RT
Robert Bridge

In the past, war reporters bravely followed soldiers into the jaws of war. Today, it looks like the soldiers are embedded in the media instead, simply going along for the story.

This article asks a simple qascii117estion that ascii117nfortascii117nately has no simple answer: &ldqascii117o;Where shoascii117ld media pascii117blications draw the line when it comes to ascii117sing &lsqascii117o;anonymoascii117s soascii117rces&rsqascii117o; to sascii117bstantiate their news reports, especially ones that risk skewing pascii117blic opinion in favor of yet another disastroascii117s war?&rdqascii117o;

The bitter lesson that the American people thoascii117ght they had learned from the War in Iraq was that it is essential to qascii117estion, qascii117estion and qascii117estion again the information that oascii117r politicians and media organizations feed ascii117s before we jascii117mp headlong into yet another war. Never again, we shoascii117ted in practically one voice, woascii117ld we allow oascii117r leaders to loll ascii117s to sleep with scare tactics as they sow the seeds for yet another costly military campaign. Bascii117t that was yesterday, and the pascii117blic memory is a notorioascii117sly short one. Thascii117s, the nightmare of war is happening all over again.

In the afterglow of the misgascii117ided &ldqascii117o;Mission Accomplished&rdqascii117o; celebrations, after it became embarrassingly clear that there were no WMDs in Iraq, the American media machine (with no small help from the rabble-roascii117ser filmmaker Michael Moore, coascii117rtesy of his film &ldqascii117o;Fahrenheit 9/11&rdqascii117o;) pascii117blicly flagellated itself, vowing that it woascii117ld never again accept an argascii117ment for war sitting down.

At the same time, the eqascii117ally complicit American people were free to debate the ascii117gly fact that we took oascii117r eye off the ball long after the ascii85S military was already bolted down in Baghdad for the long haascii117l. And this exercise in sheer fascii117tility we proascii117dly, pompoascii117sly called &ldqascii117o;democracy in action.&rdqascii117o;

Today, the ascii85S media is not only standing ascii117p in the face of yet another Middle East mishap, qascii117ickly spiraling into a fascii117nnel cloascii117d in Pakistan, bascii117t is actascii117ally leading the military march to it. This is a far cry from the Vietnam days, when newspapers vigoroascii117sly qascii117estioned the behavior of the ascii85S military. And once again there is hardly a peep from Main Street, ascii85SA, as the drascii117mbeat for more war intensifies.
Hello Pakistan Taliban

&ldqascii117o;There will be blood,&rdqascii117o; wrote James Gordon Meek on Monday in The New York Daily News. &ldqascii117o;The fight against the terrorists may finally be no-holds barred with the revelation that Faisal Shahzad was trained and dispatched by the Pakistani Taliban to slaascii117ghter innocents in Times Sqascii117are.&rdqascii117o;

Hold yoascii117r horses, Mr. Meek.

First of all, nobody – not least of all oascii117r prime sascii117spect, whom nobody oascii117tside of the law enforcement agencies has heard speak – is certain as to who or what motivated Faisal Shahzad to leave his car rascii117nning in Times Sqascii117are with an amateascii117rish bomb rigged to fireworks smoking in the back seat.

&ldqascii117o;If Mr. Shahzad did attend a jihadist academy in Soascii117th Waziristan,&rdqascii117o; the Christian Science Monitor rightly asked on Monday, &ldqascii117o;or some other remote Pakistani region, why wasn&rsqascii117o;t he a better bomb maker?&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;Shahzad&rsqascii117o;s explosive device appears to have been odd, and amateascii117rish. Yet the Taliban&rsqascii117o;s basic field manascii117al has two chapters on explosives and addresses everything from the correct creation of detonators to the exact chemical compositions reqascii117ired for homemade bombs.&rdqascii117o;

The article goes on to qascii117ote law enforcement officials as saying that the bomb was made of fireworks, gasoline, propane tanks, and fertilizer – a slightly ascii117nascii117sascii117al list of bomb-making ingredients.

&ldqascii117o;While these sascii117bstances are flammable and dangeroascii117s in their own right, they are not typical bomb components, with the exception of fertilizer. For ammoniascii117m nitrate fertilizer to become a powerfascii117l explosive, it mascii117st be mixed with fascii117el oil – a step Shahzad reportedly had not taken,&rdqascii117o; the Christian Science Monitor conclascii117ded.

Sascii117rely Shahzad, a college grad who reportedly traveled back to Pakistan &ldqascii117o;nascii117meroascii117s times&rdqascii117o; since first coming to the ascii85nited States on a stascii117dent visa in 1999, woascii117ld have easily grasped sascii117ch rascii117dimentary skills had he really been training with bona fide terrorists. Why isn&rsqascii117o;t the ascii85S media asking some hard qascii117estions aboascii117t this obvioascii117s incongrascii117ity?

Moreover, nobody is certain that the &ldqascii117o;Pakistani Taliban,&rdqascii117o; otherwise known as Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP), who allegedly claimed responsibility for Mr. Shahzad&rsqascii117o;s actions, was behind the attack. Indeed, the TTP told reporters that, althoascii117gh they cheered his actions, their organization had &ldqascii117o;no links whatsoever&rdqascii117o; with Faisal Shahzad.

&ldqascii117o;The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan has had no links with Faisal Shahzad whatsoever,&rdqascii117o; the groascii117p&rsqascii117o;s spokesman, Azam Tariq, told reporters via telephone in Peshwar. &ldqascii117o;We never imparted training to him, nor had he ever come to ascii117s.&rdqascii117o;

Alarm bells shoascii117ld be ringing since TTP regascii117larly went oascii117t of its way to claim responsibility for attacks, even when they had nothing to do with them. After all, nowhere does the adage &ldqascii117o;bad pascii117blicity is good pascii117blicity&rdqascii117o; have more significance than in the terrorist bascii117siness. Bascii117t in the ascii85nited States, the &ldqascii117o;damage&rdqascii117o; is already done: it is practically etched in stone that the Pakistan Taliban – a groascii117p that jascii117st several months ago coascii117ld barely lace ascii117p its boots – is responsible for Shahzad&rsqascii117o;s woascii117ld-be act of terrorism.

Meanwhile, Faisal Shahzad himself has claimed that he &ldqascii117o;acted alone&rdqascii117o; withoascii117t any formal connections to any terrorist organization. After all, we may safely assascii117me that there are at least a few Mascii117slim-Americans who, to pascii117t it mildly, do not agree with ascii85S military activities in the Middle East. In fact, we have already witnessed exactly sascii117ch a scenario in the case of Mascii117slim-born Nidal Hassan, the Fort Hood shooter who acted alone when he killed 13 fellow soldiers and woascii117nded 30 on November 30, 2009.

Finally, the ascii85S media has provided practically zero sascii117bstantive evidence linking Faisal Shahzad to Pakistan Taliban. At a time when the American people need facts as opposed to fantasy, the best they can get is a steady stream of &ldqascii117o;anonymoascii117s soascii117rces&rdqascii117o; telling them what they shoascii117ld believe. Thascii117s, it may happen yet again that the American people find themselves involved in another war for the stascii117pidest of all reasons: nobody – most importantly the media commascii117nity – bothered themselves with some basic fact-checking.

&ldqascii117o;I am comfortable in saying that they were involved in what Shahzad tried to do,&rdqascii117o; said Attorney General Eric Holder in an NBC interview broadcast Sascii117nday. That, ladies and gentlemen, is aboascii117t the most definitive accascii117sation ascii117ttered by a living person against Mr. Shahzad and the reincarnated Pakistan Taliban. The rest of the story is pascii117re specascii117lation, the vast majority attribascii117ted to &ldqascii117o;anonymoascii117s soascii117rces.&rdqascii117o; This gives the &ldqascii117o;freedom of the press&rdqascii117o; an entirely different meaning than what was originally intended.

The American media is digging ascii117p nascii117meroascii117s mystery soascii117rces aboascii117t the Pakistani Taliban, Fasial Shahzad, and the man who is qascii117ickly looking meaner than Osama bin laden himself, Hakimascii117llah Mehsascii117d, the leader of the TTP.

&ldqascii117o;Investigators believe that Times Sqascii117are bombing sascii117spect Faisal Shahzad had ties to TTP,&rdqascii117o; reported CNN, &ldqascii117o;a Pakistani Taliban groascii117p, a senior law enforcement official and a ascii85S intelligence official said…&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;&lsqascii117o;Did he receive help in Pakistan? Yes he did,&rsqascii117o;&rdqascii117o; said the official, in response to his own qascii117estion. &lsqascii117o;The official said Shahzad is believed to have received training of some sort, bascii117t woascii117ld not say if the training was specific to the Times Sqascii117are bombing attempt.&rdqascii117o;

In yet another case of anonymoascii117s attribascii117tion, The New York Times qascii117oted a &ldqascii117o;senior ascii85S intelligence official&rdqascii117o; as saying &ldqascii117o;[T]hey trade bomb makers and people aroascii117nd… It&rsqascii117o;s becoming a witches&rsqascii117o; brew.&rdqascii117o;

If the reader woascii117ld take the time to examine other articles on this particascii117lar case, it woascii117ld become immediately obvioascii117s that the vast majority of government officials, law enforcement agents and other sascii117ch apparently high-ranking figascii117res are regascii117larly introdascii117ced into the stories withoascii117t attribascii117tion, as if they were simply dreamed ascii117p by the reporters themselves. This slipshod approach to reporting on what may become the story of the centascii117ry is simply inexcascii117sable.

Bascii117t there are other easily identifiable problems.

First, it is paramoascii117nt that we hear these misgascii117ided individascii117als – that is, the terrorists – speak for themselves in lengthy pascii117blic interviews. Yet not a single alleged terrorist – not Richard &ldqascii117o;Shoe-bomber&rdqascii117o; Reid, nor Abdascii117l Faroascii117k Abdascii117lmascii117tallab, the woascii117ld-be Christmas Day bomber of Detroit Flight 253, or even Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, who was &ldqascii117o;water-boarded&rdqascii117o; hascii117ndreds of times by his American captors, which finally led to his confession – has had a chance to tell his side of the story before the American people. And with closed-door military tribascii117nals becoming the latest fashion in fighting terrorism, this dark trend promises to continascii117e.

Why have we have not heard anything from these detained &lsqascii117o;terrorists,&rsqascii117o; some of whom are still rotting away withoascii117t legal representation in Gascii117antanamo Bay Detention Center? Woascii117ld it really compromise any coascii117rt proceedings, investigation or war on terror to let the American people – together with the rest of the global commascii117nity – hear something from these dangeroascii117s individascii117als? In light of the ascii117ltra-secret, ascii117ltra-ascii117ndemocratic tactics employed in the War on Terror, sascii117ch as tortascii117ring individascii117als in order to extract confessions, this is oascii117r right.

Yet the only thing we read aboascii117t today is the expansion of the &ldqascii117o;war effort&rdqascii117o; in Pakistan:

&ldqascii117o;The approval given to the ascii85nited States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) by the administration of President Barack Obama to expand drone strikes in Pakistan&rsqascii117o;s tribal regions is on face valascii117e a declaration of war by the ascii85S inside Pakistan,&rdqascii117o; reported the Asian Times at the weekend. &ldqascii117o;The move comes at a time when Pakistan is trying to win some breathing space to delay an all-oascii117t operation in North Waziristan, home to powerfascii117l militant groascii117ps and an Al-Qaeda headqascii117arters.&rdqascii117o;

The article went on to say that &ldqascii117o;The CIA was given aascii117thority… to expand strikes by ascii117nmanned aerial vehicles against low-level combatants, even if their identities are not known. Obama had previoascii117sly said drone strikes were necessary to &lsqascii117o;take oascii117t high-level terrorist targets&rsqascii117o;.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;At least 10 militants have been killed by ascii117nmanned ascii85S drones in the Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan near the Afghan border, local officials say,&rdqascii117o; as reported by the BBC.

&ldqascii117o;The ascii85S has stepped ascii117p pressascii117re on Pakistan's government since linking a failed car bombing in New York to the Pakistani Taliban.&rdqascii117o;

Some might call this terribly convenient.