Post by Moses on Apr 10, 2006 4:56:02 GMT -5
U.S. military seeking to vilify al-Zarqawi
Propaganda campaign tries to magnify Jordanian's role and tie him to 9/11 attacks
By THOMAS E. RICKS, Washington Post
First published: Monday, April 10, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. U.S. authorities claim some success with the effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked al-Zarqawi loyalists.
For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize al-Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as a target of a broader propaganda campaign.
Some senior intelligence officers believe al-Zarqawi's role might have been overemphasized by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, Internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist. Although al-Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers," Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues, said at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., last summer.
In a transcript of the meeting, Harvey said, "Our own focus on al-Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways."
The military's propaganda program largely has been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the U.S. media. One briefing slide about U.S. "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets of the American side of the war.
Other developments
Shiite lawmakers met on Sunday, the third anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces, in the first formal step to break the deadlock over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to their choice for a prime minister to head the next government. The meeting produced no breakthroughs, The Associated Press reported.
At least 15 people were killed Sunday, including eight suspected insurgents shot by American soldiers in a pre-dawn raid north of the capital.
Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, the Marine Corps officer who was the military's top operations officer before the invasion of Iraq, expressed regret, in an essay published Sunday in Time magazine, that he did not more energetically question those who had ordered the nation to war and called for replacing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, The New York Times reported.
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Propaganda campaign tries to magnify Jordanian's role and tie him to 9/11 attacks
By THOMAS E. RICKS, Washington Post
First published: Monday, April 10, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. U.S. authorities claim some success with the effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked al-Zarqawi loyalists.
For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize al-Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as a target of a broader propaganda campaign.
Some senior intelligence officers believe al-Zarqawi's role might have been overemphasized by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, Internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist. Although al-Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers," Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues, said at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., last summer.
In a transcript of the meeting, Harvey said, "Our own focus on al-Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways."
The military's propaganda program largely has been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the U.S. media. One briefing slide about U.S. "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets of the American side of the war.
Other developments
Shiite lawmakers met on Sunday, the third anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces, in the first formal step to break the deadlock over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to their choice for a prime minister to head the next government. The meeting produced no breakthroughs, The Associated Press reported.
At least 15 people were killed Sunday, including eight suspected insurgents shot by American soldiers in a pre-dawn raid north of the capital.
Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, the Marine Corps officer who was the military's top operations officer before the invasion of Iraq, expressed regret, in an essay published Sunday in Time magazine, that he did not more energetically question those who had ordered the nation to war and called for replacing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, The New York Times reported.
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