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September 3, 2006
No Blockbuster

In a renewed fighting effort, the propaganda battalion of U.S. forces in Iraq today revealed its latest product.

It announced (drumroll) the No. 2 al-Qaida leader in Iraq arrested:

Iraqi and coalition forces have arrested the second most senior figure in al-Qaida in Iraq, Iraq’s national security adviser announced on Sunday, saying the group now suffered from a "serious leadership crisis."

Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was captured north of Baghdad a few days ago "along with another group of his aides and followers," Mouwafak al-Rubaie said.

Al-Rubaie, aka Mr. Cellophane, is of course an U.S. asset. He is the only high level person who did not have to change his job during three Iraqi administration. The creation of his position of an Iraqi National Security Adviser and his appointment were done back in 2004 by then pro-consul Bremer. Since then, he is only in the news when the U.S. really needs a controlled voice.

Google searches for Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi or Abu Humam or Abu Rana have no results in relation to terrorism in Iraq. The PsyOps guys must have had an urgent request to pull this rabbit out of their hat. These things need a build-up to be really effective. The death of Abu Musab "Goldstein" al-Zarqawi was effective because of the long build up of that campaign. 

Now, like then, the whole story is of course for U.S. domestic consumption only. What Iraqi would today believe such a statement? (emph.add.)

"Al-Saeedi carried out al-Qaida’s policies in Iraq and the orders of the slain al-Zarqawi to incite sectarian violence in the country, through attempting to start a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis — but their wishes did not materialize," al-Rubaie added.

To further U.S. interest into the story, the scriptwriters also added a native American voice and a role for their legions:

A senior coalition official told The Associated Press that coalition forces were involved in al-Saeedi’s arrest, although the official would not characterize what role they played.
[…]
Al-Saeedi "claims to be responsible for more attacks than he can remember" and has been involved in the insurgency almost from its beginning three years ago, the official said.

Other bits were added to the script to support the drive to War on Iran by mentioning ominous support from outside and to justify the civilian death in Lebanon by advancing the "hiding behind civilians" meme:

The security adviser said those arrested included non-Iraqi Arabs, but he would not give any further information for security reasons.

Al-Rubaie said that according to Iraqi authorities’ information, al-Qaida in Iraq was being financed from both within the country and from abroad, "but the major finance is coming from outside Iraq."

Al-Saeedi was arrested as he was hiding in a residential building, the security adviser said, accusing the terror suspect of trying to use "children and women as human shields," al-Rubaie said, adding that no casualties occurred during the arrest.

All in all, not a bad script to impress Fox News addicts and to catch some headlines on a slow-news labor day. 

But this is hardly a major blockbuster, not nearly enough to influence the coming election. That story will be much bigger, better prepared and with impressive effects.

Stay tuned …

Posted by b on September 3, 2006 at 18:40 UTC | Permalink
Comments

You’d think Al-Qaida would have run out of #2s already. Everytime you look around, they’ve killed or arrested another Al-Qaida #2 man. How many are there? … (rhetorical, of course, there are as many as Bush needs)

Posted by: Ensley | Sep 3 2006 18:51 utc | 1

Hmm – the Reuters version of the above story adds a bit that probably needed some suppression by this B-movie launch too.

The announcement came as talks between the United States and Iraq on transferring operational command of Iraq’s forces to the Defense Ministry were deadlocked. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was demanding more independence for the U.S.-trained army that Washington hopes can take over and let Americans go home.
Maliki was also at loggerheads with the leader of ethnic Kurds, who brandished the threat of secession in a growing row over the symbolic issue of flying the Iraqi national flag at government buildings in the autonomous Kurdish north.

al-Maliki’s days are numbered in double digits. Maybe al-Rubaie would take the job?

Posted by: b | Sep 3 2006 18:53 utc | 2

Sciomancy…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 3 2006 19:04 utc | 3

I suppose they needed a rabbit pulled out of a hat, and a smoking rabbit at that — givig the more significant and underplayed stories coming to light — like for instance, the slow motion presentation of Nouri al-Maliki being drawn and quartered by the events now in play.

Posted by: anna missed | Sep 3 2006 19:53 utc | 4

A hearty thanks to b for the “Mr. Cellophane” link and the analysis.
There is something pathetic in the repetitive and transparent character of this “media event”, yet simultaneously tragic in the enduring utility of such easily deconstructed flim-flam for driving the American Bad Shepherd’s ever-diminishing flock toward the shearing pen.

Of course, b’s analysis could be entirely wrong, but it’s virtually certain that it will never even be mentioned, much less subjected to open debate in what used to be the mainstream media. The latter doesn’t even seem to notice anything strange about such “Al Qaeda” operatives as Adam Pearlman and friends. Here again, the allegation that Western intelligence agencies are involved, which arises quite spontaneously, could be false, but such matters are deemed inappropriate for airing on the evening news or serious attempts at rebuttal in the key outlets of the “mockingbird” media.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Sep 4 2006 5:39 utc | 5

The Newshog thinks that the planned “ceremony” that did not take place is the real news

While all and sundry in the media seem to be leading with the capture of yet another alleged Al-Qaida bigwig (always hailed as a breakthrough and always anything but) the really big story in Iraq today is being ignored – and perhaps even downplayed – even though all the clues are out in the open.
I’m referring to a ceremony that was supposed to occur on Saturday which was meant to formally “transfer operational control of Iraq’s military to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government”. A momentous moment in Iraqi history, some good news for a Bush administration beleagured by bad news about Iraq…the press were there in droves.
…

Posted by: b | Sep 4 2006 7:40 utc | 6

Maliki must be under tremendous pressure, on one hand from the meeting with Sistani, where he is demanding action to curb the civil war. If Sistani makes good on his vow (threat) to disengage from political mediation, that, more or less takes the leash off Sadr and his splinters, and the other more militant clerics to escalate the protection and revenge cycle of civil war — and on the other hand from the U.S. which refuses to cough up the equipment and autonomy to stop it. Throw in the killing of the Pakistani and Indian pilgrims and the Kurds flying their own flag and one nasty brew is coming to a boil, that just might blow the lid off.

Posted by: anna missed | Sep 4 2006 8:44 utc | 7

Yeah, arresting that top al-Qaida operative has stopped violence right in its tracks in Iraq, all right. Only a few newsworthy items the morning after….
33 bodies found scattered across Baghdad
By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press

Authorities found the tortured, blindfolded bodies of 33 men scattered across Baghdad Monday and the U.S.-led coalition said eight troops had died, a day after Iraq said the capture of a top terror suspect would reduce violence.
In Baghdad, assailants kidnapped a popular soccer star, while a security crackdown in the capital expanded an operation into the upscale Mansour neighborhood….
The U.S.-led coalition said eight troops had died over the past two days — six Americans and two British.
On Sunday, two U.S. Marines were killed in Anbar and two soldiers were killed by roadside bombs, one in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, and the other near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital. Another U.S. soldier was killed Monday by a roadside bomb, while one died of non-combat injuries, the military said.
In the south, a roadside bomb killed two British soldiers and seriously wounded a third north of the southern city of Basra, British military spokesman Maj. Charlie Burbridge said.
In the capital, police said they found the bullet-riddled bodies of 33 men, all showing signs of torture and with their hands and feet bound, dumped around several neighborhoods.
Another two bodies were found dumped on a highway in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. Both had been shot in the head and chest, said Maamoun Ajil al-Robaiei from the morgue at Kut hospital.
Meanwhile, assailants kidnapped popular soccer star and Olympic team member Ghanim Ghudayer. Considered one of the best players in Baghdad’s Air Force Club, the 22-year-old was kidnapped Sunday evening by unknown assailants, some of whom were wearing military uniforms, police said….
Meanwhile, disagreements continued over the handover of the country’s armed forces command from the U.S.-led coalition to Iraq, with the Defense Ministry saying a ceremony to mark the transition had been postponed indefinitely….
The two sides still need “to complete some legal and protocol procedures that will lead to a complete understanding between the Iraqi government and the multinational troops,” the Defense Ministry said….
The Iraqi Defense Ministry announced on Monday that 15 people believed to have been involved in insurgent activities were killed over the last 24 hours by Iraqi army units.
In other violence across Iraq, according to police:
_An ambush in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, left two people dead.
_A car bomb in Baghdad wounded five civilians.
_Gunmen killed a former general in Saddam Hussein’s military in Ramadi, 70 miles northwest of Baghdad.
_Two suicide bombers slammed into a checkpoint on the outskirts of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi soldier and wounding eight.
_Iraqi police reported clashes between gunmen and Iraqi forces in Musayyib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, which left one Iraqi soldier dead and about 100 gunmen arrested.
_In Mosul, gunmen seriously injured a law professor at Mosul University. Dr. Jafar al-Fadhla Jafar came under fire as he left the college, Bahaa al-Din al-Bakri of Mosul hospital said.

Oh yeah, we’ve surely got the situation under control now….
Question: Anyone have an inside scoop on what caused that agreement to be aborted at the last minute? I will search around, but surely this is something important to unearth.

Posted by: Bea | Sep 4 2006 19:56 utc | 8

The sleeper effect rides again
Here’s a social psychological phenomenon in action. It’s known as the sleeper effect. Basically, the idea is that some dodgy source will make some dodgy claim perhaps repeatedly. As time goes by, the dodgy claim, having been stored in our memory gets recalled minus the accompanying bits about the claim or its source’s dodginess. Hence, the claim gains some persuasive power that it previously didn’t have. Urban legends take on a life of their own as a result of this basic feature of our mental lives. How many people still believe that Gore claimed to “invent the internet”? You can look that one up on snopes.com and find out about the claim and its source quite readily. But I digress. Now on to our feature:

First, the ball-breakingly obvious: the method of advertising consists mainly in mindless repetition and metonymic association between unrelated items or themes. So, there is an intense advertising campaign on right at this moment to persuade the American public that it’s 1939 all over again. The latest buzz word is fascism. Fascism, Fascism, Fascism, appeasement is doing the rounds. As Jim Lobe writes, this theme is being pushed forcefully by the neoconservative press, but it is worth bearing in mind that John Reid floated this latest round of the He’s-A-Hitler season with his reference to “individual fascists” who were now more menacing than the state. And of course, the fake stories about Iran’s intention to make non-Muslims and specifically Jews wear badges was an earlier milestone in this prolonged campaign.
Let’s not waste time: this isn’t new, and it isn’t designed to impress. It isn’t analysis and no one is even pretending that it is. It’s the same, soggy old pigshit they have been shoving down our throats ever since Anthony Eden called Nasser a fascist. They don’t expect the intelligentsia to swallow it (but so much the better if some do). They expect the intelligentsia to snigger and go “huhuhuhuh, Bush is stoopid, yeah yeah, huhuhuhuh, he’s so stoopid!” While commentators are busily giggling and coughing up phlegm, the warrior elite expect that the casual viewers will slowly come to make these associations by themselves, as if voluntarily, forgetting where they were first forged and how. Already, there must be quite a substantial number of people who have heard the phrase ‘Islamofascism’ and used it without ever having given it a moment’s thought or scrutiny. That’s how advertising works.
[…]
The only thing to do is note it, point at it, and look for what’s behind it. It happens, as usual, to be crashingly obvious. Oh, they want your money, they want your vote, they want you to shut up when they bomb Iran, they want you to stop criticising the President, they want you to commit to supporting the troops in Iraq, they want the army to stop seeing its recruitment fall through the floor, they want you to be worried about anything other than energy prices, the collapse in the housing market and the looming recession. The usual.

Nerdified link. My emphasis added.
The problem with the “intelligentsia” is that with a very weak (to the point of being almost neutralized) opposition to whatever Bu$hCo is selling, they end up innoculating their audience against an actual oppositional message. I suspect a lot of it boils down to the “intelligentsia” being sufficiently indoctrinated into the same mindset as the rest of the elites that they’re all thoroughly on the same page – there may be a bit of quibbling in terms of details (some want a kinder gentler genocide whereas others just want their genocide as bloody as possible – with both believing that the genocide in question will spread freedom and democracy or at least democracy’s birth pangs), but that can all be hashed out on the Sunday morning talkshow circuit.
So what are we working stiffs left with? A forceful yet questionable message from equally unsavory messengers that is only weakly rebutted by some court jesters with impeccable credentials. No surprise then that many will end up associating this season’s Hitler with a whole host of alleged “bad things” and give The War Party yet another free pass to waste lives and treasure in our never-ending Children’s Crusade. Never mind that they just don’t make Hitlers like they used to.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 4 2006 23:23 utc | 9

Today on Cnn, the infotainer was reporting rumors that it may not have actually been a #2 man captured. The inevitable lesser- headlined backpeddle after the victorious leaders’ major headline lie.

Posted by: gylangirl | Sep 5 2006 3:14 utc | 10

So many #2’s, so little time…
This blogger has made a list!

Posted by: Rick Happ | Sep 5 2006 3:54 utc | 11

The Washington Post version of the capture narrative gives it a slightly different twist, in the jump. WP seems to have consulted additional sources, besides the official spokesreaders.

The Mujaheddin Shura Council, an insurgent coalition that includes al-Quaida in Iraq, denied al-Saeedi was a member of al-Qaida. A leader of another group in the council, however, confirmed that al-Saeedi belonged to al-Qaida.
“But he is not that famous or any sort of leader,” Abu Abdullah, a leader if the Islamic Army of Iraq, said in a phone interview from Salahuddin province. “He is only a normal fighter.”

Then a little more info on the AQ fighter/leader from non-specific “Iraqi officials”:

Iraqi officials said al-Saeedi, a former intelligence officer for President Saddam Hussein, was captured … as he hid among women and children … just north of Baghdad. . . .

Finally, no mention of Iran, attacks on al-Qaida are rendered virtually useless by its “diffusion”, in this account, and US forces operate in a twilight of insignificance, beneath a looming spectre of Iraqi civil war.

Despite repeated strikes on the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq, the group’s diffuse cells have continued to launch deadly attacks.
U.S. and Iraqi official say the greatest threat to security in Iraq is not insurgent attacks on American forcees but tit-for-tat killings by the country’s various sects.

The string here begins to sound like a brief study in journalistic options. Is “al-Queda captured” become a Rorsach block for Iraq reporting?

Posted by: small coke | Sep 5 2006 12:35 utc | 12

Blogenlust has a list of 39 ! No 2. (or high level) Al Q officials captured.
In another world, Westerners would be curious about who these people are exactly, what their position/expertise was, what terrorist acts they had participated in, how well they knew Bin Laden, whether they would confess and repent to try to make good to favor their families, children and become turn coats; whether they would write books, go into politics, convert to Christianity or kill themselves. What their links were with the Taliban, with Pakistan, their histories, their lives, their motives, beliefs, dirty secrets. How the group planned, acted, where their money came from, what arms they had, what they hoped to achieve.
Huh?
The tail end of that attitude was evident shortly after 9/11 in France. Moussaoui’s mother was all over the TV, other family members as well, and at least one book has been written about him. That soon died down when the larger public understood he was a minor pastsy and media and authorities grasped that it was best not to investigate or meddle, the US were running the show.
The shame of it all is that some leftie pundits and mainstream types make fun of this endless media parade of unknown commanders, and sometimes even question false flag attacks, but at the same time uphold the myth of Islamic terrorism, attributing its continuance, its supposed future dire effects, the sorry fact it hasn’t died yet, been killed to the incompetence of BushCo!
link

Posted by: Noirette | Sep 9 2006 14:38 utc | 13

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