Didn't we just go through this back in June?
DeCapiGate: Take 1
"20 headless bodies found" was the headline across the globe in late June.
Then a day later it is discovered that this was just a bogus report.
Now comes...
DeCapiGate: The Sequel
October 29, 2007
"20 headless bodies found" makes headlines across the globe...
In America:
KHALIS, Iraq — Twenty decapitated bodies were found Monday near a police station in Khalis, Iraq, a town just west of Bakubah, Iraqi sources with the Ministry of Interior confirmed. The identities of the bodies are not yet known.In the Headline News:
Baghdad, Iraq (AHN) - Iraqi police said Monday that they have found 20 headless bodies in north of Baghdad with one believed to be a tribal leader.
The Bodies were found at the Gsrine village close to Diyala province's capital, Baquba, a local police source said. The source believed the decapitations were recent.
The Discovery of the bodies indicates that the country's brutal sectarian strife is far from over, despite the military operations between the United States and Iraq.
In China:
BAGHDAD, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Twenty decapitated bodies were found north of Baghdad with one of them believed to be a tribal leader, Iraqi police said Monday.But, wait a minute...
A local police source told Xinhua that the bodies were discovered at the Gsarin village near Baquba, capital of Diyala province.
The source said the bodies were found bleeding, which meant they were beheaded not long ago.
Late last night the BBC reports this:
Meanwhile, Iraqi police denied earlier reports that 20 headless bodies had been found dumped near Baquba.* * * * *
UPDATE: (Tuesday AM) I just spoke with Maj. Winfield Danielson with MNF-Iraq. After investigating the "20 headless bodies" story, Multi-National Force Iraq has no record that this incident took place yesterday near Baquba (Bakubah).
There is no evidence to back up the story.
Maj. Winfield Danielson gave permission to quote MNF-I.
The story is not accurate.
UPDATE 2: There is still no evidence that this event ever took place.
++
ReplyDeletehow about a real story for a change.. ;)
HT : The Long War Journal (Roggio)
Iraqi troops free tribal leaders kidnapped by Mahdi Army commander
excerpts:
[Just 24 hours after the capture of 11 Sunni and Shia tribal leaders in northern Baghdad, the Iraqi Army has freed eight of the sheikhs. Meanwhile, Multinational Forces Iraq has identified the Mahdi Army commander responsible for the kidnappings and has begun to name other Mahdi Army leaders as being involved in criminal and insurgent activity.
Iraqi soldiers conducted the raid in a yet-to-be-identified region near Baghdad, likely with the aid of US Special Forces and killed four of the kidnappers. "We have rescued eight of the hostages and are working to free the others. We killed four of the kidnappers," Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al Askari said.
Earlier today, Multinational Forces Iraq "identified Arkan Hasnawi, a former brigade commander in Jaish Al Mahdi [Mahdi Army], as responsible for the kidnapping of Shia and Sunni tribal leaders from Diyala Province yesterday." Hasnawi was identified as a leader of a "gang of criminals" that has "joined forces with Iranian-supported Special Groups that are rejecting Muqtada al Sadr’s direction to embrace fellow Iraqis."]
["Unfortunately, there are some individuals who are not interested in reconciliation," Odierno said. "These individuals continue to use violence to incite sectarian hatred for political gain, to promote foreign interests and to achieve personal wealth through criminal activity. They commit extortion, kidnappings, intimidation and murder against the Iraqi people. We are working hard to prevent men who do this, such as Arkhan Asnawi, Nasr Anad al-Masawi, Haji Duwad, Ahmed Atu, Abu Bolil, and Haji Mahti from seeking sanctuary within Sadr City. They have not honored the ceasefire announced by Muqtada al Sadr. And they only bring harm to the people of Sadr City."]
[Sadr has been directly implicated in the Karbala fighting and is believed to be behind the assassinations of the governors of Muthanna and Qadisiyah provinces. Shia are beginning to turn on Sadr's Mahdi Army in the Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City.]
WOOT!! (thumbsup)
==
So the facts are wrong, so what, its the principle of the thing that matters. There weren't 20 decapitated bodies, but there could have been.
ReplyDelete/sarc
The fake story is oh so much more entertaining for the sheeple masses than reality.
ReplyDeleteSickening. Glad someone is reporting that it's a fake story, I'm shocked that it was the BBC.
Fake but chock full of truthiness!
ReplyDeleteBrit Hume ran the story too :(. The main difference being that he'll probably correct tonight.
ReplyDeleteExactly Steele!
ReplyDelete500 US soldiers weren't killed in Iraq this month. But they could've been!
How I hate the MSM...
You have to understand everyone there just simply isn't enough real bad news in Iraq this month so some needs to be made up. No worries, I have no doubt that corrections are imminent.
ReplyDeleteI like how the chinese version of the story even has a picture of a burning car. When was that taken? What story does that originally go with if this one is made up?
ReplyDeleteThere has been far too much good news out of Iraq lately, so is anyone really surprised that the MSM would come up with a fake "bad" story.
ReplyDeleteBack when surge was first taking hold, I remember several of these fake stories being reported.
They are desperate to justify their position that the war has failed and we need to get out.
It'll probably still be added to the monthly body counts that non-coalition counters produce, particularly the ones that sift through news reports of fatalities...
ReplyDelete-Kyle
Another fake, but accurate story. Somewhere in Iraq, there are 20 headless bodies. Turn out they were chickens.
ReplyDeleteThis was also reported on Fox's Special Report with Brit Hume, yesterday. I did not hear a correction tonight but they may not have heard about this in time.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to give some feedback to them asking that Brit issues a correction tomorrow. You may want to also.
Let's see. Monday the iraqi government reports 20 headless bodies, TPM puts them in a different place than some other reports.
ReplyDeleteTuesday unidentified iraqi police say it didn't happen and an american source says he hasn't gotten the report yet so it must not have happened.
Anything further on this Wednesday or Thursday? The MNF guy should be completely discounted -- there's no reason to expect the iraqis to get their reports through to him that quickly. Beyond that we have iraqis who said it happened and iraqis who said it didn't. How much of a debunking is that?
Someone might want to tell Time Magazine then, because a story today they are running leads off with this.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1672381,00.html
My bad with that link, this is the story today titled:
ReplyDeleteHas the Surge Reached Its Limits?
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1677822,00.html
Okay one last try because link seems to be getting cut of in these post.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1677822,00.html
test at the end to see if that works or if not just go to www.time.com and it is the lead story.
"It'll probably still be added to the monthly body counts that non-coalition counters produce, particularly the ones that sift through news reports of fatalities...
ReplyDelete-Kyle"
Replace the 'probably' with 'will', and the above statement is accurate.
IBC for example never retracts a number for an incident. If any source claims that '600 children were' killed, no matter how little evidence they provide and no matter how much evidence surfaces to the contrary, '600' remains in the database. In fact, what actually happens is something like, 'Terrorists say we killed 600 women and children. The morgue says they didn't get any bodies. Will take 600 and 0 and average them, and report 300 additional deaths in Iraq.'
As long as the sedition laws are unenforced the enemies of America will continue to publish their lies. Why are the Bushies silent in the face of this crap?
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody read TIME or NEWSWEEK anymore?
ReplyDelete