ABC: Reports Of Masri’s Death False, ‘Part Of A Misinformation Campaign’

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/01/masri-death/

ABC: Reports Of Masri’s Death False, ‘Part Of A Misinformation Campaign’

masriAccording to ABC News, reports that al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri has been killed are “unconfirmed and part of a misinformation campaign.” ABC has not posted its full story yet, and details are unclear, but it’s worth reviewing the last time the media reported major news about al-Masri.

On February 15, CNN reported al-Masri had been injured in a clash with Iraqi forces:

The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq has been wounded and his top aide killed in a clash with police, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman told CNN Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf said Iraqi police got into a firefight with insurgents on the road between Falluja, west of Baghdad, and Samarra, north of Baghdad, and wounded Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

Every major media outlet picked up on the news. The next day, however, the U.S. military announced that the report was false. No such event occurred.

Nevertheless, the false report came at an opportune time for the President Bush and his congressional allies.

– February 15 was the day before the House of Representatives voted on its resolution opposing Bush’s Iraq escalation strategy, marking the first time in four years that Congress voted decisively against Bush’s Iraq policy.

– Also that week, the Bush administration was aggressively attempting to contain the fall-out from its botched intelligence briefing in Baghdad, which attempted to link the deadly explosives in Iraq to senior Iranian officials. After repeatedly defending the accuracy of the intelligence, the Bush administration chose February 15 to quietly acknowledge that their intelligence was wrong.

Today’s news converage of Masri’s death may shift attention away from stories that are damaging to Bush: the four year anniversary of “Mission Accomplished,” and the official signing of Congress’s Iraq timeline legislation.

UPDATE: A screen shot of ABC’s breaking news:

Every day, it gets harder and harder to keep up. *sigh*

just assume EVERYTHING they tell us is false. It's worked out pretty well for me.

I knew this smelled of Rove this morning.

The 'bad guys' or the 'good guys'?

:shrug:

can't upset their master the Chimperor....

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO131419.htm

They have no idea who was killed.

The stooges in the puppet Iraqi government are playing along as best they can. The only thing protecting them from their own people are US military and mercenaries.

I was alarmed by this strangely convenient report about al-Masri's death this morning after hoping for an update on what sounded like a serious attack on the Green Zone yesterday. It was breaking news on MSRNC yesterday afternoon and also reported by Reuters. 18 hours later and there's been no US update, although the International Herald Tribune reports this morning that the Green Zone came under attack again today!!


None of the news channels are mentioning either attack.

Are they using this fabricated report of al-Masri's death to distract us from from the assault on the Green Zone? If it was important enough to be breaking news but turned out to be nothing, why no follow-up to say so? And why no report on the second attack today?

That poor bastard has been killed more times than Kenny.

:rofl: Yep...this guy's name must be "Kenny" in Arabic.

:kick::kick::kick:

is like the one guy you don't really know on Star Trek that gets picked to beam down to the planet with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. You know that whatever else happens, he's a dead man.

All is well comrades, all is well.

Just read all the good news in the GLORIOUS pages of Pravda....

Only the really dumb even took this seriously.

Now Abe Vigoda has something in common Al-masri.

Actually calling it'A Part Of A Misinformation Campaign’'?

I sure would like to see them do a followup to this 'misinformation campaign' story.