take necessary precautions to protect non-combatants. The humanitarian situation in the city is said to be precarious.

The meme of war crime was coming into the public play. The occupation of the Falluja General Hospital, the bombing of a clinic at the begin of the assault, the interruption of water and electricity, turning back civilians into a warzone, unproportional use of force, turning back Red Crescent deliveries for civilians are war crimes.

These and other deeds are violations of the various laws of wars codified in the Geneva conventions and the United States Uniform Military Code of Justice. These deeds were ordered at high levels of the military and civilian hierarchy.
With all this done and some questions coming up, how can one keep the people and the media away from further researching and reporting this?

The Abu Ghraib tested and working method: pre-emptively point to the ant on the ground so the public eyes are driven away from the huge gorilla just in front of them.

Marine kills injured prisoner in Iraqi mosque is now the official ant on the ground everybody is supposed to look at.

The U.S. military is investigating the killing of a wounded and apparently unarmed Iraqi prisoner inside a mosque during combat operations here, the Defense Department told NBC News on Monday.

If there is a public outcry, the "investigation" may actually lead to some problems for a single young marine, if not, it will be buried.

There will be further reports about this in today’s and the following news cycles. Scartch your head and keep in mind that the incident was filmed by an embedded cameraman on Saturday and released to the press pool only Monday and the Defense Department had its statement well prepared. No TV-station so far has shown the actual shooting – it is blacked out – only the sound is there.

We don´t know if this incident was a war crime. But we do know that the big stuff happend and that it constitutes deliberate and systematic violation of the basic core Geneva conventions

To play up this small incident is pure psychological operations for the home front. Keep the eyes on the gorilla. He is the one doing real harm.

Posted by b on November 16, 2004 at 09:23 UTC | Permalink

Comments

I more or less concur with your synopsis Bernhard.
Get the masses screaming about this whilst all the other stuff is ignored.
Very good post.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Nov 16 2004 10:04 utc | 1

Testimony of journalist Kevin Sites in connection with the shooting of unarmed Iraqis in Falluja mosque

Posted by: Sic transit gloria USA | Nov 16 2004 10:07 utc | 2

Well, I am not sure. The alternative is – we don’t even talk about the marine. At least this way someone pretty directly associated with “US Army” and “US Power” are visibly to blame for a crime. It would be better that this has an actual impact on those really responsible for creating that situation, i.e. the political leadership of the US, but it still gets a message across: one side – injured civilians, the other side – indiscriminate killing.
If there were real terrorists in Fallujah, they are certainly forgotten by now, and their ranks have certainly been strenghtened by the brothers, fathers, sons of all the new dead. The Iraqis are suffering massively, but we will all end up paying for this one way or another. Anything that gets that message into the thick skulls of Red America earlier rather than later is good.

Posted by: Jérôme | Nov 16 2004 11:32 utc | 3

So true so now Faluja will be about 1 marine and 1 “insurgent” that’s all. And for Iraqis who know more they will be called anti-US haters talking propaganda, and none Iraqis will be called leftist anti US and haters of freedom. This is how US foreign policy have been done for ages and it seems as it works to fool at least over 50 million Americans every year, US only does good why do these evil people hate us so, it was only 1 US solider who did something wrong he is punished why are you not grateful?
Thanks for a good post !

Posted by: Nadia | Nov 16 2004 13:08 utc | 4

To play up this small incident is pure psychological operations for the home front.
***
EXACTLY MY FIRST THOUGHT AFTER HEARING THIS “NEWS” TONIGHT…

Posted by: vbo | Nov 16 2004 13:54 utc | 5

So it begins….
WASHINGTON — Several lobbying camps from different industries and ideologies are joining forces to fight an overhaul of copyright law, which they say would radically shift in favor of Hollywood and the record companies and which Congress might try to push through during a lame-duck session that begins this week.
The Senate might vote on HR2391, the Intellectual Property Protection Act, a comprehensive bill that opponents charge could make many users of peer-to-peer networks, digital-music players and other products criminally liable for copyright infringement. The bill would also undo centuries of “fair use” — the principle that gives Americans the right to use small samples of the works of others without having to ask permission or pay.
***
Hollywood’s involvement has even irked the American Conservative Union, which holds considerable sway with conservative Republicans in Congress. The ACU plans a major print ad campaign this week to oppose the bill, mainly because some provisions would require the Justice Department to file civil copyright lawsuits on behalf of the entertainment industry.
“It’s just plain wrong to make the Department of Justice Hollywood’s law firm,” said Stacie Rumenap, ACU’s deputy director.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 16 2004 14:03 utc | 6

I’ve been thinking a lot about war crimes lately, and one of the thoughts that I am working on is that the first war crime happened long before the U.S. invaded Iraq.
What I mean by this, is that the U.S. built up huge arsenals of extremely powerful weapons for decades. This has made the struggle very lopsided, and the Iraqis must use unorthodox and much “lower tech” methods to resist, such as kidnappings and IED’s (is that the right term?) Classic guerrilla tactics in other words. And, of course, the U.S. soldiers defend themselves by lobbing their horrible bombs at people from as far away as possible and killing as many people as possible without making much discernment between civilians and combatants. There is an air of logical inevitability about the tactics of both sides.
In other words, while I absolutely consider that what is happening on the ground constitutes war crimes, the problem is as much – or more – structural as it is tactical. Any war where the combatants are so unevenly armed is pretty much by definition a war crime in and of itself.
Sorry, this isn’t a very clear thought. I’m still working on it.
Ferdzy

Posted by: Ferdzy | Nov 16 2004 14:54 utc | 7

Good analysis, B. The comparison to Abu Ghraib is appropriate when we consider the result of that “investigation”: a censored general and a few soldiers convicted of crimes while the man who wrote the legal justification for the policy leading to the crimes gets promoted to Attorney General where he can implement similar policies on the domestic front. A few ants get crushed for PR and the gorilla gets larger.

Posted by: lonesomeG | Nov 16 2004 15:33 utc | 8

I’d be interested in hearing what the Moon-atics
have to say about
this site and it’s owner. The site is clearly
rightist in orientation, but the brief analysis of the “security situation” jibes perfectly with that given
on anti-war sites.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Nov 16 2004 16:15 utc | 9

One soldier killing a wounded enemy.
I thought the same as B, vbo and others.
The message is: WAR is war, bad things happen in war, bad apples exist amongst all people, the US is not immune, and admits its failures, knows that in times of war, some people either lose it or were sadists to begin with…no whitewash here!
Rotten, putrid, stinking, wormy apples in Abu Ghraib, too, as pointed out.
It also sends the message: See, our soldiers *know* what has to be done, our soldiers don’t shirk, don’t obey international conventions…killing rag heads is cool, and we even let newspapers publish that some of us do it in not-so-nice conditions.
This kind of quasi-personal incident can be read as one likes – what is sure fire (sic) though is that few will ignore it and think it insignificant.
BushCo (Rove?) have ingeniously subsituted the personal for the political, thus rendering the political an abstract exotic matter that only blue blood princes or deluded foreignors (say) jaw about, arrogantly and uselessly.
I mean – to turn to another area, changing the topic, apologies – Americans are supposed to do their civic duty by worrying about some flirty guy who lives on the other side of town, his sex life and future hopes and plans? And watch the neighbor lady’s tummy, ready to intervene at the drop of a ..ha.. hat, in case, well, something dire might happen to the precious spark of life? People dont think or behave in this way, specially not in America.
What BushCo have done is to manage to *undermine* morality. Morality is based on a contract that stipulates that moral standards (whatever they happen to be) must be upheld in public, for the (ultimate) good of the community; that morals represent an ideal, often imperfectly reached – deviance of certain sorts will be detrimental, etc. However the ethos of personal liberty, as well as the common idea of both respect and indugence for one’s fellow man (or more often woman, they tend to be more sinful..) also stipulates that as long as no grave disturbances are set in motion, understanding and lee-way must take the day.
People are tied together in circles of caring and they don’t like to see their family, friends, acquaintances suffer. They will go to great lengths to prevent or alleviate that suffering, and will transgress *moral rules* without any guilt or foresight.
And the media is telling them that *moral values* are all important and accounted for the Bush win?
Geez, this is really dangerous stuff. It destroys community. Which I suppose is part of the point.

Posted by: Blackie | Nov 16 2004 19:44 utc | 10

I spent my 5 mins./mon. of tv watching on that last night. My thought – if that didn’t happen, they’ve have created it. It was a gift from the gods – immediately, after showing a toned down version, they had interview w/a Commander who could blather about investigating, and the all-important line about how “We adhere to the Rules of Conflict”-unlike those savages!!
Meanwhile they’ve destroyed a city of 300,000 people on satellite tv before the World. How long before they return the favor & start burning our cities, or…….
Supposedly the point was to terrorize the masses into acquiescence. Hard to believe American military this stupid, but then I remember that everyone who knows better has been tossed out by NeoTerrorists.
Spreading Fear Thruout the World – Logo of Bu$hCo.

Posted by: jj | Nov 16 2004 20:43 utc | 11

Riverbend agrees

And what will happen now? A criminal investigation against a single Marine who did the shooting? Just like what happened with the Abu Ghraib atrocities? A couple of people will be blamed and the whole thing will be buried under the rubble of idiotic military psychologists, defense analysts, Pentagon officials and spokespeople and it will be forgotten. In the end, all anyone will remember is that a single Marine shot and killed a single Iraqi ‘insurgent’ and it won’t matter anymore.
It’s typical American technique- every single atrocity is lost and covered up by blaming a specific person and getting it over with. What people don’t understand is that the whole military is infested with these psychopaths. In this last year we’ve seen murderers, torturers and xenophobes running around in tanks and guns. I don’t care what does it: I don’t care if it’s the tension, the fear, the ‘enemy’… it’s murder. We are occupied by murderers. We’re under the same pressure, as Iraqis, except that we weren’t trained for this situation, and yet we’re all expected to be benevolent and understanding and, above all, grateful. I’m feeling sick, depressed and frightened. I don’t know what to say anymore… they aren’t humans and they don’t deserve any compassion.

Posted by: b | Nov 16 2004 21:36 utc | 12

Helpless, unarmed prisoner shot dead- it’s OK – U.S. Marines rally round Iraq probe comrade
Helpless unarmed prisoner shot dead – British hostage believed slain in video
7aram

Posted by: Sic transit gloria USA | Nov 16 2004 21:56 utc | 13

Sic transit gloria USA
You do honour to MoA by taking the time and effort to post here.
Who benefits from the murder of Ms Hassan?

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Nov 16 2004 22:04 utc | 14

@CP – Who benefits from the murder of Ms Hassan?
Israel comes to mind …

Posted by: b | Nov 16 2004 22:17 utc | 15

a)
the owner of globalguerillas is a former USAF who even brags about how the usgov spent “an extra 2.5 million dollars” to push assorted crap into his head (educate him, that is). the most funny thing about this ridiculously expensive deluded fuck (king of dunces ?) is that while he somehow manages to weave ‘market’ terminology into his ‘analysis’ of everything terrorism, he fails magnanimously to account for the role of violence in the formation, perpetuation and decline of these same ‘markets’. somehow he seems to be aghast and not so willing to accept that globalization is failing, “security” is failing in iraq – aqccording to his, ahem, interesting logic, *that* and nothing else is why iraq is a failed state. what did this dork think, that the only people capable of violence are americans and capitalists ? to read this fuckhead is to understand to what extent the divorce from reality of this bunch of criminals goes. but we still need to put jrobb’s rants in context as he belongs to an exclusive club of people who “bask in glory” after dropping 900kg bombs on impoverished civilians.
b)
jews wrote some pretty nasty stuff about goyim (mainly christians) in the talmud, probably as a justified reaction to the constant harassment they were subject to. i propose that, as a reaction to the disgusting behavior of the american nation against the world, everybody take the most hate-filled rants in the talmud and apply them to americans. lets make all americans subject of hate in all our thoughts and actions, and in this lets make the most extreme rabbis in the west bank or gaza our teachers, take their predisposition towards palestinians and make this our predisposition towards all americans. lets insult americans and their despicable symbols in every possible way, lets infiltrate and subvert their institutions, lets take their property because they dont own it in first place, lets fill them in with lies and deception everytime there is a chance, lets make it not only legal but socially acceptable to screw them over in any business relation, lets turn away and smile to ourselves rather than extend help when we see one of them in trouble, lets make their friends and associates miserable, lets make all americans serfs and anybody else a king in front of them. lets work all together to slowly, slowly blot the name of this debauched people out of human memory. (i mean no disrespect against jews, please)
c)
the psyop thought may be valid because it is a tactic aimed at the short term and at shifting the blame of institutionally based crimes to the weakest, namely the lowly foot soldier. in the long term and it is a self defeating ritual which make the US as a whole, not only the USMC or the army look like shit. now that half of americans voted (plus or minus shenanigans) for bush and confirmed his rampage, there is no excuse for americans. the shooting on tape was approved by every american. in my eyes all of them are responsible and culpable for what is happening, including those who voted kerry or abstained. i recon i am not _that_ alone with these views anymore. so much for the success of their psyops.

Posted by: name | Nov 16 2004 23:40 utc | 16

@name i recon i am not _that_ alone with these views anymore. so much for the success of their psyops.
That success unfortunatly is not measure on what counts with you name.
Beating on all and everybody in the US is not a winning strategy if you want a more peaceful world. It is playing into the hand of those people who do not want it.
Isolation of the US is no longer a possibility. The US could (and will) try isolationalism but pretty soon will find out that they do not have the commodity base to do this without a very, very drastic reduction of their lifestyle. Isolation initiated by whatever side would result in even fiercer conflicts.
Let´s try to work for a more rational look at the problems the Globe faces. Hate will not (yet) be helpful.

Posted by: b | Nov 17 2004 0:02 utc | 17

“We don’t wish this upon anyone, but everyone needs to understand there are consequences for not following the Iraqi government.”
Shooting of Iraqi in mosque angers Muslims
And kittens and candy and bluebirds and apple pie for everyone!
……In response to reports by Falluja residents that US forces had executed injured Iraqis and dragged them behind US tanks Gilbert said: “I will not talk about this issue. The US together with Iraqi forces confronted the terrorists in Falluja. The forces are there to clean the city from rebels and terrorists, regain stability and security in Iraq, and to hold elections so the Iraqi children can play in playgrounds,” he said……..
US Marines probed as Falluja fighting continues
UN seeks probe into US war crimes

Posted by: Sic transit gloria USA | Nov 17 2004 0:06 utc | 18

name, I don’t know by what logic you came up with the notion that what the US military does in Iraq is my burden of responsiblity. Yes, those soldiers are there in my name, as an American citizen, but I refuse to take on culpability. I have never supported the war in Iraq, never supported Bush or, frankly, anything that he has done or proposed. Collective guilt merits collective punishment. I don’t believe that anyone should be punished for the crimes of someone else, and that includes the Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans *and* Americans. I am horrified and anguished over what my government is doing in and to other countries, especially Iraq, but I will not accept blame. Not when I spend so much time staying informed and speak out against Bushco when ever I have the opportunity.
Burnhard, and Riverbend are right (Riverbend is always right) about the (mis)administrations distraction technique. Rove knows how short news cycles are, focus on one tree and the whole crimal forest is not seen. Rinse and repeat until out of the public mind.
Is there a site out there that recycles and updates news on these scandals? How do we keep this stuff in the news until it is properly resolved? Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Valerie Plame, Secret Energy Meetings, Jose Padilla, et al ad nauseum.

Posted by: stoy | Nov 17 2004 0:26 utc | 19

@bernhard

Isolation of the US is no longer a possibility. The US could (and will) try isolationalism but pretty soon will find out that they do not have the commodity base to do this without a very, very drastic reduction of their lifestyle. Isolation initiated by whatever side would result in even fiercer conflicts.
Let´s try to work for a more rational look at the problems the Globe faces. Hate will not (yet) be helpful.

Posted by: name | Nov 17 2004 1:06 utc | 20

Damn, Bernhard, finally an answer to my immediate question upon seeing the mosque shooting video on evening news. How/why did they let the video get onto broadcast TV? Embeds have been subject to censorhip, so why is this let out? I wondered if it being from a “pool cameraman” it had been given to too many sites to keep it hidden. But that didn’t make sense; so much has been ignored, hidden, not shown, not reported.
So, why this? Your thinking makes the most sense I’ve come across.
Damn, it fits. Yup, now the cable shows will have endless discussions of whether this soldier was acting in “self defense,” what will happen to him, when will the investigation be concluded, yada, yada, yada.
No need to discuss the big issues of invading the town, killing civilians (what civilians? I don’t see no civilians!) and not taking care to not kill civilians, bombing more than one clinic, emergency medical center, militarily taking over the main hospital, maltreating patients and staff. Access for the aid convoys can be overwhelmed with the video. One poor grunt.
It’s all a matter of focus.

Posted by: jawbone | Nov 17 2004 2:43 utc | 21

Killing a helpless prisoner – Falluja mosque, November 13th 2004. Views of all the killings outside the mosque not generally available

Posted by: Sic transit gloria USA | Nov 17 2004 3:41 utc | 22

If the shooter had been arrested by the troops around him for having so broken the ‘rules of war’, I would agree with you that this was the ‘ant’ and not the ‘gorilla’. But his comrades/superiors did not arrest him at the scene of the crime. Only the reporter’s account resulted in a retroactive arrest of the perpetrator.
Meaning that his comrades/superiors, our troops, either didn’t recognize his act as contrary to the rule of war/UCMJ/Geneva Conventions, or it did not bother them. This IS the gorilla.

Posted by: gylangirl | Nov 17 2004 4:55 utc | 23

That mosque killing – it’s not the war crime – do you know what the really bad thing about it is, apparently?
Setback to US image in war

Posted by: Sic transit gloria USA | Nov 17 2004 5:06 utc | 24

Murder on camera – the mosque killing video

Posted by: Sic transit gloria USA | Nov 17 2004 6:17 utc | 25

Bush could shit on a picture of the Prophet on live TV and I don’t the image of the US could be set back any more than it is.

Posted by: Stoy | Nov 17 2004 6:37 utc | 26

US military probes other deaths in Falluja mosque incident

Posted by: Sic transit gloria USA | Nov 17 2004 8:13 utc | 27

U.N. official condemns Falluja killings

Posted by: Sic transit gloria USA | Nov 17 2004 10:15 utc | 28

Amnesty International calls for ‘unequivocal orders’ to prevent war crimes in Iraq
US Marines killed four wounded Iraqi prisoners – US reporter