Sorry, language mismatch in "auto-corrector".. On Aug 21, 2013 8:29 AM, "Andrés Leopoldo Pacheco Sanfuentes" < alps6...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Wells, what elasticidad would you expectativas from "The Washington Times?" > On Aug 21, 2013 4:40 AM, "Eugen Leitl" <eu...@leitl.org> wrote: > >> >> How very surprising. >> >> http://harpers.org/blog/2013/08/anatomy-of-an-al-qaeda-conference-call/ >> >> Anatomy of an Al Qaeda “Conference Call” >> >> Dubious sources feed national-security reporter Eli Lake a fraudulent >> story >> for political purposes — once again >> >> By Ken Silverstein >> >> Share Single Page >> >> Cartoon by C. Clyde Squires (September 1907) >> >> Two years ago, following the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in >> Pakistan, a >> number of journalists wrote dramatic accounts of the Al Qaeda leader’s >> last >> moments. One such story, co-authored by Eli Lake in the Washington Times, >> cited Obama administration officials and an unnamed military source, >> described how bin Laden had “reached for a weapon to try to defend >> himself” >> during the intense firefight at his compound, and then “was shot by Navy >> SEALs after trying to use a woman reputed to be his wife as a human >> shield.” >> >> It was exciting stuff, but it turned out to have been fictitious >> propaganda >> concocted by U.S. authorities to destroy bin Laden’s image in the eyes of >> his >> followers. Based on what we know now, the SEALs met virtually no >> resistance >> at the compound, there was no firefight, bin Laden didn’t use a woman as a >> human shield, and he was unarmed. >> >> The White House blamed the misleading early reports on the “fog of war,” >> but >> as Will Saletan pointed out in Slate, “A fog of war creates confusion, >> not a >> consistent story like the one about the human shield. The reason U.S. >> officials bought and sold this story is that it fit their larger >> indictment >> of Bin Laden. It reinforced the shameful picture of him hiding in a >> mansion >> while sending others to fight and die. It made him look like a coward.” >> >> Many reporters uncritically rushed the government’s account into print. >> For >> Lake, though, it fit a career pattern of credulously planting dubious >> stories >> from sources with strong political agendas.[*] >> >> [*] I should disclose that Lake and I aren’t on friendly terms. We were >> until >> a few years ago, when I received a tip that led to a 2011 story showing >> that >> Lake, who regularly praised the government of the former Soviet republic >> of >> Georgia, was a close friend of one of the country’s Washington lobbyists, >> and >> that the lobbyist sometimes picked up his bar and restaurant tabs. After >> the >> story was published, Lake and his friends, some of whom had flown to >> Georgia >> on junkets paid for by the same lobbyist, took to Twitter to denounce me. >> >> Which brings us to the news story that Lake and Josh Rogin broke for the >> Daily Beast last week, in which they reported that the “crucial intercept >> that prompted the U.S. government to close embassies in 22 countries was a >> conference call between al Qaeda’s senior leaders and representatives of >> several of the group’s affiliates throughout the region.” The story said >> that >> among the “more than 20 operatives” on the call was Ayman al-Zawahiri, who >> the piece claimed was managing a global organization with affiliates in >> Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Other Al Qaeda participants involved in >> the call reportedly represented affiliates operating in Iraq, the Islamic >> Maghreb, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Sinai Peninsula, and Uzbekistan. >> >> The sources for the story were three U.S. officials “familiar with the >> intelligence.” “This was like a meeting of the Legion of Doom,” one told >> Lake >> and Rogin. “All you need to do is look at that list of places we shut >> down to >> get a sense of who was on the phone call.” >> >> The piece also cited Republican senator John McCain, who drew a >> predictably >> grim conclusion from the news. “This may punch a sizable hole in the >> theory >> that Al Qaeda is on the run,” he said. “There was a gross underestimation >> by >> this administration of Al Qaeda’s overall ability to replenish itself.” >> The >> story was picked up widely, especially on the right. On his show, Rush >> Limbaugh charged that the Obama “regime” had leaked the story for >> political >> gain. “They leak it,” he explained, “so as to make Obama look big and >> competent and tough and make this administration look like nobody’s gonna >> get >> anything past them.” >> >> Then a number of respected national-security journalists began to question >> the motives of the leakers, and to cast doubt on the story generally. Ken >> Dilanian of the Los Angeles Times suggested that the piece was intended to >> glorify the NSA’s signals-intelligence capabilities. Barton Gellman of the >> Washington Post said there was something “very wrong” with the whole >> thing. >> New York magazine got in on the act by parodying the notion of an Al Qaeda >> conference call. >> >> Despite this tide of doubt and ridicule, the Daily Beast didn’t correct >> the >> story, though Lake and Rogin made statements that seemed designed to alter >> its meaning. “We used ‘conference call’ because it was generic enough,” >> Lake >> tweeted. “But it was not a telephone based communications.” In another >> tweet >> he informed Ben Wedeman of CNN, “This may be a generational issue, but you >> can conduct conference calls without a telephone.” (Actually, you can’t, >> at >> least according to the dictionary. Moreover, the “Legion of Doom” source >> had >> specifically called it a “phone call.”) >> >> In a follow-up story published the day after the original article, Lake >> wrote >> that at the request of its sources, the Daily Beast was “withholding >> details >> about the technology al Qaeda used to conduct the conference call.” The >> suggestion was that the story had omitted information to keep terrorists >> from >> knowing too much about U.S. intelligence operations. But as Dan Murphy of >> the >> Christian Science Monitor noted, “If a conference call of some sort took >> place, then the participants know full well how they did it. And the >> moment >> they see a news report that says the United States was listening in to the >> call, they’re going to shut that means of communication down.” Others >> wondered why, given the worldwide uproar about National Security Agency >> spying, Al Qaeda would risk gathering all of its top operatives for any >> form >> of simultaneous multiparty communication. >> >> Lake’s past is instructive here. He was an open and ardent promoter of the >> Iraq War and the various myths trotted out to justify it, contributing to >> the >> media drumbeat that helped the Bush Administration sell the war to the >> public >> and to Congress. He reported on Saddam Hussein’s close ties to Al Qaeda >> and >> his stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, and he championed >> discredited >> con man Ahmed Chalabi, head of the CIA-backed Iraqi National Congress >> (INC), >> who promised that Iraqis would welcome U.S. troops “as liberators” and >> said >> there would be little chance of sectarian bloodshed after the invasion. >> Bogus >> INC material found its way into at least two of Lake’s pieces, including a >> December 2001 National Review story in which he argued that, with the >> Taliban >> defeated in Afghanistan, the United States should consider military action >> against Iraq, Somalia, and Yemen. “There are very good arguments why all >> three should be the next target,” he wrote. “Iraq after all has been >> developing nuclear and biological weapons in underground wells and >> hospitals, >> according to Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, a defector interviewed by the >> New >> York Times. One of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohammed Atta, met with Iraqi >> intelligence officers in Prague in April.” >> >> Even Dick Cheney later acknowledged that the latter story, which was >> trotted >> around endlessly by war advocates, had never been confirmed. And the New >> York >> Times report to which Lake was alluding, published the day before his >> piece >> came out, was written by Judith Miller, a serial fabricator whose reckless >> Iraq War reporting effectively ended her career as a respectable >> journalist. >> >> As Jonathan Landay and Trish Wells of Knight Ridder reported a few years >> later in a look back at that period, the INC by its own admission gave >> “exaggerated and fabricated” pre-war intelligence to journalists to >> promote >> the invasion of Iraq. “Feeding the information to the news media, as well >> as >> to selected administration officials and members of Congress,” Landay and >> Wells wrote, “helped foster an impression that there were multiple >> sources of >> intelligence on Iraq’s illicit weapons programs and links to bin Laden. In >> fact, many of the allegations came from the same half-dozen defectors.” >> >> By 2004, even Chalabi and the Bush Administration had conceded that Saddam >> didn’t have WMD stockpiles. “We are heroes in error,” Chalabi told the >> Daily >> Telegraph. “As far as we’re concerned we’ve been entirely successful. That >> tyrant Saddam is gone.” >> >> Yet for years, Lake continued to doggedly pursue his belief that Iraq had >> WMDs, writing pieces (again using questionable sources) claiming that >> Saddam >> had in fact possessed large quantities of these weapons, but that Russia >> had >> snuck them across the border into Syria on his behalf shortly before the >> U.S. >> invasion. In a 2006 piece for the New York Sun, he reported that David >> Gaubatz, a former special investigator for the Pentagon, said he’d found >> four >> sealed underground bunkers in Iraq “that he is sure contain stocks of >> chemical and biological weapons.” But, Lake reported, when Gaubatz asked >> American weapons inspectors to look into them, he was “rebuffed.” >> >> Military authorities may have rebuffed Gaubatz because he showed signs of >> being unhinged. Two years after Lake’s story appeared, Gaubatz wrote a >> now-scrubbed post about Obama at jihadishere.blogspot.com that read, “We >> are >> now on the verge of allowing a self admitted ‘crack-head’ to have his >> finger >> on every nuclear weapon in America.” In 2009, he published a book entitled >> Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize >> America. >> >> In recent years, Lake has, using similarly tainted sources, continued his >> hunt for Saddam’s WMDs and carried water for those seeking a hard-line >> American approach toward Iran. And now we have the Al Qaeda conference >> call. >> >> Thus far no major media outlet has confirmed Lake and Rogin’s story. U.S. >> officials told Bloomberg News that reports of a conference call were >> incorrect, while CNN reported that it had “learned that the al Qaeda >> leaders >> communicated via some kind of encrypted messaging system, with multiple >> points of entry to allow for various parties to join in,” adding, >> “officials >> continue to insist . . . that there was no traditional conference call.” >> >> The thrust of Lake and Rogin’s initial report — that Al Qaeda leaders got >> together to discuss strategy by phone — was false. The pair then >> effectively >> retracted the key element of their story by relabeling the call a >> “non-telephone communication” while failing to acknowledge the error or >> that >> at least one of their sources — the Legion of Doom quipster — was either >> ignorant of the facts or a liar. They even went on to claim that they’d >> been >> vindicated by the CNN report, which explicitly refuted their original >> account. >> >> Lara Jakes and Adam Goldman at the Associated Press appear to have >> reported >> the embassy-closure story more accurately yesterday, also challenging the >> veracity of the Daily Beast article in the process. The AP story said that >> the “vague plot” that led the U.S. government to shut down American >> diplomatic posts may have resulted from comments made by jihadists on >> encrypted Internet message boards and in chat rooms — which is nothing >> new — >> and that it was “highly unlikely” al-Zawahiri was personally part of the >> chatter or that he would “ever go online or pick up the phone to discuss >> terror plots.” >> >> But just as in the case of the raid that killed bin Laden, the bogus story >> was better than the truth. A less sensational story would not have >> provided >> fodder for John McCain’s preposterous remarks on the renewed strength of >> Al >> Qaeda (or for the broader political exploitation of the story by the >> right), >> nor would it have provided political cover for the NSA, as Ken Dilanian >> put >> it. >> >> No matter. The Daily Beast’s sources must be pleased with their handiwork, >> and with the reporters who bought it. >> -- >> Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. >> Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: >> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. >> Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at >> compa...@stanford.edu. > >
-- Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
