Another wedding incident

[Donut]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: quote: FACT FOUR: no instruments, party items, presents, traditional feast foods, or wedding paraphanalia could be found on site. what was found were more than 100 sets of normal iraqi clothing, equipment to make false ID Cards and passports, and weapons.

AND -- Ta-Da -- Terrorist Manuals!!!! I used to come to IWF to geet a balanced view vis-a-vis the American media. Now, all I get here are the lies of Europe and the Arab world -- which are quickly becoming the same in my mind. I'm getting so sick of this place. I can't believe it caused me to waste my time reading about this crap. [/QUOTE]head, sand, ostrich!

[promethius9594]

well, i guess we'll all just have to settle for a don't know on this one, at best.

rakiti, or 80 kilometers from rakiti? oh wait, now its 250 miles from rakiti???

first all buildings were destroyed, then no buildings but tents, then one building and some tents?

guns for celebrating then lots of guns, then no guns whatsoever?

well, seems the worldwide media is completely unreliable in their research on this story... go along believing the worst about america, but that isnt going to improve how americans think about you guys either...

[shamrock_uk]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/3741223.stm

'Wedding video' clouds US denials The video showed decorated vehicles driving in the desert A videotape has been broadcast which purports to show before-and-after footage of a wedding which Iraqis say the US bombed, killing about 40.

Now this is the funny bit....

The US has insisted it was responding to fire from foreign fighters, but its chief military spokesman in Iraq conceded on Saturday that a celebration may have been taking place at the site. "Bad people have parties too," said Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt.

Ahhh...I just love the USA = good, Rest of World = bad syndrome. It's so refreshing.

Worth reading all of it in any case, it covers the details of who's in the video, who's confirmed dead etc.

EDIT: Same story in Fox suprisingly, can't find it on CNN though:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120721,00.html

Notable quotes:

"There was no evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration," - Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt

But video that APTN shot a day after the attack shows fragments of musical instruments, pots and pans and brightly colored beddings used for celebrations, scattered around the bombed out tent.

How can we reconcile the version of events given by the military and the AP cameraman on the ground videotaping the scene the next day apart from bare-faced lying from the military?

Unless of course you believe that between the end of the attack around 4am they drove 80miles to the nearest city, bought lots of instruments etc, drove back and smashed them all up just in time for the camera crews to arrive that day in a cunning plot to frame the US military.

When we treat what the US military tells us with extreme scepticism, you have to understand that they've been caught out so many times before that their version of events is often divorced from reality.

EDIT 2:

Also on abcnews http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040524_138.html

Notable quotes:

An AP reporter and photographer, who interviewed more than a dozen survivors a day after the bombing, were able to identify many of them on the wedding party video which runs for several hours.

Also

Kimmitt has denied finding evidence that any children died in the raid although a "handful of women" perhaps four to six were "caught up in the engagement."

which can be contrasted with this:

However, an AP reporter obtained names of at least 10 children who relatives said had died. Bodies of five of them were filmed by APTN when the survivors took them to Ramadi for burial Wednesday. Iraqi officials said at least 13 children were killed. Mourners say the bride and groom were killed.

Or perhaps they've been killing their own children just to make the US look bad.

[ 05-24-2004, 07:20 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

[promethius9594]

okay, so we've seen how the media wants to paint the picture (which doesnt account for any of the ID Cards, terrorist manuals, weapons, clothing, passport making supplies, etc)... lets look at a different painting:

terrorists are having a celebration after their meeting. they see american troops approaching and open fire. american soldiers respond by calling in an air strike. end of attack. weapons are found all over the place. so are passports, ID making equipment, terrorist manuals, and iraqi sets of clothing for various people. nobody at the "celebration" was carrying any ID. Weapons and ID equipment/terrorist manuals are confiscated, that type of material is not left laying in the middle of the dessert. then the media shows up.

10-12 survivors of the incident, terrorists from the site, decide that they will use the cover they have prepared... that a wedding was bombed out, instead of the actual terrorist meeting being held. they release a video more than a month old of children being buried in a village far away, spliced with some video of the actual dead from the scene. unfortunately, no one can even get straight a simple detail like whether or not the bride and groom survived, and their media story is full of all sorts of holes.

the media doesnt do any research at all. they report a story that cant even agree on the location of the incident, how many died, whether the bride and groom (two essential players in any wedding) are alive, and if there were any weapons present.

CNN is shown pictures of onscene, during the attack, imediately following, and shown the evidence confiscated and concludes: not a wedding.

AP goes to the site... looks at what the military left behind after thourough site neutralization, and at a creatively spliced tape and concludes: they hate americans.

and so you see, its all about how the media CHOOSES to spin the product. the story i just created is as likely as anything the confused media has reported.

[shamrock_uk]

It would be easily cleared up if the military showed us video footage of these fake passports and the passport making machinery, the terrorist manuals etc. So far we just have their word, versus a ton of evidence and eyewitness accounts saying otherwise. Do you have a link to the pictures that you say CNN was shown to prove it wasn't a wedding?

they release a video more than a month old of children being buried in a village far away

Read again:

Bodies of five of them were filmed by APTN when the survivors took them to Ramadi for burial Wednesday.

Not 'released' or taken a month ago, but filmed on wednesday.

And as for your point about how the media chooses to spin the story, I quite agree with your caution which is why I got sources from a few news stations. Fox has been the most biased news stations covering the war and a staunch supporter the whole way through, so why would it choose to run a story damaging the American heroes if it was based on such shaky evidence as you suggest?

[ 05-24-2004, 09:55 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by Donut: head, sand, ostrich!

Again, if this were true, why would I continue to torture myself with all the Eurotwit muck on this forum?