Tuesday, April 08, 2003



Information Warfare

So, what do you do when the foreign media keeps spreading all these pesky stories which go aginst the line you're trying to spin?

Bomb them, of course!

The Americans have taken Iraqi State TV off the air again "to destroy Saddam's capability to disseminate lies" (and who the fuck made the US the arbiter of truth?). But they've also bombed the offices of Al-Jazeera TV. According to the BBC's Rageh Omaar, the bombing was deliberate:

The situation with Al-Jazeera, initially, looks suspect. Their office had given Washington specific satellite references.

We were watching and filming the bombardment and its quite clearly a direct strike on the Al-Jazeera office. This was not just a stray round. It just seemed too specific.

The attack killed one journalist, and injued several others. Abu Dhabi TV was also targetted, as was a hotel where many foreign journalists were staying.

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. But three times is a conspiracy. It's looking as if the US has a conscious policy of trying to suppress the media. And it's obvious what they don't want us to see: the mess created when they drop four tons of explosives on a residential neighbourhood.

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