Posted on 02/01/2007 9:06:39 PM PST by tcrlaf
In today's Independent, Patrick Cockburn writes:
There are growing suspicions in Iraq that the official story of the battle outside Najaf between a messianic Iraqi cult and the Iraqi security forces supported by the US, in which 263 people were killed and 210 wounded, is a fabrication. The heavy casualties may be evidence of an unpremeditated massacre.
A picture is beginning to emerge of a clash between an Iraqi Shia tribe on a pilgrimage to Najaf and an Iraqi army checkpoint that led the US to intervene with devastating effect. The involvement of Ahmed al-Hassani (also known as Abu Kamar), who believed himself to be the coming Mahdi, or Messiah, appears to have been accidental.
The story emerging on independent Iraqi websites and in Arabic newspapers is entirely different from the government's account of the battle with the so-called "Soldiers of Heaven", planning a raid on Najaf to kill Shia religious leaders.
The cult denied it was involved in the fighting, saying it was a peaceful movement.
Last Week's Najaf Battles are now being spun by the International Left as a HUGE massacre on the Part of US troops....
What I've Found so far:
US 'victory' against cult leader was 'massacre' http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2201103.ece
Pilgrims massacred in the 'battle' of Najaf Asia Times http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB02Ak04.html
A peaceful movement with shoulder fired missles?
Eh, either way some muslimes die, it's a win of sorts any way you look at it.
Every city has a shrine, and a holy mosque.
Any group of gathered people is a pilgrimage headed to a shrine.
How can we win this?
Reporting from the holy city of Chicago.
You'll take notice that the "Mainstream" Media sources fail to include THIS tidbit???
Ahmed Du’aibil, Media Spokesman of the Najaf Governorate (SCIRI):
250 – 300 militants were killed in the clashes at Zarga. “16 terrorists” were detained, including two Egyptians and a Saudi.
***** "including two Egyptians and a Saudi"
Losing the propaganda war? We haven't even bothered engaging in that war to date. Our enemies control the field.
The White House will get around to making a statement on this in a week or two or three -- after it has becomes frontpage news for a week or more.
The main stream media needs to post more pictures of what the celebrants do during this festival. There needs to be some discrimination as to the source of the blood that is photographed.
We should have jailed Swimmer, Ramses Cluck, Jane Fondue and J-efn-Kerry in 1971.
Guys you must accept the fact that in this war or any other war the enemies foreign and domestic will lie all the time so please stop knee jerking everytime you see a lie.
How about we start by relentlessly calling our enemies on their propaganda and lies? It seems that we've taken the approach of not dignifying their claims with a real response, and it's harming us immensely. The bloggers' anti-propaganda debunking of the ubiquitous green helmet guy (during the recent Israeli-Hizbollah conflict) is a perfect example of what we should be doing constantly.
You have a point...
Your defeatist attitude is giving great aid and comfort to the enemy. The enemy does not control the field we do, and we have killed over 70,000 of them so far.
The new york slimes is trying to portray this as the story of how much the iraqi forces actually needed american assistance instead of doing it mostly on their own.
" The cult denied it was involved in the fighting, saying it was a peaceful movement."
How did they peacefully shoot down our chopper during their peaceful pilgrimage? *spit*
http://www.factsofisrael.com/blog/archives/000635.html
Photographs of their peaceful Ashoura celebrations...
"Lies can travel half way around the world before the truth gets its shoes on"....Mark Twain
As the poster below states, we should be ATTACKING every single lie that comes out of the mouth of a leftist....
I understand why Bush took the high road, and assumed that THE TRUTH would eventually find it's way out, but that has OBVIOUSLY not worked...
We are fighting a war that is as much drive-by sloganeering, as it is drive-by shootings...
THE TRUTH is tough to explain in an easily shouted slogan like "Illegal War For Oil", and the attention span of the average sheeple grows shorter and shorter...
The masters of propaganda wars were the Nazis and the Communists, both evil regimes now belong to the garbage of history.
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