From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: February 12, 2007 12:42:10 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Outing the "Anonymous" Experts at the "Iran Did it" Briefing
WASHINGTON POST JOINS NEW YORK TIMES IN TRUMPETING 'ANONYMOUS'
CLAIMS ON IRANIAN WEAPONS IN IRAQ
By Greg Mitchell
Published: February 11, 2007 1:20 PM ET updated 3:30 PM 9:00 PM
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?
vnu_content_id=1003544378
First it was Michael Gordon in The New York Times on Saturday. Now
The Washington Post and other media outlets have joined in
suggesting a slam dunk case for Iranian weapons killing Americans
in Iraq.
An article by Joshua Partlow from Baghdad -- long atop the Post's
Web site -- first carried the declarative headline, "Iran Sending
Explosives to Extremist Groups in Iraq," without even "U.S.
officials say." The headline was later changed but, amazingly, the
story remained at the top of the site a full 24 hours later.
As in case of Michael Gordon's article, none of the U.S. officials
are named.
The Associated Press, The New York Times, Reuters and others also
reported on a briefing in Baghdad on Sunday, agreeing beforehand to
the condition that none of the three U.S. officials taking part
could be named or even described closely.
The Times, after accepting the terms, found itself in the
embarrassing position of reporting, "During the briefing, the
senior United States military officials were repeatedly pressed on
why they insisted on anonymity in such an important matter
affecting the security of American and Iraqi troops."
It added: "The official also criticized recent news reports, saying
they overstated the importance of today’s presentation, which had
been previously announced and then delayed." This didn't stop the
Times, the Post and other outlets from featuring these new charges
at the top of their sites all day. The Times then put the story at
top of its front page on Monday.
National Public Radio, at least, concluded its report this way: "In
today's briefing, the U.S. officials admitted there was a gap
between what they say they know, and what they can show, leaving
reporters with more questions than answers."
And in Monday's New York Times, columnist Paul Krugman points out,
"Why wasn’t any official willing to take personal responsibility
for the reliability of alleged evidence of Iranian mischief, as
opposed to being an anonymous source? If the evidence is solid
enough to bear close scrutiny, why were all cameras and recording
devices, including cellphones, banned from yesterday’s Baghdad
briefing?"
The Washington Post article, which was published online at 12:30 on
Sunday afternoon, stated, "Iranian security forces, taking orders
from the 'highest levels' of the Iranian government, are funneling
sophisticated explosives to extremist groups in Iraq, and the
weapons have grown increasingly deadly for U.S.-led troops over the
past two years, senior defense officials said Sunday in Baghdad."
"Three defense officials from the U.S.-led Multi-National Force in
Baghdad, laid out for reporters what they described as a 'growing
body of evidence' that Iran is manufacturing and exporting into
Iraq the armor piercing explosives, known as 'explosively formed
penetrators,' or EFPs, that have killed more than 170 coalition
troops, and wounded more than 620 others, in the past two years."
The officials all spoke "on condition of anonymity."
Partlow added: "The allegations against Iran marked the farthest
that coalition forces have gone to make the case that Iran is
working to attack U.S. and Iraqi troops. The revelations threaten
to further enflame tensions between America and Iran."
Of course, the article itself -- and its placement on top of the
Post site and with that headline -- is sure to "enflame" as well.
Newsweek reports in a major article on Sunday (and in this week's
print issue) on the many ways the U.S. is trying to provoke Iran
into war, stating flatly: "The Iranians have reason to feel paranoid."
The officials today in Baghdad who blamed Iran for killing
Americans said they decided to speak "on the condition of anonymity
so the trio's explosives expert and analyst who would normally not
speak to reporters could provide more information. The analyst's
exact job description was not revealed to reporters. Reporters'
cell phones were taken before the briefing, and the officials did
not allow reporters to record or videotape the proceedings....
"On two tables in a briefing room in Baghdad, military officials
laid out tubular rocket propelled grenades, football-shaped
mortars, a cylindrical EFP, and about 40 tail fins of exploded
mortars, which they say are manufactured in Iran -- just a
'smattering' of the examples they have found in Iraq, said the
defense analyst. Iran is the only country in the region that
produces these weapons, the officials said."
The Associated Press also attended the briefing and noted that it
could not reveal the names of the three officials. The AP's Steven
Hurst did open his article on a more neutral note, saying that the
Americans "accused" Iran in this case.
The New York Times' James Glanz also covered the briefing -- again,
accepting the terms of allowing total anonymity -- but he did note,
"Today’s presentation of evidence is bound to generate skepticism
among those suspicious that the Bush administration is trying to
find a scapegoat for its problems in Iraq and, some political
analysts and White House critics believe, is looking for an excuse
to attack Iran."
On his new site, Iraqslogger.com, Eason Jordan observed in
response, that "one of the three supposedly unnamed US officials
apparently has been outed by an Iraqi news service, Voices of Iraq,
whose report on the Baghdad news conference identified one of the
three speakers as Major General William Caldwell***, whose
portfolio includes public affairs and who holds frequent news
conference and grants one-on-one interviews.
"So, if the VOI report identifying Caldwell is correct, why did
every other news organization apparently agree to grant anonymity
to the general who's the official government spokesman for the US-
led Multi-National Force in Iraq? Why would Caldwell insist on not
having his name associated with these allegations today?
"After the bogus Iraq evidence debacle in 2002 and 2003 --
allegations that led to war, tens of thousands of lives lost, and
hundreds of billions of dollars spent -- only a fool would accept
as the gospel supposed evidence against another country that's
presented by officials who insist on making their allegations
anonymously.
"We deserve better from the US government. We deserve better from
the western news media."
And what do the Iraqis think of all this? The Washington Post
reports Monday that Iraq's deputy foreign minister, Labeed M.
Abbawi, said in an interview Sunday that the Iraqi government
remains in the dark about the full U.S. investigation. "It is
difficult for us here in the diplomatic circles just to accept
whatever the American forces say is evidence," he said, according
to the Post.
"If they have anything really conclusive, then they should come out
and say it openly, then we will pick it up from there and use
diplomatic channels" to discuss it with Iran, he said. "The method
or the way it's being done should be changed, to have more
cooperation with us."
An E&P article earlier this weekend pointed out echoes of the WMD
charges in the run-up to the Iraq war. Michael Gordon, for example,
had co-authored with Judith Miller the wildly inaccurate "aluminum
tubes" article in 2002 that proved so influential.
-----------
WHY WE PERSEVERE
By ***William Caldwell IV
Washington Post, December 6, 2006; A25
http://www.iri.org/newsarchive/2006/2006-12-06-News-WP.asp
I don't see a civil war in Iraq. I don't see a constituency for
civil war.
The vast majority of the people want hope for their families, not
to massacre their neighbors or divide their country.
A poll conducted in June by the International Republican
Institute**, a nonpartisan group that promotes democracy, found 89
percent of Iraqis supporting a unity government representing all
sects and ethnic communities.
No wonder no "rebel army" steps forward to claim credit for vicious
car bombs and cowardly executions of civilians.
I see debates among Iraqis -- often angry and sometimes divisive --
but arguments characteristic of political discourse, not political
breakdown.
The Council of Representatives meets here in Baghdad as the sole
legitimate sovereign representative of the people, 12 million of
whom braved bombs and threats last December to vote. No party has
seceded or claimed independent territory.
I see a representative government exercising control over the sole
legitimate armed authority in Iraq, the Iraqi Security Force. After
decades in which the armed services were tools of oppression, Iraq
is taking time to build an army and national police force loyal to
all.
There have been setbacks, but also great successes. In Fallujah, a
city almost lost two years ago, I have seen the cooperation between
the local army commander, a Shiite, and the police chief, a Sunni.
I don't see terrorist and criminal elements mounting campaigns for
territory.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq doesn't use roadside bombs, suicidal mass
murderers and rocket barrages to gain and hold ground.
Extremist Shiite death squads don't shoot people in the back of the
head to further their control of the government.
I do see random executions seeking to instill fear and insecurity.
I don't see a struggle between armies and aligned political parties
competing to rule.
I studied civil wars at West Point and at the Army Command and
Staff College. I respect the credentials and opinions of those who
want to hang that label here. But I respectfully -- and strongly --
disagree.
I see the Iraqi people suffering from overlapping terrorist
campaigns by extremist groups combined with the mass criminality
that too often accompanies the sudden toppling of a dictatorship.
This poses a different military challenge than does a civil war.
As the Iraqi people labor to build a country based on human rights
and respect for all citizens, they are moving from the law of the
gun to the rule of law. Violence will increase before life gets
better. Those who know that freedom and democracy offer more hope
than anarchy will not give up.
Regardless of what academics and pundits decide to label this
conflict, hundreds of thousands of brave Iraqi soldiers, police
officers and civil servants will continue to go to work building a
free, prosperous and united Iraq. And every day more than 137,000
U.S. servicemen and servicewomen will lace up their boots, strap on
their body armor and drive ahead with our mission to support these
courageous Iraqis.
Army Maj. Gen. Caldwell is the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.
------------
**INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE
http://www.iri.org/
"... Congress responded to President Reagan’s call in 1983 when it
created the National Endowment for Democracy to support aspiring
democrats worldwide. Four nonprofit, nonpartisan democracy
institutes were formed to carry out this work – IRI, the National
Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the Center
for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), and the American
Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS).
"In its infancy <in the 1980s under Reagan>, IRI focused on
planting the seeds of democracy in Latin America. Since the end of
the Cold War, IRI has broadened its reach to support democracy and
freedom around the globe. IRI has conducted programs in more than
100 countries and is currently active in 70 countries."
Board of Directors
U.S. Senator John McCain, Chairman
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Armed Services
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