Propaganda: 2002-Iraq 2007-Syria

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September 14, 2007

Do we recognize this scheme?

anonymous official sources ‘leak’ false claims about a foreign WMD threat to a major U.S. newspapers
soon afterward a famous administration official is interviewed by a friendly TV station
the administration official vaguely acknowledges the newspaper report
other news media report this as independent confirmation
the public mind assumes there is a ‘real imminent threat’

It has happened before and right before our eyes, it is happening again.

Let’s recap:

On September 8 2002 the New York Times published a ‘report’ by Michael Gordon and Judith Miller: U.S. Says Hussein Intensifies Quest For A-Bomb Parts

In the last 14 months, Iraq has sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes, which American officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium. American officials said several efforts to arrange the shipment of the aluminum tubes were blocked or intercepted but declined to say, citing the sensitivity of the intelligence, where they came from or how they were stopped.

The very same day Secretary of State Collin Powell is interviewed on Fox News Sunday:

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: […] And as we saw in reporting just this morning, he is still trying to acquire, for example, some of the specialized aluminum tubing one needs to develop centrifuges that would give you an enrichment capability.

Other media amplify: Top Bush officials push case against Saddam

Top officials in the Bush administration took to the Sunday television talk shows to argue the president’s case that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is a global threat and must go.

A CBS opinion poll September 22/23 2002 found:

In the first week of September, only 27% believed the administration had clearly explained its case; now, nearly twice as many do.

Five years later:

The Washington Post yesterday morning: N. Korea, Syria May Be at Work on Nuclear Facility

North Korea may be cooperating with Syria on some sort of nuclear facility in Syria, according to new intelligence the United States has gathered over the past six months, sources said.

Yesterday evening Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was interviewed on Fox News:

QUESTION: What are we to make of the reports this week that in fact, Syria is building nuclear facilities?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all, our — we have long been concerned about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. […] So this is something that’s been at the highest point of the President’s agenda since he came into power and we work every day and we watch it every day and we’re vigilant about it and we’re determined.

That is certainly not a denial nor a clarification. Like before this is picked up, repacked and emphasized by other media. So now we read: Rice concerned over Syrian nukes

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in an interview on Fox New’s Sean Hannity Show Thursday night expressed concern following reports that Syria may be building nuclear facilities, saying, "We have to have policies that prevent the world’s most dangerous people from having the world’s most dangerous weapons."

In an earlier thread I documented a systematic campaign to plant a "nuclear Syria" meme into the public mind. This was started by a neocon led Syrian ‘opposition’ group under Israeli influence and reenforced by neocon John Bolton. The administration has now joined this campaign.

Whether this is to support the war of aggression Israel recently started by air attacks on Syria, or part of the promised campaign to launch an unprovoked war on Iran is not yet clear. It is likely that these campaigns do belong together anyway.

It is yet too early for opinion polls that show changes in the public mind about a "nuclear threat" from Syria, but I do expect the results will show the same effect we saw in 2002.

Most frustrating here is that five years after the lies about Saddams WMD, the media can be played by just the same scheme of government propaganda.

But then the media has to take care for their customers, the people who advertise – not the readers/viewers, and a full page four color Lockheed advertisement may be seen as more valuable than reporting ethics.

That is easy to understand, but will the public ever learn this?

Posted by b on September 14, 2007 at 14:11 UTC | Permalink

Comments

And in Haaretz today:
Ex-U.S. official: N. Korea using Syria, Iran as nuclear ‘safe havens’

The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said North Korea may be using Syria and Iran as “safe havens” for its nuclear activity, and another U.S. official was quoted as saying Damascus may be building a nuclear facility with North Korean assistance.
The comments come after Syria’s announcement last Thursday that Israel Air Force jets violated its airspace, and were fired upon by its air defenses. Syria said that nothing was hit in the alleged attack and there was no damage.
Bolton recently told Haaretz that United States President George W. Bush warned North Korea last year against transferring nuclear material to Syria, Iran or a terrorist organization, saying such a move would be perceived as a “grave threat.”

Posted by: Bea | Sep 14 2007 14:58 utc | 1

And of course, FOX:
Syria Might Be Seeking Nuclear Weapons Technology Through Syria, Sources Say
If you read this piece even a little carefully, you will see how completely nebulous and unattributable it all is. There is not one solid name or source – it is all innuendo.

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials have developed evidence [such as? how vague can you get??] showing that North Korea is helping Syria to develop a nuclear program for weapons purposes, FOX News has learned in recent interviews with sources who have knowledge of the situation…
The details of the claims are vague, but one source told FOX News in late August that the North Koreans had sold the Syrians a nuclear facility, most likely related to uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium is necessary both for nuclear power and nuclear weapons uses. The United States accuses Syria of assisting terrorist groups including Hezbollah.
A source said the case has been assigned the internal code name, “Orchard,” and the evidence was developed through Israeli channels, possibly with the assistance of U.S. aerial photography.
Other sources, however, questioned Syria’s ability to afford such a pricey venture. Those sources [Note: Even these unnamed “skeptics” are asserting a flow of expertise…] said that in recent discussions with U.S. intelligence officials, the officials had spoken of North Korea having sent nuclear scientists, engineers, and other personnel with relevant expertise to Damascus.
“I’ve noticed more and more people [in the intelligence community] talking [Note that the AUTHOR of the piece inserted “in the intelligence community”; the “source” could have been referring to anyone under the sun!!] about people being sent over[from North Korea to Syria],” one high-ranking former National Security Council official said.

How on earth have our standards for credible journalism sunk so abysmally low????
At least they have the guts to print the Syrian response at the end:

A spokesman for the Syrian embassy on Thursday called the allegations “absurd.”
“This is an incredibly absurd and ridiculously fabricated story. Those who create such lies are misleading the American public and end-up undermining US national interest in a way reminiscent of what happened in Iraq previously. In fact, it is a shame that serious news outlets would waste time and space on such a fictitious idea,” said embassy spokesman Ahmed Salkini.

This “source,” we note, was willing to go on record with his name…

Posted by: Bea | Sep 14 2007 15:10 utc | 2

from the wapo link
The evidence, said to come primarily from Israel, includes dramatic satellite imagery that led some U.S. officials to believe that the facility could be used to produce material for nuclear weapons.

Posted by: annie | Sep 14 2007 15:24 utc | 3

Now we find out where this aiming at: U.S.: Syria on Nuclear Watch List

ROME — A senior American official said Friday that Syria was on the U.S. nuclear “watch list,” asserting that foreign technicians were in the country and that there had been possible contacts with suppliers for nuclear equipment.
Andrew Semmel, acting deputy assistant secretary for nuclear nonproliferation policy, did not name the suppliers, but said there were North Koreans in Syria and that he could not exclude the possiblity that the network run by the disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan was involved.
…
Semmel, who is in Italy for a meeting Saturday on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, said Syria was certainly on the U.S. “watch list.”
“There are indicators that they do have something going on there,” he said. “We do know that there are a number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria. We do know that there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers for nuclear equipment. Whether anything transpired remains to be seen.”
“So good foreign policy, good national security policy, would suggest that we pay very close attention to that,” he said. “We’re watching very closely. Obviously, the Israelis were watching very closely.”
Asked if the suppliers could have been North Koreans, he said: “There are North Korean people there. There’s no question about that. Just as there are a lot of North Koreans in Iraq and Iran.”

Who knew? North Koreans in Iraq? Maybe the missing coalition partners?

Posted by: b | Sep 14 2007 15:32 utc | 4

he could not exclude the possiblity that the network run by the disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan was involved.
Ooooo Pakistan too! How convenient…
And
There are North Korean people there. There’s no question about that.
BOMB THE WHOLE COUNTRY! PRONTO! We cannot tolerate this!!!!

Posted by: Bea | Sep 14 2007 15:49 utc | 5

I just love how the media plays off the assumption that the Secretary of State is always opposed to the military adventures. Poor Condaleeza Rice, former Soviet specialist during the Cold War and National Security Advisor during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, as a woman and head of the State department must be against any kind of violence so of course if she says there might be something to worry about, then it is apparent that we should all be concerned. (Not to mention how easy it must have been for Colin Powell to give up his military indoctrination to become a peace loving diplomat.)

Posted by: Bugout | Sep 14 2007 15:57 utc | 6

Semmel, who is in Italy for a meeting Saturday on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,
italy always comes in very handy for washing neocon info.

Posted by: annie | Sep 14 2007 16:13 utc | 7

The corporate media are like puppets on strings.
Now this from Yahoo News (AP released less than 2 hours ago):
U.S.: Syria on nuclear watch list

Posted by: Rick | Sep 14 2007 19:07 utc | 8

Here is a report that is highly skeptical.

The information could have been provided by hawks within the Bush administration who are against the rapidly-progressing deal with North Korea, some experts said.
They questioned the timing of the reports, coming just ahead of key six-party talks among the United States, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia, where Pyongyang is widely expected to agree to declare and disable its nuclear arsenal by the end of 2007.
“There is supposed to be an effort by some officials to torpedo the North Korea nuclear deal by portraying North Korea as a ‘proliferator,'” said Joseph Cirincione, a weapons expert, who was once a key advisor to Congress.
He likened the reports to those that surfaced in the run up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 during which officials provided apparently incorrect intelligence information about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD)….
The Syrian nuclear program has been around for 40 years, Cirincione said.
“It is a basic research program built around a tiny 30 kilowatt reactor that produced a few isotopes and neutrons. It is no where near a program for nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel,” he said.
Over a dozen countries have helped Syria develop its nuclear program, including Belgium, Germany, Russia, China and even the United States, by way of training of scientists, he said.
“If North Korea gave them anything short of nuclear weapons, it’s of little consequence,” Cirincione said.

Posted by: Bea | Sep 15 2007 13:59 utc | 9

Better more expanded version of #9 is now up at Syria Comment: Nuclear Allegations Seemingly Hot Air

Posted by: Bea | Sep 15 2007 16:38 utc | 10

From Yellow Cake to Cement

…we should be in no doubt that once again the neocons are on the loose and in response the Washington Post and New York Times have dutifully put on their dunce caps…

Nice commentary from Paul Woodward.

Posted by: Bea | Sep 16 2007 15:23 utc | 11

Haaretz: Report: Syria had planned ‘devastating surprise’ for Israel

The U.K. newspaper The Sunday Times quoted an Israeli source on Sunday as saying that Syria had been planning a “devastating surprise” for Israel, in the wake of reports that the Israel Air Force carried out an air strike against a North Korean nuclear shipment to Syria.
The paper quoted Israeli sources as saying that planning for the strike began shortly after Meir Dagan, chief of the Mossad intelligence agency, presented Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in late spring with evidence that Syria was seeking to buy a nuclear device from North Korea.
Dagan apparently feared such a device could eventually be installed on North-Korean-made Scud-C missiles, the paper reported.
…
The U.K. newspaper The Observer reported Sunday that Israel’s reported strike on Syria involved as many as eight aircraft.
According to the report, the force included F-15s and F-16s equipped with Maverick missiles and 500 pound bombs.
Flying among the warplanes at great height, The Observer reported, was an electronic intelligence gathering aircraft.
According to the Times report, an IAF commando team that had arrived on the ground days earlier directed laser beams at the target for the jets.
Meanwhile, the weekly German news magazine reported Sunday that a German intelligence ship stationed off the coast of Lebanon as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force identified two F-15 jets entering Syrian airspace.

All bullshit of course. NoKo doesn’t have a nuke (if it really has one) that would fit on a Scud C. Syria would have no interest in a nuke anyway.
This seems to be a double assault by the Neocons.
– derail the US- NoKo negotiations about nukes
– put Syria in a bag with unfounded rumors

Posted by: b | Sep 16 2007 15:59 utc | 12

From L Times: Prior to Israeli DF crater mission in Syria,
“according to Israeli sources, American air force codes were given to the Israeli air force attaché in Washington to ensure Israel’s F15Is would not mistakenly attack their US counterparts.”
In case any one needs confirmation that US has military operations in Syria.

Posted by: small coke | Sep 16 2007 18:02 utc | 13

Juan Cole takes up the fake news meme theme. Perhaps B is getting traction.

Pepe Escobar in the Asia Times demolishes the ‘al-Anbar myth’ being promoted on the American Right. He does so on the basis of an actual interview with the late Sattar Abu Rishah, on the basis of a close analysis of tribal alliances in al-Anbar, and on the basis of recent opinion polling that shows 92 percent of Sunni Arabs support attacks on US troops and 98 percent despise the al-Maliki government. The tragedy is that Escobar is right about everything he says, but that virtually no one in the Washington power or journalism elite will probably ever read his important piece. Some nonentity who wouldn’t know the Dulaim from the Jubour will declaim some nonsense at NRO, and that will be what the Repub staffers on the Hill believe, having fed the nonentity the warped info in the first place.

Posted by: small coke | Sep 17 2007 2:32 utc | 14

North Korea-Syria nuclear ties: déjà vu all over again?

So I asked Joseph Cirincione, senior fellow and director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress, author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, and a frequent FP contributor, to weigh in. Here’s his take:
“This story is nonsense. The Washington Post story should have been headlined “White House Officials Try to Push North Korea-Syria Connection.” This is a political story, not a threat story. The mainstream media seems to have learned nothing from the run-up to war in Iraq. It is a sad commentary on how selective leaks from administration officials who have repeatedly misled the press are still treated as if they were absolute truth.
Once again, this appears to be the work of a small group of officials leaking cherry-picked, unvetted “intelligence” to key reporters in order to promote a preexisting political agenda. If this sounds like the run-up to the war in Iraq, it should. This time it appears aimed at derailing the U.S.-North Korean agreement that administration hardliners think is appeasement. Some Israelis want to thwart any dialogue between the U.S. and Syria. “

Posted by: b | Sep 17 2007 10:54 utc | 15

NYT: Israeli Nuclear Suspicions Linked to Raid in SyriaThe Sept. 6 attack by Israeli warplanes inside Syria struck what Israeli intelligence believes was a nuclear-related facility that North Korea was helping to equip, according to current and former American and Israeli officials.
…
The details of the Israeli intelligence remain highly classified, and the accounts about Israel’s thinking were provided by current and former officials who are generally sympathetic to Israel’s point of view. It is not clear whether American intelligence agencies agree with the Israeli assessment about the facility targeted in the raid, and some officials expressed doubt that Syria has either the money or the scientific talent to initiate a serious nuclear program.
But current and former American and Israeli officials who have received briefings from Israeli sources said Monday that the raid was an attempt by Israel to destroy a site that Israel believed to be associated with a rudimentary Syrian nuclear program.
The allegations come at a particularly delicate time, with the United States and several Asian countries testing whether North Korea is serious about dismantling its nuclear production facilities and providing a full accounting of all its nuclear facilities, fuel and weapons.

Posted by: b | Sep 18 2007 6:50 utc | 16

Latest and most likely take – Israel tried to hit Syrian Scud missiles:
Ah, They Were Scuds

Did the Israeli’s hit a Scud shipment? That is what Chris Nelson suggested on 9/19:
“In fact, as our headline, above, notes, we have absolutely solid information that the Israeli bombing raid on Syria was aimed at…and took out…missiles and/or weapons parts. Period.
“All the stories being floated about Israeli intelligence sources hinting that it was a North Korean/Syrian nuclear weapons project, or site, are BS, albeit of varying motivation.
“What remains under some debate is whether the missiles/parts can be 100% ascribed to N. Korea. Most unclassified evidence … points at Pyongyang.

Posted by: b | Sep 21 2007 11:32 utc | 17

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