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What is political astroturf? When a political movement portrays itself to be grass-roots, and later we find out it was actually planned and coordinated by a political party or candidate. This is usually done in support of the cause or candidate behind the astroturf effort. The Republicans are now being attacked by a new type of fake grass: dirty atstroturf. Democratic activists are infiltrating Republican rallys pretending to be Republican grass-roots supporters. The Democratic activist's goal? Discredit Republican grass-roots supporters. Their tactic has been to yell vile statements about Democratic candidates, hoping it would smear Republican grass-roots supporters. So far,...

Revealed: Shocking footage that could prove 90 Afghans - not seven - died in U.S. airstrike Shocking images that may have forced the U.S. military to reopen an investigation into an airstrike that killed Afghan civilians have been published in the media. The grim, eight minute clip, filmed on a mobile phone in the aftermath of the bombing, shows rows of shrouded bodies laid side-by-side in a make-shift morgue. Among them are at least 11 children, many of them toddlers. ...Afghanistan claims more than 90 people, many of them women and children, were killed in the August 22 strike.... The...

Gaza smuggling tunnels are for milk, say Palestinians Gaza smuggling tunnels are for milk, say Palestinians Palestinian officials from the Gaza Strip have distributed a set of carefully-staged photographs they say are evidence that the smuggling tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border are for milk and other essential goods, not weapons. The photographs show masked Palestinian militants lifting jugs of milk and sacks of baby food from the entrance to one of the tunnels on the Gaza side of the border. Israel insists that the tunnels, of which intelligence estimates indicate there are hundreds, are used to import small arms...

Coalition special forces teams, likely the terrorist hunter-killer teams of Task Force 88, have captured a Hezbollah Brigades propaganda specialist during a raid in New Baghdad. The propaganda specialist was positively identified by his wife after the raid, and he later admitted to his role in seeding websites with attack videos

The Afghan journalist who filmed and photographed the July 12 execution of two women by the Taliban says he was detained and held for two days by authorities in Afghanistan for suspected ties to terrorists. The footage and photographs of the executions were distributed by the Associated Press and widely circulated on the Internet, giving rise to suspicions that the photographer, Rahmatullah Naikzad, was connected with the Taliban. In an exclusive telephone interview, Naikzad told FOXNews.com that he turned himself in to Afghan authorities early this week and was held in custody and investigated for 48 hours. He said officials...

As news spread across the world of Iran’s provocative missile tests, so did an image of four missiles heading skyward in unison. Unfortunately, it appeared to contain one too many missiles, a point that had not emerged before the photo appeared on the front pages of The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, NYTimes.com and many other major news Web sites.

AL DURA UPDATE: "Israel Radio's Paris correspondent Gil Michaeli has just reported that the French Court of Appeals has overturned the libel judgment against Phillipe Karsenty and has determined that Karsenty did not libel France 2 correspondent Charles Enderlin when he reported that the 'death' of 12-year old Mohamed Al-Dura at Netzarim in the Gaza Strip in September 2000 may have been staged, and that it was unlikely that the death was caused by IDF soldiers." Perhaps the Israeli military should start filing foreign libel suits against media outfits that collaborate in fake reporting. There's likely enough to keep quite...

By see-dubya • May 9, 2008 01:55 AM For what it’s worth, the New York Times reports that the U.S.’s designated new commander in Pakistan, General James Hood, has not been allowed to take up his new job. He had served as commander of Gitmo, and although he actually did away with some of the roughest forms of interrogation there and won some (grudging) praise from human rights groups, his legacy in the Middle East is tainted by Newsweek’s lie: General Hood, who took command of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay in March 2004, shortly before the Abu Ghraib...

The site of Freeper EUPHORIADEV was hacked. She has lost over 2 years worth of data. Euphoriadev was covering the Haditha and Hamdania incident extensively she has lost over 2 years worth of data we do NOT believe it is the people who are claiming the hack

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian officials say an Israeli military strike in the Gaza Strip has killed a Palestinian cameraman who worked for the Reuters news agency.

BAGHDAD, (AP) -- The U.S. military released Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein on Wednesday after holding him for more than two years without filing formal charges. Hussein, 36, was handed over to AP colleagues at a checkpoint in Baghdad. He was taken to the site aboard a prisoner bus and left U.S. custody wearing a traditional Iraqi robe. He was smiling and appeared in good health. "I want to thank all the people working in AP. ... I have spent two years in prison even though I was innocent. I thank everybody," Hussein said after being freed. AP President Tom...

Islamist Forum Posts Instructions for Conducting 'Media Jihad' In a message posted March 2, 2008 on the Islamist forum Al-Ikhlas (hosted by Piradius.net in Malaysia), a member calling himself "abumuslim22" urged his fellow forum members to engage in "media jihad," and provided advice and safety tips. The following are excerpts from the posting: [1] "… 1. Exercise patience, because each of the following stages takes time… "2. Become a 'media mujahid'… Next to jihad on the battlefield, this is the most dangerous [type of] jihad, because you are new [to it] and inexperienced… "A. Be careful, and do not trust...

Reuters Fauxtography Alert: Spreading Hamas Propaganda With Fake Power Outage Photos Reuters Fauxtography Alert: Spreading Hamas Propaganda With Fake Power Outage Photos By Warner Todd Huston January 26, 2008 - 13:53 ET Photos Posted Below the FoldThe Jerusalem Post caught another fauxtography scam out of the mideast this week. It appears that Hamas legislators have staged fake power outages to illustrate how oppressed they are for the benefit of journalists. The Journalists were treated to a photo op of the Hamas legislators sitting in their halls of power surrounded by burning candles in rooms with curtains drawn. The scene...

Adam Gadahn - American al-Qaeda Killed In U.S. Strike? February 7, 2008 UNCONFIRMED: Following unconfirmed reports of killing of a high-profile al-Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libi, there are now rumours that an American al-Qaeda militant Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, had been killed in the alleged Predator attack by the US on a house in Mirali, North Waziristan, a few days back. 32-year-old Adam Gadahn, who is American citizen belonging to southern California, has been accused by the US of praising the perpetrators of September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and attending al-Qaeda training camps...

It has been clearly established that terrorist organizations have adopted unusual and innovative ways of using cutting-edge online technologies to expand their movements. Al-Qa`ida’s principal media wing, al-Sahab Media Production, has recently released a flood of new audio and video recordings over Arabic-language internet chat forums, and has even solicited open questions from forum participants to be addressed by al-Qa`ida’s second-incommand, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Yet, while much time and thought has been dedicated to studying the physical content broadcast over these chat forums, there has been far less attention focused on studying the individual users who populate them. In fact, during...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The chief of the U.S. military said Sunday he favors closing the prison here as soon as possible because he believes negative publicity worldwide about treatment of terrorist suspects has been "pretty damaging" to the image of the United States. "I'd like to see it shut down," Adm. Mike Mullen said in an interview with three reporters who toured the detention center with him on his first visit since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last October.

The Taliban has The Associated Press and Reuters on speed dial. Elias Wahdat, a stringer for Reuters and BBC news services in Khost province, said that every time the Taliban launch an attack or American troops call in an air strike, he gets a text message. The Taliban will give its version of what happened, often claiming that American bombs killed civilians. It may take officials with the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan hours to put together a news release for the press. In the meantime, the Taliban version is already circulating. Lt. Col. David A. Accetta, the 82nd Airborne Division...

Isn't it interesting the way Iraq news gets reported in our media. A Jan. 10 Associated Press story begins: "Nine American soldiers were killed in the first two days of a new offensive to root out al-Qaida-in-Iraq fighters holed up in districts north of he capital. ... "The losses came as many enemy militants fled U.S. and Iraqi forces massing in Diyala" -- a lot of those guerrillas fleeing north into the province of Salahuddin -- AP correspondent Christopher Chester continues. Read down to the seventh paragraph -- halfway through the story. There, we finally learn that our troops "killed...

Excerpt - BAGHDAD, Jan 5 (Reuters) - An Iraqi soldier deliberately shot and killed a U.S. army officer and a sergeant during a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol in the northern city of Mosul on Dec. 26, two Iraqi Army generals said on Saturday. U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel James Hutton said the incident was under investigation but gave no details. It is believed to be the first reported incident in which an Iraqi soldier has deliberately killed a U.S. serviceman. ~ snip ~

A "surge" of overused words and phrases formed a "perfect storm" of "post-9/11" cliches in 2007, according to a U.S. university's annual list of words and phrases that deserve to be banned. Choosing from among 2,000 submissions, the public relations department at Michigan's Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie targeted 19 affronts to the English language in its well-known jab at the worlds of media, sports, advertising and politics. The contributors gave first prize to the phrase "a perfect storm," saying it was numbingly applied to virtually any notable coincidence. "Webinar" made the list as a tiresome non-word...

CAIRO, Egypt — Al Qaeda has invited journalists to send questions to its No. 2 figure, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in the first such offer by the increasingly media-savvy terror network to "interview" one of its leaders since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The invitation is a new twist in Al Qaeda's campaign to reach a broader audience, and represents an attempt by al-Zawahiri to present himself as a sophisticated leader rather than a mass murderer. "I think their media capability is sophisticated as ever," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert and professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "It shows how...

Media watchdog website Honest Reporting has awarded their annual Dishonest Reporter Awards. Some of these stories you know and some you don't--probably because they were ignored by the media. Some were even covered here at NewsBusters. The "winners" included Christiane Amanpour for “God's Warriors,” the BBC for covering up an internal investigation into its Mid East reporting, US government funded Al-Hurra TV's former 'director Larry Register for dhimmitude, a UNC Daily Tar Heel article about breaking up with a boyfriend because of Israel and of course Charles Enderlin and the Mohammad Al Dura Fautography that launched the Second Intifida. See...

Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photographer who had a hand in The Associated Press’s 2005 Pulitzer Prize for photography before being jailed without charges by the United States military, finally had a day in court last week. But his story, which highlights the unprecedented role that Iraqis are playing in news coverage of the war, is really just beginning. snip A spokesman for the military said that Mr. Hussein had been detained as “an imperative security threat” and that he has persistently been “treated fairly, humanely and in accordance with all applicable law.” In a lengthy e-mail message, the spokesman said...

The Other Fallujah Reporter Posted By Michael J. Totten On December 16, 2007 @ 2:17 pm “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” — Thomas JeffersonI just returned home from a trip to Fallujah, where I was the only reporter embedded with the United States military. There was, however, an unembedded reporter in the city at the same time. Normally it would be useful to compare what I saw and heard while traveling and working with the Marines with what a colleague saw and heard while working solo....

AP photographer Bilal Hussein was on the radar screen of US forces prior to his being detained in a chance encounter April 12, 2006. He was a stringer working in Fallujah who filed numerous reports and photos that seemed to need a high degree of cooperation from the terrorists. He has been in custody for 19 months and will soon face trial by the Iraqi government on charges related to his activities with Sunni insurgents in Fallujah and Ramadi. Evidence against him is expected to be given to the Iraqi government this week. Geoff Morrell, Pentagon Press Secretary had this...

A MAN purporting to be a Muslim cleric wrote to the father of slain Australian soldier Luke Worsley telling him he "can't be proud" of his son who "died for nothing" - then posted the letter online. John Worsley, father of 26-year-old commando Private Luke Worsley who was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan last month, received the letter from “Sheikh Haron” just days after news broke of his son’s death. “We were hurt (by the letter),” Mr Worsley told NEWS.com.au. “We’re very proud of our boy.” The letter – topped with Mr Worsley’s home address – has been posted...

For months, our magazine has been subject to accusations that stories we published by an American soldier then serving in Iraq were fabricated. When these accusations first arose, we promised our readers a full account of our investigation. We spent the last four-and-a-half months re-reporting his stories. These are our findings. ::very big snip:: In retrospect, we never should have put Beauchamp in this situation. He was a young soldier in a war zone, an untried writer without journalistic training. We published his accounts of sensitive events while granting him the shield of anonymity--which, in the wrong hands, can become...

Transcript: HELEN THOMAS: Does the President want no troops out from Iraq on his watch? I’m talking about all the troops. MS. PERINO: Well, 5,700 troops will be home by the end of the year, so that is some troops coming home. The President said that troop levels are going to be made by commanders on the ground, and that we’re going to have to talk about – THOMAS: Why should it be? Why can’t the American people have a say? MS. PERINO: — return on success. The American people have had a say. They elected a President who is...

'Dead' Iraqis Show at Press Conference Smiling, Waving By Jim Hoft | November 30, 2007 - 10:07 ET How Embarrassing!Picture this...You report to the international news agencies that 11 of your family members in Iraq have been slaughtered! You hold several press conferences and gain great sympathy.(AFP)You become an overnight sensation with the antiwar media.You've never had so much sympathy and attention in all your life. You even get a state funeral in Jordan where you make a living as a Baathist anti-Iraq War journalist.(Awad Awad, Deseret)You get photos taken of you and your official government guest sobbing in grief....

NEW YORK (AP) - The U.S. military's plan to seek a criminal case against an Associated Press photographer in Iraq without disclosing the charges or evidence against him makes a mockery of American democratic principles, AP President and CEO Tom Curley said Saturday. "This is a poor example—and not the first of its kind—of the way our government honors the democratic principles and values it says it wants to share with the Iraqi people," Curley said in a column in The Washington Post. The U.S. military notified the AP last weekend that it intended to submit a complaint against Bilal...

BAGHDAD — Coalition forces detained (24) suspects Sunday during operations targeting al-Qaida networks in central and northern Iraq. Coalition forces captured a wanted individual during operations north of Samarra. The wanted individual is believed to be involved in al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) media networks and was involved in attacks against Coalition forces. In addition to the wanted individual, Coalition forces detained three suspects without incident. During other operations in Samarra, Coalition force detained (11) suspects during operations targeting al-Qaida’s courier and media networks, as well as weapons facilitators and associates of senior terrorist leaders. During operations in Baghdad, Coalition forces...

Media: An Associated Press photographer is about to be handed over to an Iraqi court on terrorism charges. The media are howling persecution. But what's so improbable about a terrorist trying to infiltrate the U.S. media?That's why the case of Bilal Hussein ought to be looked at more seriously than the "how dare you" denials the AP and its pals at press-freedom watchdogs are putting out. The AP photographer, who took enough close-up shots of al-Qaida in combat to help win a Pulitzer Prize for AP in 2005, somehow never found the same kind of danger Wall Street Journal reporter...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US military has filed a formal complaint with an Iraqi criminal court accusing a detained, award-winning Associated Press photographer of being a "terrorist media operative," the Pentagon said Monday. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the military made the complaint about Bilal Hussein, who has been held for more than 19 months without charges in US military custody, to Iraq's Central Criminal Court. "We believe Bilal Hussein was a terrorist media operative who infiltrated the AP," he said. "MNF-I possesses convincing and irrefutable evidence that Bilal Hussein is a threat to security and stability as...

NEW YORK (AP) - The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal case in an Iraqi court against an award-winning Associated Press photographer but is refusing to disclose what evidence or accusations would be presented. An AP attorney on Monday strongly protested the decision, calling the U.S. military plans a "sham of due process." The journalist, Bilal Hussein, has already been imprisoned without charges for more than 19 months. A public affairs officer notified the AP on Sunday that the military intends to submit a written complaint against Hussein that would bring the case into the Iraqi justice system as...

Powerline headlines The "public secret" of Middle East Journalism and refers us to two web sites that illustrate the ways in which the supposed objective media are manipulating the images and fact that we are fed to essentially tell us lies. The evidence emerging from the ongoing Al Dura trial in France indicates that Western journalists are fully aware that some of the footage they use in their reports on the Mideast conflict is staged, charges Richard Landes. When confronted with the pervasive evidence of staging in the case of Al Dura, the reaction of France 2, which ran the...

It doesn't matter how many Oscar winners are in front of or behind the camera — audiences are proving to be conscientious objectors when it comes to this fall's surge of antiwar and anti-Bush films. Both "In the Valley of Elah" and, more recently, "Rendition" drew minuscule crowds upon their release, which doesn't bode well for the ongoing stream of films critical of the Iraq war and the Bush administration's wider war on terror."Rendition," which features three Oscar winners in key roles, grossed $4.1 million over the weekend in 2,250 screens for a ninth-place finish. A re-release of "The Nightmare...

Muslims throughout the world celebrate Eid Al-Fitr today marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Ramadan is not only abstaining from food and drink; it is a time of intense spiritual renewal for those who observe it in a truly Islamic way. The same spirit should inform and illuminate our celebration of Eid too. This means we should spend the day and those following it in enhanced piety and with a sense of fellowship, brotherhood and unity. True, we should make our friends and relatives happy, but without forgetting those who are less fortunate. Eid should be celebrated...

Media Bias: Why would two Muslim men travel 3,000 miles to kill random people in the nation's capital a year after 9/11? CNN investigated and found Islamic terror had nothing to do with it. ..... ......... "Somehow CNN's "special investigations unit" managed to overlook this pile of courtroom evidence. It showed only one drawing — a self portrait of Malvo shedding tears."

As preparations for the American peace conference continue, the leaders of the Palestinian Authority have announced their demands for a future Palestinian state with an area of 6205 square kilometers. This would include the Gaza strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. However, the message they have conveyed to their people for years, and continue to convey on the eve of the conference, is that "Palestine" exists and it replaces all of Israel. A clip broadcast by Fatah-controlled Palestinian television this week shows a map in which Israel is painted in the colors of the Palestinian flag, symbolizing Israel turned...

The "missing" brother of a UT student has come forward to smash his sister's claims that he disappeared while serving in the Iraq War. The Minaret has learned that UT student Bree Laro fabricated much of her story about the missing soldier, which was featured in The Minaret's last issue of the 2006/2007. Her brother, Joe Laro, who was actually in the U.S. while Laro was completing a series of interviews, has stepped forward to say he was never missing. Confronted with his statement, Bree claimed she had never explicitly told The Minaret he was missing. However, suitemates and Bree's...

August 6, 2007 6:30 AM Harry Potter and the Deathly Intelligence Leakers can only Scholastic keep a secret? By Peter Hoekstra The fate of Harry Potter in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows was a closely guarded secret that was not supposed to be revealed before the book’s official release on July 21. The U.S. Postal Service tried to protect the secret when a mailman asked a Chicago-area woman to give back two copies of the book he had accidentally delivered before the release date. The mailman feared that he would lose his job for delivering the...

As Israel prepares to mark the first anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, Prime Minister Olmert extends a hand for peace to Syria's President Bashar Assad. Military intelligence assess that failure to embark on peace negotiations may lead to another war, ten times worse than last summer's conflict, they warn.07/11/07

That Hamas and the BBC have close relations isn’t exactly a revelation. See here and here, for example. But finally the BBC, the world’s biggest broadcaster, has itself admitted to being in touch with Hamas – the group that unlike other Islamic terror groups, has made a habit of deliberately targeting children (in school buses, bat mitzvah birthday parties, pizzerias filled with kids and so on). A senior BBC executive has confirmed that the BBC held private meetings with Hamas – whose gunmen usually wear ski masks to hide their identity – in the days leading up to the release...

The internet is playing a key role in the on-going psychological war waged on America by the Iraqi insurgence. A series of mock-up Hollywood film posters - with a chilling message for US troops in Iraq - has started to appear on the web. Link

Organizers Needed to End the War Reply to: XXX@craigslist.org Date: 2007-07-02, 4:50PM CDT Field Organizers for national campaign targeting congressional and senate votes to end War in Iraq needed in Michigan, Virginia, Minnesota and Maine. Political organizing and campaign training for motivated activists; weekly stipend, housing and gas expenses paid. SNIP Stipend of $400/week and housing provided plus reimbursements for gas and tolls during the program. Spanish and other languages very helpful, women and minorities encouraged to apply, and must be able to relocate.

In Baghdad, at an informal meeting of the incoming U.S. ambassador to Iraq and members of the media, the ambassador got an earful about how difficult it was to cover this war. Despite the dainty hors d’oeuvre and wine (in the first real glasses I have seen since my arrival in Iraq), the press brought out a laundry list of issues preventing them from doing their job: checkpoints, transportation, the bureaucracy of blood tests at the border, and the need for more personal security. For what was supposed to be a meet and greet, the greet did not last long....

Media Get Tricked by More Fake News Posted by Matthew Sheffield on July 4, 2007 - 19:41. NB contributor Bob Owens has a great piece over at Pajamas Media on how he helped spot yet another instance of the Western press getting snookered by a fake news story promulgated by terrorists in Iraq. Once again, the media's desire to portray Iraq as a total disaster let them get tricked: On Thursday, June 28, The Associated Press—and to a lesser extent, Reuters, and a small independent Iraqi news agency—ran stories claiming that 20 decapitated bodies had been found on or near...

BAGHDAD - Reports of 20 beheaded bodies found south of Baghdad earlier this week were untrue and may have been fabricated by insurgents aiming to incite violence and revenge killings, the U.S. military said Saturday. On Thursday, many international and Iraqi media outlets — including The Associated Press —reported the discovery of the bodies, quoting unnamed Iraqi police. The decapitated bodies had allegedly turned up on the banks of the Tigris River near Salman Pak, 15 miles southeast of Baghdad.

If you follow the link, you will be treated to some scenes from the strenuous life of a professional Muslim protester in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar. Over the last few years, there have been innumerable opportunities for him to demonstrate his piety and his pissed-offness. And the cameras have been there for him every time. Is it a fatwah? Is it a copy of the Quran allegedly down the gurgler at Guantanamo? Is it some cartoon in Denmark? Time for Rage Boy to step in and for his visage to impress the rest of the world with the depth...

MEMRI is ‘propaganda machine,’ expert saysBy Lawrence Swaim, Staff Writer The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) provides daily English translations of film and print media stories originating in Arabic, Iranian and Turkish media. It also furnishes original analysis of cultural, political and religious trends in the Middle East. It sends its daily postings to every news outlet in the United States and Europe, in addition to politicians and cultural leaders. And it’s free, which makes it a Godsend for journalists, editors and policy analysts. But according to its critics, it is also a dangerous, highly sophisticated propaganda operation, disseminating...