Media mistakes RE: Basra, Iraq, and the Brits

On the home front in the United States and in Briton there is an ignorance that is spreading and growing. The public, and at times world perspective, is shaped by 15 second sound bytes. Most use some catchy headline that twists or misrepresents the true story.

But when the News gets it "Wrong", why don't we see the same vigor to correct the issue? The facts are of much more interest to me....

Basra is one of these situations.

I hope you will read Michael Yon's latest dispatch "Men of Valor" - part V

Here is a portion of his latest dispatch from the front lines of Iraq:
(there are also a lot of pictures from Basra on Michael's web site)

"......By the time I arrived on my latest trip to Basra on 26 September, the “Honor Agreement” was holding fast. So much so that in September—when the mainstream media was consistently reporting that the place was “in chaos”—the violence in Basra had actually fallen off the screen. Mortar and rocket attacks still occurred, but infrequently and with no military relevance. There was a brief attack at the Basra Airport on 8 October during which I had to lie flat for just a few minutes, and a few other minor attacks where I had to lie down, but this is in sharp contrast to the attacks earlier this year where it was common to lie flat more than a half-dozen times per day, every day......MY"

The News has consistently reported Basra as a city in chaos, with a strong al Qaeda safe haven. The News has convinced people that the al Qaeda Concurred the British troops, and that the Brits are in full retreat.

The reality is the Brits changed strategy. They focused on training the new Iraqi police and Army units. But most important is they worked with the local population, and listened to the needs and wishes of the people of Basra.

The Brits have not fled, they moved. The Brits moved because they were in a place know locally as "Basra Palace". I have read about some of the very aggressive and at times large scale attacks that would come from any direction. But instead of being a target in the center of the city they negotiated settlements with local leaders. they moved to an area that was agreed upon by local government, etc. The Brits are seen as the mediators that can settle disputes between local forces.

Michael mentioned: "Basra was a veritable Hatfield-and-McCoy situation; dysfunctionally functioning."

This is an interesting an insightful observation. Basra like any town has long unsettled disputes. I have read many stories of local disputes that resulted in attacks between old local enemies. Often I have read stories of locals that try to get coalition forces to attack a rival tribe or group of people. I have seen disputes over a goat several times. Also brides who changed their minds or had been forced into marrage. These are disputes we can not resolve. The Iraqis have been and will be the ones who settle their internal disputes.

I have a little saying I have learned from my many travels:

"People who live in cities think that people who live in the outskirts are hicks or backwards, people who live in the outskirts think people who live in cities would have to be nuts to live in such a chaotic unconnected environment. This is true for all nations."

It is something that has always fascinated me. I was lucky enough to travel A LOT every since I was a toddler. That little saying is of course a generalization. I don't think it is a true view for all people in either position. But when you get to the heart of those populations, weather it be city or outskirt, it is clear that the community revolves around leaders who do firmly believe their way of life is better.

The fact is Basra is not some outskirt city in London or New York, Basra is Basra. The best thing our military and political strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan is doin now, is to work with the people, not try and change them.

Violence is down 70% in Basra. Al Qaeda is seen as the Devil, the Brits are respected by the locals, and the News is still reporting that al Qaeda is rising?

Does anyone actually believe the Media anymore?

Let’s take a look at the problem. Our news was once first hand from reporters in the field. All the major News papers after WW2 had always had personnel year round in the Middle East. Television would get their news from the newspapers and independent sources grew as TV grew. Then the internet came along one day. Well that was when it started to change. Also large publishers which were once independent family owned entities became corporate giants. Gone was the day of the newspaper man. last I heard around early 2007 was only one major newpapper still had a full time presence in the middle east. Yet I believe it was only one reporter at times (especially in the hot summers - which is also the time when the enemy is most active). The fact is most of today’s so called "News" comes from what are referred to in the industry as "stringers".

OK I just looked up Iraqi stringers and found a article titled "Myths of Iraq"

here is a portion of the Article by By Ralph Peters

"The dangerous nature of journalism in Iraq has created a new phenomenon, the all-powerful local stringer. Unwilling to stray too far from secure facilities and their bodyguards, reporters rely heavily on Iraqi assistance in gathering news. And Iraqi stringers, some of whom have their own political agendas, long ago figured out that Americans prefer bad news to good news. The Iraqi leg-men earn blood money for unbalanced, often-hysterical claims, while the Journalism 101 rule of seeking confirmation from a second source has been discarded in the pathetic race for headlines......"

Terrorist have been waging a Propaganda War and the News is making money off it. Let's change that...

Internet scammers and hate mailers

The kid above was of Palestinian decent and lived in Serbia for a while the moved around probably after getting into AL Qaeda. He went to Canada, Briton, various European countries and even the USA where he tried to obtain bomb making materials.

I have heard more and more stories about military or pro Americans supporting the troops from home being harassed. There is no doubt that most are just some dumb angry person with nothing better to do. However the story is much bigger. There is many people living in America who are angry liberals, anti-government, anarchists, and Muslims who know how to wage Internet war. The main attack they have outlined is propaganda and the spreading of lies. I have seen many people and cases of people using false Identifications, often stolen or counterfeited. This is a widespread problem. So before you send a message, comment, instant message, or email be sure who it is you’re communicating with. Check their friend’s lists and their bio info. If no info forget it. Click their friend’s pages to see what they are talking about and where they live and what their likes are. If you get hate mails or other harassment notify your friend and report it. Have friends report it if it happens to them.

One way to avoid the hate mails is do not send hate mail or send comments on pages that you don’t like. Also use ignore when you find someone bad. Also make sure to note the name send it to me so I can add it to a watch list.

Thanks all, god bless, and best wishes,

Ian Bach

Here is a list I have begun on possible fakers who are not in the military and may have alteier motives.

(please note the links, emails, and contact names listed below have not been confirmed as hackers or terrorists. However, to enable our readers to be aware of the possiblity of hate mails or viruses we have chosen to share this knowledge.

SUSPECT FAKE MILITARY yahoo IDs

John
http://360.yahoo.com/profile-Vx0odXMhdLaAiQ74vIIZzw8-?cq=1&inv=VhZL.VZgLv4-

List of Liberals (or wanabie ones or fake ids) spreading hate to good people
http://360.yahoo.com/profile-3u2J2GcmeqKTcV41xP1AEF8M#ymgl-guestbook

Suspects and Virus spreaders
we are not sure of persons http addy yet but im hunting wabbits hehe. -------If someone calling emselves "Ashley Marc James" wants to add you to their list dont accept it. Its a virus. Tell everyone on your list because if somebody on your list adds them you will get it too. It is a hard drive killer.

Suspect hacker. Ashley Marc James suspected Email Below (please dont email this guy or you give your computer ID away and will likely be hacked)

bum_tn007@hotmail.com

google name
This is the name of the photo album

hoanggiason - another suspect fakers pics...
more to come....

Here is a list of bad weeb yahoo 360 users (well bad in my view)

Link below is to one of the Blogs by James he has a science blog and a politics blog. Both have some really uniformed theories. He thinks tthe war is about oil. He wants to impeach bush. and some of his science ideas are about as smart as a rat in a maze. He promotes people to send letters / emails to congres and senate. These email templayes he haas people send would make Taliban and al-Qaeda proud. He plays into the propaganda and lies of terrorists and is so unamerican it makes me sick. He wants to impeach Bush and is using a lot of lies (lies originaly created by terorist but some dumb people still believe these lies) to encourage people to send emails to congress and senators to impeach bush also to stop wirer tapping. His name is James?? hmm could it be the Ashley marc james Dude?? I dono...
http://360.yahoo.com/profile-YW18nxE7eqtd0CMJGCB94Xu4

If he is in your group I would delete him. he also has another ID one is science (laughs - this guy is no scientist) other is politics (total liberal or a terrorist or anarchist?) be sure and stay safe. read the blogs of people in your group and read them as often as you can. Be sure you know who your friends are.

Turkey's battle plan could threaten northern Iraq

POSTED: 3:59 a.m. EDT, May 25, 2007 CNN

Story Highlights

• Calls in Turkey growing for attack on hard-line Kurdish separatist group PKK
• Six people killed, more than 100 injured in Tuesday's bomb blast
• Turkish election to be held in July

[A note from Ian Bach - Before you read this understand that the Kurdish area is currently and has been the most secure and safe a religiously free area of Iraq for centuries. These brave people have fought for their rights to religious freedom. Radical Islamist want to eliminate the last standing truly religiously free country in their region. Also Iraq, Syria, and Turkey currently occupy areas of the original Kurdistan Nation. - We need to back these brave, ethical, tolerant people. In Kurdish Iraq Christians, Jews, Muslims (many forms/sects) all live together in freedom. - Ian Bach]

ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) -- The war drums are getting louder in Turkey, and they can be heard next door in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, and across the globe in Washington as well.

Many Turkish officials and citizens -- enraged by Tuesday's deadly bombing -- want the Turkish military to hit back at the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, the hard-line Kurdish separatist group thought by many in the government and on the street to have staged the blast and other militant actions.

At least six people died and more than 100 were injured in the rush hour bombing at an Ankara shopping district. (Full story)

Senior Turkish officers have said that operations against the PKK would require troops to cross into the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, which many PKK militants -- also long situated in southeastern Turkey -- have chosen as their base.

The PKK denies involvement in the Ankara attack, and a U.S. State Department spokesman cautions that the investigation into the attack is "ongoing."

However, the outrage in Turkey toward the PKK has been boiling over.

On Thursday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that if the military were to request a retaliation, the parliament, which is dominated by Erdogan's AK party, would support it.

Turkey's army chief, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, said recently his troops are ready to attack what he calls Kurdish terrorist camps in northern Iraq. And retired Turkish Gen. Edip Baser told CNN he believes an operation could be just weeks away.

As late as two weeks ago, there were an estimated 150,000 Turkish soldiers on or near the Turkish-Iraq border, and the PKK has stepped up cross-border attacks into the Kurdish region of Turkey now that snows have melted in the border mountains.

Seven Turkish soldiers were killed in the volatile southeast this week.

Six Turkish soldiers died and 10 were wounded Thursday when a roadside bomb detonated near the town of Siirt, the Turkish military said. Another soldier died Wednesday in an accident near Van during a search operation.

July election

The tough talk in Ankara comes two months before a general election, in which Erdogan's party, a movement with Islamist roots, faces a challenge from secularist parties. The vast majority of Turks are Muslims, but there has been a strict separation of mosque and state since the Turkish republic came into being in 1923. (Full story)

Supporters of Turkey's secular heritage have been demonstrating for weeks against the plan by Erdogan's governing party to vote one of its own members to the Turkish presidency.

Some analysts think that in the run-up to the election, Erdogan's AK party will use a war against Kurdish separatists to rally public opinion and downplay its differences with the military.

Mustafa Aydin -- professor of international relations at Ankara University and the National Security Academy -- said the government would "try to use this to rally Turkish people around the government, around the people. They will most likely try to use nationalistic themes and terms during the propaganda."

U.S. support

Nationalist feelings in Turkey are running high. Many Turks are disappointed with the lack of U.S. support for this long-time ally on the issue of operations against the PKK -- and resent U.S. support for Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq.

The United States is not deaf to the problem, but is caught between the competing interests of vital regional allies.

Two months ago, the special U.S. envoy working with Turkey on the threat of the PKK testified before a House committee. Retired Gen. Joseph Ralston said that Turkey is a "sovereign state with a responsibility to defend its people. Ultimately, the Turkish government will have to take the steps it thinks are necessary to protect its citizens."

He pointed to efforts to close a refugee camp in northern Iraq that has become a refuge for fighters and to get a "cessation of hostilities."

"Diplomatic progress on this issue has come grudgingly and with great effort, but there has been progress," Ralston testified in March. He could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey cautioned that the Turkish authorities have not come to any final conclusions about who is responsible for the blast and that their probe into the blast continues.

At the same time, he said, "we believe, as does the Iraqi government, that the PKK represents a real threat, and it's a threat that needs to be dealt with."

Ralston's appointment as special envoy shows the importance of the issue, he said.

Casey said the "best way to deal" with the PKK is through "continued cooperation" between Turkey and Iraq, with the help of the United States.

"And we certainly don't think unilateral military action from Turkey or anyplace else would solve anything," he said.

Iraq backs Turkey

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the Iraqi government has expressed a willingness to work with Turkey on the issue of PKK terrorism.

Baser, a former special Turkish envoy on the PKK, has called the issue a "testing ground of Turkish-American relations."

The PKK has backing, with many Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey supporting a dream of an independent state. One PKK sympathizer, Faik Kaplan, told CNN that inviting the PKK to lay down its arms would be a better way to go than Turkish troops crossing the border.

But Turkey says it won't talk to PKK militants, and that stand resonates on the streets. Mustafa Ersoy, an Ankara shopkeeper, said: "The special message the flag carries is that the Turkish people are one body. And there is no power that can split the Turkish people into pieces."

The PKK has been fighting for what it calls Kurdish rights since the early 1980s. More than 30,000 people have lost their lives in the violence. The last incursions made by Turkey into Iraq came in the early 1990s.

CNN's Paula Hancocks, Phil Black, Talia Kayali, Joe Sterling and Elise Labott contributed to this report.

White House says bin Laden ordered Iraq plots

By Matt Spetalnick
Tue May 22, 8:34 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden ordered al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to form a cell in 2005 to plot attacks outside of Iraq and make the United States his main target, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.

Citing newly declassified intelligence, Fran Townsend,

President George W. Bush

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President George W. Bush's adviser for homeland security, said the information backs the administration's assertion that U.S. troops must stay in Iraq for now to prevent it from becoming a "terrorist sanctuary."

Mindful of its trouble selling its war strategy to the American public, the White House is trying to put the spotlight on bin Laden's connections to Zarqawi, the head of Iraq's al Qaeda wing who was killed in a U.S. air strike in June 2006.

Bush's critics accuse him of trying to de-emphasize the role of sectarian fighting in Iraq's chaos and justify an unpopular war by focusing on links to bin Laden and al Qaeda, the authors of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Iraq's Sadr Overhauls His Tactics

By Sudarsan Raghavan

Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, May 20, 2007; Page A01

NAJAF, Iraq -- The movement of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has embarked on one of its most dramatic tactical shifts since the beginning of the war.

The 33-year-old populist is reaching out to a broad array of Sunni leaders, from politicians to insurgents, and purging extremist members of his Mahdi Army militia who target Sunnis. Sadr's political followers are distancing themselves from the fragile Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which is widely criticized as corrupt, inefficient and biased in favor of Iraq's majority Shiites. And moderates are taking up key roles in Sadr's movement, professing to be less anti-American and more nationalist as they seek to improve Sadr's image and position him in the middle of Iraq's ideological spectrum.

"We want to aim the guns against the occupation and al-Qaeda, not between Iraqis," Ahmed Shaibani, 37, a cleric who leads Sadr's newly formed reconciliation committee, said as he sat inside Sadr's heavily guarded compound here.

Sadr controls the second-biggest armed force in Iraq, after the U.S. military, and 30 parliamentary seats -- enough power to influence political decision-making and dash U.S. hopes for stability. The cleric withdrew his six ministers from Iraq's cabinet last month, leaving the movement more free to challenge the government.

(full article click here)

Bush says al-Qaida is top enemy in Iraq

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer
Wed May 2, 8:14 PM ET

WASHINGTON -

President Bush on Wednesday declared al-Qaida "public enemy No. 1 in

Iraq," placing increasing emphasis on the terror network forever associated with the deadliest attack in U.S. history.

The president also seemed to offer another definition of success in Iraq — not a lack of violence, but a livable level for citizens.

In a speech to construction contractors, Bush put a heavy focus on al-Qaida, which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. In doing so, he sought more bluntly to cast the unpopular Iraq war in terms that U.S. citizens could connect to their own lives.

"For America, the decision we face in Iraq is not whether we ought to take sides in a civil war, it's whether we stay in the fight against the same international terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11," Bush said. "I strongly believe it's in our national interest to stay in the fight."

Full Article

No safe way for U.S. to leave Iraq, experts warn

Story Highlights

• Experts paint bleak picture of Iraq if U.S. troops fully withdraw
• Among potential scenarios: al Qaeda terror hub and larger regional conflict
• CNN analyst: "Saudi Arabia will not allow increasing Iranian dominance"
• U.S. general says early pullout would cause "huge vacuum"

Adjust font size:

(CNN) -- Pulling U.S. forces from Iraq could trigger catastrophe, CNN analysts and other observers warn, affecting not just Iraq but its neighbors in the Middle East, with far-reaching global implications.

Sectarian violence could erupt on a scale never seen before in Iraq if coalition troops leave before Iraq's security forces are ready. Supporters of al Qaeda could develop an international hub of terror from which to threaten the West. And the likely civil war could draw countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran into a broader conflict.

President Bush vetoed a war spending bill Tuesday precisely because the Democrat-led Congress required the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn by October 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later.

Bush said such a deadline would be irresponsible and both sides are now working on new proposals -- which may have no pullout dates.

A rapid withdrawal of all U.S. troops would hurt America's image and hand al Qaeda and other terror groups a propaganda victory that the United States is only a "paper tiger," CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen said. (Send us your reaction)

"It would also play into their strategy, which is to create a mini-state somewhere in the Middle East where they can reorganize along the lines of what they did in Afghanistan in the late '90s," Bergen told CNN.com.

It was in Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda allied with the Taliban, and were allowed to run terror bases and plan the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.

Bergen says it is imperative that the United States not let that happen in Iraq.

"What we must prevent is central/western Iraq [from] becoming a Sunni militant state that threatens our interests directly as an international terror hub," he said.

Don Shepperd, a retired Air Force major-general and military analyst for CNN, agreed that Sunni Muslim fighters who support al Qaeda would seek an enclave inside a lawless Iraq likely riven along sectarian lines into Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish regions.

There would be "increasing attempts by terrorists to establish a training sanctuary in Iraq," Shepperd said.

That's one of the reasons why a fast withdrawal will not happen, whatever the politicians say, the analysts predict. (Watch why a radical Shiite cleric wants U.S. troops out )

"Everyone wants the troops home -- the Iraqis, the U.S., the world -- but no one wants a precipitous withdrawal that produces a civil war, a bloodbath, nor a wider war in an unstable Mideast," Shepperd said, adding that the image of the United States was important too.

Full Article - click here

Giuliani Broadens His Message on Terrorism

By MARC SANTORA

Published: April 26, 2007

nytimes.com

MANCHESTER, N.H., April 25 — In his two months on the campaign trail, the central animating theme of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s presidential campaign has been that his performance as New York mayor on Sept. 11, 2001, makes him the best candidate to keep the United States safe from terrorists.

But when Mr. Giuliani broadened that message here on Tuesday night, saying that Democrats “do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us” and that if they were elected the United States would suffer “more losses,” the response from his Democratic rivals was swift and pointed.

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois accused Mr. Giuliani of “taking the politics of fear to a new low.” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York used the remarks to link Mr. Giuliani to a failure by the Bush administration to quash Al Qaeda. John Edwards called the remarks “divisive and just plain wrong.”

The skirmishing, some of the most intense between the parties in the young 2008 campaign, suggests that a line of attack that the administration used in 2004 would again be a central Republican theme.

In his speech before Republicans here on Tuesday night, Mr. Giulani called the fight against terrorism “the defining conflict of our time.” If a Democrat were elected president, he said, they would “wave the white flag” in Iraq, cut back on surveillance of terrorists, restrict the ability of law enforcement officials to gather intelligence and limit interrogation techniques, curtailing their effectiveness.

“Make no mistake about it, the Democrats want to put us back on defense,” he said.

In the end, he added, the United States would prevail regardless of who was in office, but if it was a Democrat, there would probably be greater loss of life before that victory was achieved. FULL ARTICLE HERE