George Bush's War! Part 3 - Lies & Deception

I found this wonderful little tidbit while over at Crooks and Liars (one of my favourite Blogs) it led me too digbys blog and from there, was a link to a News Article and a very interesting article put together by a retired Air Force Colonel.
It follows on from the previous article on this blog regarding Karl Rove and his mates in the White House.

Read this (pdf) report called "Truth from These Podia: Summary of a Study of Strategic Influence, Perception Management, Strategic Information Warfare and Strategic Psychological Operations in Gulf II," written by Colonel Sam Gardiner who identified 50 false news stories created and leaked by a secretive White House propaganda apparatus. Here's a news story about it:

According to Gardiner, "It was not bad intelligence" that lead to the quagmire in Iraq, "It was an orchestrated effort [that] began before the war" that was designed to mislead the public and the world. Gardiner's research lead him to conclude that the US and Britain had conspired at the highest levels to plant "stories of strategic influence" that were known to be false.

The Times of London described the $200-million-plus US operation as a "meticulously planned strategy to persuade the public, the Congress, and the allies of the need to confront the threat from Saddam Hussein."

The multimillion-dollar propaganda campaign run out of the White House and Defence Department was, in Gardiner's final assessment "irresponsible in parts" and "might have been illegal."

"Washington and London did not trust the peoples of their democracies to come to the right decisions," Gardiner explains. Consequently, "Truth became a casualty. When truth is a casualty, democracy receives collateral damage." For the first time in US history, "we allowed strategic psychological operations to become part of public affairs... [W]hat has happened is that information warfare, strategic influence, [and] strategic psychological operations pushed their way into the important process of informing the peoples of our two democracies."

It was this story that the White House didn't want exposed and when Joe Wilson started making noises about Dick Cheney and yellowcake, they got very nervous. After all, the WMD's weren't turning up in Iraq. And this is when the Traitors in the White House decided to release the name of Joe Wilson's wife to the New York Times. (read previous Karl Rove article)

The Text Article here.
Excerpt from the published paper.
By Gar Smith / The-Edge
November 7, 2003

Part One

A Strategy of Lies: How the White House Fed the Public a Steady Diet of Falsehoods

Colonel Sam Gardiner (USAF, Ret.) has identified 50 false news stories created and leaked by a secretive White House propaganda apparatus. Bush administration officials are probably having second thoughts about their decision to play hardball with former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Joe Wilson is a contender. When you play hardball with Joe, you better be prepared to deal with some serious rebound.

Gar Smith is Editor Emeritus of Earth Island Journal, Roving Editor at The-Edge (www.the-edge.org) and co-founder of Environmentalists Against War(www.envirosagainstwar.org).


The Article is a very interesting read and although it comes as no surprise it's always satisfying to know ones suspicions are on the money.

Gardiner's findings have not yet received due attention from the US media and with good cause. Gardiner's investigation revealed that the mainstream media not only failed to stand up to the government and insist on the truth, they all too often submitted in complicit cooperation with the government.
Even in peacetime, the corporate media is an "embedded" media.

Gardiner has some hard questions for America's press barons:

"How was it that the Washington Post took classified information on the
Jessica Lynch story and published it just the way the individual leaking it
in the Pentagon wanted?"

"Why did the New York Times let itself be used by 'intelligence officials'
on stories?"

"Why did the Washington Times never seem to question a leak they were
given?"

I have a question of my own, If the War in Iraq (read Invasion to plunder their resources) was such a Noble and Glorious Deed, then why did the White House feel the need to tell so many lies?

I suppose I'll never understand why people accept such behaviour or why the General Public are so gullible in believing such obvious misleading falsehoods and misrepresentations from the very people they VOTED for.
I hope every single person involved in orchestrating this War is held accountable for their actions (and all the actions associated with it), if not from the Judicial process then by the God that George Bush so often conveniently uses the name of.