Posted on 05/14/2004 10:43:16 AM PDT by Eurotwit
The editor of the Daily Mirror has resigned after admitting its alleged Iraqi abuse pictures had been "a hoax".
Piers Morgan's decision came as the paper "apologised unreservedly" for printing the pictures.
The editor, one of the best known faces in Fleet Street, had earlier brushed away growing pressure on him to quit.
The Queen's Lancashire Regiment, subject of the abuse allegations, had said the pictures were "utter and complete nonsense".
Military figures for the regiment said the photos are fake and that the newspaper should apologise.
In a hard-hitting press conference at Fulwood Barracks, Preston, key figures for the regiment said the Daily Mirror had increased the danger faced by British troops serving in Iraq.
Col. David Black, a former commanding officer of the QLR, said: "(They are) almost a recruiting poster for al Qaeda and every other terrorist organisation."
They did not call for the resignation of the Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, but said the board of governors and shareholders should put pressure on the paper to cooperate fully with an ongoing inquiry.
The reputation of the regiment had been "unjustly sullied", they added.
Brig Geoff Sheldon said: "It's time that the ego of one editor is measured against the life of the soldier.
A lance corporal shows the difference in Army guns
"
He added: "These photographs have done enormous damage to the country and Army. The danger of the loss of life has been exacerbated.
"It is not a parlour game."
They said the photographs had served as a "red herring" for any legitimate allegations of torture.
Soldiers serving in Iraq felt "anger, upset and hurt" at the publication of the photographs, they added.
But the regiment had received support from the Army and politicians.
Mr Morgan, asserted Thursday that the government had not proven that the photos were fake.
The regiment put on show old rifles used in the Daily Mirror pictures and compared them with new rifles which are currently being used in Basra. They also had on display two different trucks to highlight the discrepancies.
The fake truck was found at a Territorial Army base in England, though it is not known who the soldiers who took the photographers are, or which regiment they are from.
The military men strongly criticised the photographers for their "disgraceful behaviour in a most ignoble episode."
Col. Black added: "This regiment is old and fine. It is 350-years-old. We have weathered worst storms than this."
The image barely existed on FR (it was deleted almost as soon as it was posted and then heavily monitored). The left almost certainly circulated the image afterwards to cause problems.
It NEVER DID see print in any hardcopy publication. Snopes.com still has the image hosted on their website in violation of Corbis and the compite creator's copyrights. Corbis cannot license the image because they do not own it (and they do not want it seen) and the composite creator cannot license it because he does not own the source images but his involvement in the creation of the image does give him certain rights. The creator could lose all of his rights if a lawsuit were brought and a judge ruled that the photos (including the composite) are the property of Corbis, but not until then.
The media was sure to talk up the very existance of a fake Fonda-Kerry photo to put the seed of doubt into the minds of anyone who saw ANY Fonda-Kerry photos (Snopes.com even hosts 2 separate rumors about it, one true and one false).
The media DID NOT talk up the existance of fake (or questionable) photos from England (the urination images) and the porn site images from the arab press (that later appeared in the Boston Globe after they were already PROVEN to be fakes).
Maybe if the media hadn't taken a partisan edge to presenting this story the editors at the Boston Globe would have clearly known in advance that they were being presented with fake photos circulated by a member of the Nation of Islam.
FYI, there was also a fake photo of a young George W. Bush cropped into the genuine image of Fonda seated with Kerry. No media site EVER complained about that one. It was created with the same intent as the Fonda-Kery hoax, a gag. A genuine image of the 2 of them had already been discovered so the fake was not a case of "until something better comes along".
Let those people working for the government earn their keep. If they are going to give good taxpayer dollars to artists who photograph people peeing on each other then they can be the ones to match up the photographer to the hoax.
I'm not saying that it is an NEA grant winner who took the shots but at least it's a start (especially considering the monolithic politics of the cliquish art community).
"It" is a conspiracy.
Multiple people were involved in the staging of the images in addition to the photographer. The editor may or may not have been aware of the ruse.
We have at minimum 2 participants (and a camera with a timer). Two people is a conspiracy.
So now we must discuss the nature of the conspiracy. It was designed to tarnish the reputation of the military. The British military was immediately impacted but it also serves to tarnish the military in general.
Are we aware of such propaganda efforts on other occassions in the past 10 years with regards to the British military? Tony Blair was Prime Minister through the 90s as well.
If not then we are to assume that these images were designed to tarnish the reputation of the British military and the war in Iraq. Who benefits from damaging the image of the British military while they are engaged in a war? The enemy.
So we have a conspiracy of sympathizers to the other side in a war who designed to provided aid and comfort to the enemy in the form of propaganda.
When I claim that the antiwar movement is "AntiAmerican", this is the sort of activity that backs up that claim.
Identify the players (in a court of law) and then you can tie them to the newspaper.
This jerk was the victim of his own making. Hardly malicious unless you consider how happy he was when he saw the pictures and thought of all the harm it would do to troop and citizen moral.
Nope he is writing his acceptance speech for the Pulitzer Prize.
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