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| 'Time' for a Haditha hoax? |
Itsdb |
06/09/06 |
From the Sweetness & Light website:
Time correspondent Tim McGirk, who broke the Haditha story, said that in the weeks before publication, he had lobbied editors to use the word “massacre” in the March 27 story.
“That was a battle I lost,” Mr. McGirk said by phone May 30 from Jerusalem, where he is currently based. “I think the editors felt ‘massacre’ was too heavy of a word. They didn’t want to use it; they felt there was some justification for what had happened.”
“I think it was definitely a massacre,” Mr. McGirk said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Time’s “Corrections” About Haditha
This is a now all too familiar pattern with our one party media.
The following "corrections" have been added to the very bottom of Time’s two blockbuster exclusives on Haditha in their current online versions:
Collateral Damage or Civilian Massacre in Haditha?
Last November, U.S. Marines killed 15 Iraqi civilians in their homes. Was it self-defense, an accident or cold-blooded revenge? A Time exclusive
By TIM MCGIRK / BAGHDAD
Sunday, Mar. 19, 2006
In the original version of this story, TIME reported that "a day after the incident, a Haditha journalism student videotaped the scene at the local morgue and at the homes where the killings had occurred. The video was obtained by the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, which cooperates with the internationally respected Human Rights Watch, and has been shared with TIME." In fact, Human Rights Watch has no ties or association with the Hammurabi Human Rights Group. TIME regrets the error.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1174649-1,00.html
One Morning in Haditha
U.S. Marines killed 15 Iraqi civilians in their homes last November. Was it self-defense, an accident or cold-blooded revenge?
By TIM MCGIRK/ BAGHDAD
Mar. 27, 2006
In the original version of this story, TIME reported that "a day after the incident, a Haditha journalism student videotaped the scene at the local morgue and at the homes where the killings had occurred. The video was obtained by the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, which cooperates with the internationally respected Human Rights Watch, and has been shared with TIME." In fact, Human Rights Watch has no ties or association with the Hammurabi Human Rights Group. TIME regrets the error.
http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1174682, 00.html
In fact, Time had originally reported that it was Human Rights Watch who had provided the tape. They then retracted that and claimed that it came from Hammurabi which works with Human Rights Watch. And now they have backed off even that.
Note that even now Time still does not correct the intentionally false portrayal of the source of the videotape that they gave in all of their original stories and interviews.
Time’s source, Thaer Thabit al-Hadithi, is not a "young man." He is not a "budding journalism student."
And al-Haditha is not separate and apart from the Hammurabi Human Rights Group. Nor is he a man who wanted to remain anonymous because he feared for his safety.
Al-Haditha is 43 years old. He "created" Hammurabi 16 months ago. (Before that he worked directly under the head of Haditha’s hospital, Dr. Walid al-Obeidi, who pronounced that all the victims had been shot at close range.)
In fact, al-Haditha is one of Hammurabi’s only two members. He serves as its "Secretary General" while the only other member, Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani, performs as its "Chairman.")
Al-Haditha is the one and only person behind this tape. He made it. And he sat on it for four months before turning it over to Time magazine.
But it looks like Time did not consider these mundane facts about the maker of this tape compelling enough. So they made up additional romantic details and invented the involvement of the "internationally respected Human Rights Watch" to burnish the video’s provenance.
It’s something Time does on a regular basis.
Here is another "correction" that is now buried at the bottom of another Time Haditha story from last month. It is by Matthew Cooper of Plame/Rove notoriety.
The Haditha Scandal’s Other Casualty
With the Pentagon completing its probe into whether U.S. forces massacred civilians one November morning in Western Iraq, the damage to America’s image abroad could take a further hit
By MATTHEW COOPER/WASHINGTON
Posted Friday, May. 26, 2006
In the original version of this story, TIME reported that "one of the most damning pieces of evidence investigators have in their possession, John Sifton of Human Rights Watch told Time’s Tim McGirk, is a photo, taken by a Marine with his cell phone that shows Iraqis kneeling — and thus posing no threat — before they were shot." While Sifton did tell TIME that there was photographic evidence, taken by Marines, he had only heard about the specific content of the photos from reports done by NBC, and had no firsthand knowledge. TIME regrets the error.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1198843,00.html
Never mind that now "one of the most damning pieces of evidence" has already taken on the mantle of historical fact. Time regrets the error.
So much so that they once again buried the correction at the bottom of its online archive of the story which few will revisit.
Clearly Time thinks very highly of the Soros-funded (and viscerally anti-American) Human Rights Watch. They use every opportunity to cite HRW to bolster their claims, even if they have to make things up.
Apparently Time believes invoking "the internationally respected Human Rights Watch" gives their questionably sourced facts credibility
And so what it if they aren’t involved?
Time can always sneak in a retraction later when nobody is looking, once the story has "gotten legs."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why Did “Rights Group” Sit On Its Haditha Story?
The man Time Magazine first described as a "budding journalism student" Thaer Thabit al-Hadithi is now portrayed as an "Iraq Investigator" by the DNC’s Associated Press.
But excerpts from the AP’s article raises some questions about him and his group’s only other member, Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani:
Iraq Investigator Tells AP About Haditha
June 7, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A small group of U.S. Marines alleged to have killed up to two dozen Iraqi civilians conducted a house-to-house hunt that stretched over three hours, while other Marines in Haditha did not intervene, according to an Iraqi human rights investigator.
The Associated Press interview of the activist is the most detailed account yet of Iraqi accusations that Marines went on a rampage after a comrade was killed by a bomb. Two separate U.S. military investigations of the incident are under way.
Thaer al-Hadithi, a member and spokesman for the Hammurabi human rights association, a Sunni Muslim group, recounted with the help of a satellite map when and where Iraqi civilians cowered and sometimes died.
The case, which came to public attention two months ago because of a video released by the Hammurabi group, is threatening to further weaken popular support for the Iraq war in the United States and has tarnished the military’s image in Iraq and around the world…
Hammurabi chairman Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani told the AP on Tuesday that his group was investigating other violations of Iraqi civil rights by Western forces in the mainly Sunni Arab provinces of Anbar and Salaheddin to the west and north of Baghdad. He said the group also was looking into violations by Iraqi security forces, militias and tribal clans.
"We are also against terrorism," he said…
Al-Hadithi did not attend any of the meetings between victims’ families and the U.S. military, but he based his account of what the Marines officer said on briefings from Hammurabi’s Haditha representative and conversations with the families.
Al-Mashhadani, Hammurabi’s chairman, who lectures on economics at Baghdad’s al-Mustansiriyah University, said the organization was publicizing the Haditha incident to make sure it’s not repeated…
But back in March when this story first was reported by Time Magazine we were told by Time reporter Aparisim Ghosh (via Democracy Now!) that Thaer Thabit (aka Thabet) al-Hadithi did not want his name known out of concern for his personal safety:
AMY GOODMAN: And then, this Haditha journalism student, who is this student?
APARISIM GHOSH: We’d rather not say, for his own protection, but he’s a young local man. It’s not uncommon in Iraq for young people to have video cameras and cameras, and there’s so much going on in their lives that they have plenty to shoot.
AMY GOODMAN: And you got a hold of this, or Hammurabi Human Rights got a hold of this.
APARISIM GHOSH: He brought the tape to Hammurabi Human Rights, which is a local human rights group, and they brought it to us once they found out that we were inquiring about this.
Why start a human rights group if you want to remain anonymous? And why did Time pretend their source was young? Why did they pretend he had no involvement with Hammurabi? (When in fact he is its founder.)
But that is just the start of the many questionable aspects of Thabit’s accounts.
Bear in mind that this "budding journalism student" waited until the next day to videotape this alleged atrocity, which supposedly happened on his very doorstep.
Note that this same "budding journalism student" and self-proclaimed human rights watcher did not bother to turn over his video to a media outlet or a real human rights group from November 2005 until March 2006. A four month delay.
That’s how eager they were to make sure such a crime is never again repeated.
Now look at Thabit’s partner at Hammurabi, Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani.
Al-Mashhadani is described in a December 15, 2005 article from the Institute For War And Peace as an election monitor. In fact, he expressed great satisfaction with the turnout in the Iraqi elections:
Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani, an election monitor in Baghdad with the non-governmental organisation Hamurabi, said no major violations occurred in Baghdad. He expected 90 per cent turnout in Sunni Arab areas.
(Which is quite ironic, given that only 150 people out of 90,000 dared to risk their lives to vote in the earlier October referendum in Haditha.)
But if Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani was talking to the media in December about the election turnout, why didn’t he tell them then about this alleged atrocity at Haditha that had just occurred three weeks before?
Wasn’t that the purpose in starting the Hammurabi group?
It just doesn’t make sense.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the way, Time's 'Haditha' reporter Tim McGirk is also known for his Thanksgiving with the Taliban.
Comments? |
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 06/12/06 12:37 pm:
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![]() Clarification/Follow-up by Itsdb on 06/12/06 2:06 pm:
Those cartoons, man are they right on. I've been asking the critics all along what gives them the right to be judge, jury and executioner - and then have the chutzpah to pretend to be a defender of our rights. It is beyond me how the hypocrisy escapes them, and it's about time those hypocrites realize the burden they're placing on those protecting their raggedy butts is 'cruel and unusual punishment.'
The AP does report that the lawyer of one of the accused says his client is indeed shackled when out and in solitary when inside.
"Sullivan said his client is being held in solitary confinement in the brig at Camp Pendleton and is allowed one brief exercise period per day, during which he remains shackled at the hands, waist and ankles. Anytime he walks in the recreational yard, he is escorted by at least one military prison guard who grasps onto his waist shackles at all times. Sullivan said this was "cruel and unusual."
Also, and attorney for the sergeant in charge is speaking out. It's a shame he even has to in this country where you're supposedly 'innocent until proven guilty.'
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