Anatomy of an Al Qaeda “Conference Call”

[Catherina]

Much better to read the whole article at the link


August 15, 2013, 3:58 pm
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



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.

...

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.”

...

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.”

...

MORE: http://harpers.org/blog/2013/08/anatomy-of-an-al-qaeda-conference-call/

[The Magistrate]

1. Fella Certainly Gives Ms. Miller A Run For The Money, Ma'am

Too cute by half, the whole thing....

[Hydra]

2. They may as well be writing bad fiction these days

This "War against EVIL" by us using evil methods is so boring and tragic that it needs continual spicing for people to want to do more of it.

I never understood the concept of the banality of evil until I started studying the results of evil being done...it is ASTOUNDINGLY boring and unimaginative on the aggressor's side. Like Stalin's thing about each death a tragedy, a large enough number becomes a statistic.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. I just assume everything the US says is propaganda

esp. in foreign affairs.
Makes life much easier, that way.

[Catherina]

4. You've got a LOT of company these days n/t

[chimpymustgo]

5. Lies, lies, lies. We are so deep into the matrix.

[Turbineguy]

6. Among teabaggers

your cred is based on how much bullshit you can be made to believe.

[LittleBlue]

7. K&R

Farcical how "journalists" are nothing more than government puppets. They should be ridiculed and ignored.

[mick063]

8. Al Qaeda requires fuel to spread their message and recruit new members.

Our official policy appears to be that of delivering fuel.

A war with no exit strategy is a military contractor's dream, yet, we even took it a step further.

"Better" than the cold war, providing materials and services for domestic militarization is a military contractor's Utopia.

Yes.....the military industrial complex is in Utopia.

Strike "peace dividend" permanently from the potential list political dialog options.

It will never exist again.

There are young adults that have never seen our nation without war. It is the new "normal" as we have generations of foes to keep at bay. Still, we will never see Vietnam again. Drones do not create dissent quite like body bags do. After Yemen it will be Sudan. After Sudan it will be the remnants of Syria. Choose a side of a handful of nations that will inevitably succumb to a future uprising led by, of course, the Muslim Brotherhood. There are many to choose from. Carefully planted for "terror harvest". The crops are doing nicely.

Leaking Al Qaeda "conference calls" to perpetuate the money flow. Stirring up the hornet's nest with drones at every lull to keep it all going. There are billions of Muslims to piss off.

We hit the mother lode of perpetual war.