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Iraq-Jordan
Videotape shows revelers at celebration
2004-05-24
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#16  The BBC led its international news with this story. No mention of the doubtful provenance of the video.
Posted by: Phil B   2004-05-24 7:44:06 PM  

#15  Well, the story is that the videographer was killed, so you can't exactly blame him for failing to record the attack posthumously.

That's if you buy the story. Me, I think a certain segment of Iraqi society has a long history of telling interesting and fanciful stories with the preserved bodies of dead children. Interestingly enough, that segment is mostly composed of intelligence agents and hospital personnel. The hospital personnel are still employed - can't spare trained physicians and administrators, no matter how dirty they were during the Ba'ath years. How many of these folks are still in touch with their Mukhabarat handlers? Think any of them might still be employed in the morgues of ar Ramadi, Fallujah, Najaf, and Karbala?
Posted by: Mitch H.   2004-05-24 6:05:18 PM  

#14  Everybody is wrong. This video was shot in the banquet room of Kebabs-R-Us, in surburban Detroit.
Posted by: BigEd   2004-05-24 5:44:42 PM  

#13  Interesting that someone took 7 hours of wedding footage but nobody took a shots of the attack as it was happening. Must have been battery problems like they had at the Nick Berg beheading that forced them to switch cameras and screw up the time codes.
Posted by: ruprecht   2004-05-24 5:09:09 PM  

#12  Remember how the British military experts shredded the 'Iraqi prisoner abuse' photos the Mirror printed. It was a great story. The media should get experts together to examine all of this kind of stuff. Perhaps not this one, but you know what I mean. They'd get a great story and actually be helping promote the truth at the same time.

Oh, but it might help Bush. Never mind.
Posted by: ruprecht   2004-05-24 5:06:11 PM  

#11  RC: That's why we censored the press during WWI and WWII. They cannot be trusted during a national emergency.
Posted by: 11A5S   2004-05-24 4:05:47 PM  

#10  Following up on 11A5S...such a victory would most likely not be possible if not for our 5th column news media. How about some apologies from news elites for the blood on their hands resulting from playing into the hands of the AQ? ...didn't think so.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2004-05-24 4:04:11 PM  

#9  You called it, Robert. Idiots, all of them.
Posted by: The Doctor   2004-05-24 4:00:08 PM  

#8  It's a brilliant means of turning a military defeat into a propaganda victory.

And a stunning example of how the press is the terrorists' best weapon. Not to mention that the press willingly takes on that role!
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-05-24 3:55:46 PM  

#7  Yosemite Sam that one was absolutly brilliant,sums it up completey in a picture and 7 words! The Arabs case in this would litterally fall apart in a court of law, some cheap middle eastern home video of a few shit jeeps hooning round the desert with a bride and some characters having a dance on video tape does not constitue evidence.Whatever next eh, headline reads'America Bombs Iraqi Childrens Hospital' with a picture grabbed from the middle eastern version of E.R! Or how about 'America Bombs Toddlers Nursery' with a picture of a pile of rubble with a torn a teddy bear in it! I'm never amazed anymore at what lengths the media will go to spout thier never ending Arabist propaganda rehtoric.The media truly are the eneamy!
Posted by: Shep UK   2004-05-24 3:55:28 PM  

#6  Al Qaeda has lately been demonstrating a talent for on-call operations. An on-call operation is one where the planning and training are all completed and the team is waiting for a signal to commence. On-call operations are intel or event driven rather than time driven. The missile attack on Wolfowitz's hotel when he was in Bagdad was almost certainly an on-call op. The Fallujah atrocity probably was one also. Once the bait had been caught and strung up, then the ambush teams and IED teams would be alerted and put into place. I suspect that this psyops operation has been in place for some time, awaiting the right event to trigger it. The video, photos, witnesses were are ready, just waiting for the word. It's a brilliant means of turning a military defeat into a propaganda victory.
Posted by: 11A5S   2004-05-24 3:45:25 PM  

#5  So if it turns out to be fake, there'll be apologies and retractions all around, right? Hello... hello...
Posted by: tu3031   2004-05-24 3:43:48 PM  

#4  
My friends, It was a wedding party.....
Posted by: Yosemite Sam   2004-05-24 3:42:50 PM  

#3  ive heard (i forget where) that theres evidence some of this was filmed in Ramadi. Could be bigger "own goal" than Daily Mirror "photo" stories.
Posted by: Liberalhawk   2004-05-24 3:37:38 PM  

#2  Posted by coward and MSNBC admits that no one, that's NO ONE, can authenticate the place, date, or anything else about the video.

You choose whom you will believe. The gullible reality-deniers choose Al Jizz and IOL and Baghdad Bob.

I choose those who've proven correct in the past.

This has the usual smell of the "Tell them the Amerikkans and Jooos did it - they'll suck it up!" crowd. Indeed.
Posted by: .com   2004-05-24 3:26:02 PM  

#1  Note: no video of the attack itself, no connection between the footage of the party and the attack or its aftermath.

The press seems to be going out of their way to make this a story.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-05-24 3:23:24 PM  

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