How the Pentagon planted a false story

Source: Asia Times/Inter Press Service

How the Pentagon planted a false story
By Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - Senior Pentagon officials, evidently reflecting a broader administration policy decision, used an off-the-record Pentagon briefing to turn the January 6 US-Iranian incident in the Strait of Hormuz into a sensational story demonstrating Iran's military aggressiveness, a reconstruction of the events following the incident shows.

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Then the navy disseminated a short video into which was spliced the audio of a phone call warning that US warships would "explode" in "a few seconds". Although it was ostensibly a navy production, Inter Press Service (IPS) has learned that the ultimate decision on its content was made by top officials of the Defense Department.

***

A separate audio recording of that voice, which came across the VHS channel open to anyone with access to it, was spliced into a video on which the voice apparently could not be heard. That was a political decision, and Lieutenant Colonel Mark Ballesteros of the Pentagon's Public Affairs Office told IPS the decision on what to include in the video was "a collaborative effort of leadership here, the Central Command and navy leadership in the field".

"Leadership here", of course, refers to the secretary of defense and other top policymakers at the department. An official in the US Navy Office of Information in Washington, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that decision was made in the office of the secretary of defense.

Read more: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JA17Ak03.html

It's a case of Spy vs. Spy, where the Powers-That-Be try to pull tricks, and the rest of the world, empowered by the Internet and an excessive level of "pissed-off" -edness, catches them with pants down.

Now we have to figure out how to pull tricks on the Powers-That-Be so that they lose what they abuse.

or the gang that couldn't shoot straight.

DU, the best bullshit detector in the World.

I love it. :rofl:

eom

Only because they knew our media would behave like the lapdogs they are shown to be. This wouldn't have worked at all if the media took the info and then processed it. Of course, they have to play against each other with I got it first so I win game. These media outlets wonder why their viewership is done. Ha, they are making themselves irrelevant.

They prefer to whine about the dirty fucking hippies and the irresponsible bloggers, who just keep getting proven right time after time. If any of them stopped to think about it for even a few moments, they would see how this corrupt administration plays them like a fucking Stradivarius.

Or, maybe they're fully aware of it, and they like it that way. Those big fat paychecks are sure nice.

"What the Hell. If the Deserter-in-Chief can lie lie lie, then we can lie lie lie, right? Smirk."

- Pentagon

They mean VHF, for very high frequency, something between 30 MHz and 300 MHz. No comment on the rest of the story.

features great articles written by top-notch journalists. Gareth Porter is a regular contributor as are Jim Lobe and Pepe Escobar.

from sources other than the government filtered, watered down US media.

My second thought was, every time someone says something like this, they are accused of supporting the "enemy". We are constantly being put in this position, and it stinks.

This is Tillman and Lynch all over again and it seemed like it at the time.

ignorant warmongering nation.

Can't trust America; can't believe a word America says.

Yeah, that's the way to "make us safer".

played a mayor role in the decision to plant this false story? I thought that this was a significant new development.

:shrug:

The whole incident is so absurd that no one outside the US corporate media took it seriously.

Someone cooked this "confrontation at sea" meme up within the Pentagon PA office, and everyone decided to run with it. Made the lame duck Prez happy, no real harm to regional stability. Win-win - they figured, why not?

Just another day's work at the Ministry of Truth.

Kyodo News Service
Posted : Wednesday Jan 16, 2008 12:03:36 EST

TAIPEI — A Chinese attack submarine and destroyer shadowed U.S. warships in November in the Taiwan Strait, sparking a 28-hour standoff that brought the group to a battle-ready halt in the tense waters, a report in a Taiwan daily said Tuesday.

The confrontation occurred as the Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and other ships in its battle group were heading back to Japan following China’s sudden cancellation of a long-scheduled holiday port call in Hong Kong, the China Times said, citing U.S. military sources.

The carrier strike group encountered Chinese destroyer Shenzhen and a Song-class sub in the strait on Nov. 23, causing the group to halt and ready for battle, as the Chinese vessels also stopped amid the 28-hour confrontation, the Chinese-language daily reported.

The Kitty Hawk battle group had planned to pass the Thanksgiving holiday in Hong Kong as it had done in previous years, but China refused it entry without giving a reason.

snip
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/01/kyo_china_080115/

A november story that never saw the light of day, only the cancelled thanksgiving port callwas headlines.
But China plays a different game

blabbering about the Evil Iran.