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Colin Powell and CNN: misleading the public of the world
then admitting it years later (see below).
"February 5, 2003 Colin Powell addressed the UN Security Council on Iraq and falsely said that a tape recording he held revealed that Osama bin Laden was pals with Saddam Hussein. In fact, a translation showed that in the tape, bin Laden called for Hussein’s assassination, as reported in Wilson’s Almanac."
From Wilson's Almanac Book of Days for February 5
And the biggest scoop I never had
By Pip Wilson
On Thursday, February 13, 2003, I awoke to a busy day as I was about to publish in Wilson's Almanac an article on the Sydney Hilton bombing on its 25th anniversary that day. When I turned on Esmeralda, my computer, a tale of subterfuge unfolded that equals the Hilton case for political intrigue and corruption.
In my in-tray was an email from Matthew Riemer, Yellow Times Director of Operations and Public Relations. The prestigious website Yellow Times had inexplicably been knocked off the Internet, just when it was gaining a name for top-quality investigative reporting into America's Iraq war plans. I had already published my own piece, Myths of the War on Terrorism and Iraq, but was still online.
Riemer had a big story, a huge story, and YT couldn't get it out. Could I help?
"Pip," Matthew wrote, "We are still releasing time sensitive articles! But since we don't have a site, we are relying on you!" Matthew attached an investigative article of great historical importance, and when I saw it, there was no doubt what had to be done. I published it that day in Edition 856 of Wilson's Almanac ezine.
Below is a transcript of that edition of the ezine in which the Almanac, thanks to journalist Firas Al-Atraqchi, revealed that Colin Powell had blatantly given disinformation to the UN Security Council in order to aid the war plans of the George W Bush administration. Unfortunately, despite Wilson's Almanac being, as far as we know, the first to break this very important news, the mainstream media generally ignored it. This was so, even though I posted the story to more than 100 media outlets that day. To Australia's ABC alone, I sent the information to 18 email addresses but the important story was ignored. Now, of course, Powell's disinformation is common knowledge, like the whole disinformation campaign waged by the Bush administration in order to illegally invade oil-rich Iraq.
Read on, the very news release I sent it out on the same morning that I received the Yellow Times request:
Then, take a minute to watch this clip
"He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction."
Colin Powell, February, 2001
See him say it, and see and hear Condoleezza Rice make substantially the same assertion at http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/multimedia/powell_condy_on_wmds.wmv (it's 1,090 kb).Please don't hot link it on your site. Download it and upload it to your server, or else give some support (I'm poor and bandwidth is starting to affect my pocket) at the Support page.
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Friends,The article below is vitally important to the credibility of the US administration's claim that bin Laden and Hussein are linked, giving the US a reason for war.As the prestigious Yellow Times website http://www.YellowTimes.org this week has been removed from the WWW,Matthew Riemer, Yellow Times Director of Operations and Public Relations has personally asked me to spread this information. (This article also at http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/yellow.html.) Read on; it is stunning.----- Original Message -----From: Matthew RiemerSent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 4:18 AMSubject: Bin Laden's recent speech/ YellowTimes.org
Pip,
We are still releasing time sensitive articles! But since we don't have a site, we are relying on you!
Below I included an article on an important issue. You are probably aware of the fact that the Bush administration tried to link bin Laden's latest speech with Saddam Hussein. The administration claims that this speech proves the fact that al-Qaeda and Saddam are linked.
CNN also broadcast the tape, but only showing excerpts.
If CNN were to have analyzed the original Arabic, they would have seen that bin Laden actually calls for the death of Saddam Hussein! Yet the Bush administration still touts the speech as if it is giving them a mandate to attack Iraq.
Firas Al-Atraqchi, YT columnist, puts this all down on paper in an excellent article about this. I included it below.
Thanks,
Matthew***************************************Matthew RiemerDirector of Operations and Public RelationsYellowTimes.org Columnist (United States)"Alternative News & Views"mriemer@YellowTimes.org***************************************
Misleading the Public
By Firas Al-Atraqchi
YellowTimes.org Columnist (Canada)
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell dropped a bombshell at a Congressional hearing on Iraq and revealed that he had a transcript of an "upcoming" audio message from Osama bin Laden that betrays the links between bin Laden and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
However, the White House may have put its foot in its mouth this time around.
Upon careful scrutiny of the audio message from bin Laden (and broadcast at 3pm EST on the Arabic News Network Al-Jazeerah), it appears the Bush administration may have been so desperate to pin anything on Saddam and bin Laden that they did not wait to actually hear the contents of the message, nor provide adequate and reliable translation.
The bin Laden message expresses solidarity with the Iraqi people, advises them to remain steadfast in the coming invasion of their country and declares that Saddam and his aides are not important. "It is not important if Saddam and his government disappear," the man thought to be bin Laden says. "This is a war against you, the Muslims, and you must take arms to defend yourselves."
U.S. officials were quick to point out that the bin Laden message directly incriminates Iraq and proves the existence of ties between bin Laden's al-Qaeda and Saddam. U.S. media touted the official line before even hearing the tape, or awaiting a reliable translation. "Undeniably links Iraq with al-Qaeda," says one CNN anchor.
And then something happened that neither the U.S. administration nor the media anticipated: bin Laden called Saddam an apostate.
The audio message goes on to reveal that bin Laden believes Saddam to be a socialist and declares that "socialists and communists are unbelievers," thereby labeling Saddam an apostate of Islam, an infidel. It is worth mentioning that the government of Iraq is quasi-socialist and secular, and not Islamic.
Walid Phares, an Arabic-speaking MSNBC analyst finds that the audio message undermines Saddam's regime: "Osama bin Laden does not care about Saddam, in fact he can't wait till the demise of Saddam; he is trying to position himself to offer Iraqis an alternative ideology -- he calls socialism abhorrent to Islam."
The voice alleged to be bin Laden's in the audio message also called on the spilling of Saddam's blood: "His blood is halal." This wording is used to indicate what is permissive or legally allowed for the killing of a usurper or criminal.
The audio message also called forth the overthrow of governments supporting the U.S. -- Nigeria, Morocco, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
If bin Laden is effectively calling on Muslim Iraqis to overthrow Saddam and that Saddam is irrelevant in the coming war and Iraqis should not fight for him, how then can the U.S. administration use this message to prove Saddam and al-Qaeda are linked?
That question left some analysts baffled.
Kenneth Pollack, CNN analyst and anti-terrorism specialist, says that this is not the first time that bin Laden has used the plight of Iraq under sanctions and under Saddam to rally Muslims to his cause. In fact, bin Laden has spoken of the Iraqi issue since 1996, and has not hidden the fact that he is growing distaste for Saddam's socialist, Baathist regime.
"The October audio message this year was a four minute tape and bin Laden expressed sympathy for the Iraqi people," says Peter Bergen, CNN consultant on terrorism. "I don't see today's audio message as endorsing Saddam," he concludes.
If anything, bin Laden's message directed to the people, not leadership of Iraq, (any Arab speaker with two ears can testify that the opening lines of the audio message distinctly declare that this is a message to the Iraqi people) is ambiguous as pertains to alleged links with Saddam.
Nevertheless, U.S. officials maintain that this is all the proof they need. However, the U.S. viewing public must be aware that the they were only allowed to view excerpts of the 16-minute audio message, and contrary to what CNN has been proclaiming, it is not all about Iraq. The audio message also includes advice on refraining from alcohol and illicit sex, and respecting one's parents, in addition to other spiritual advice.
The audio message will not go down so easily in Europe and the Middle East and will be seen as a desperate attempt by a U.S. administration that has taken a bashing in NATO and at the U.N. to turn the tables around.
According to the BBC, "BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner, said the figure on the tape voiced support for Iraq, but that in no way did it prove a link between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi leadership."
Arabic speakers are sure to pour scorn on the official U.S. line. U.S. Congressional leaders, who have appeared on talk shows immediately following the excerpted broadcast of the audio tape have alluded to incorrect translations of the original Arabic content.
By default, the U.S. public is offered a half-censored, half-baked version of the audio tape.
While U.S. officials have conceded that the voice on the tape is indeed that of bin Laden, no one has bothered to focus on why the man U.S. President Bush vowed to get "dead or alive" is very much alive and a clear and present danger.
[Firas Al-Atraqchi, B.Sc (Physics), M.A. (Journalism and
Communications), is a Canadian journalist with eleven years of
experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and the
telecom industry. He is a columnist for www.YellowTimes.org. He can be contacted at firas6544@rogers.com .]
___________________________________________________________________________Pip Wilson adds:
See also
"But the statement did not express support for Saddam. It said Muslims should support the Iraqi people rather than the country's government."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030212/wl_nm/iraq_dc_511Bin Laden Tape: The Real Story According To Antiwar
Feb 12, 2003
http://www.jihadunspun.net/newsarchive/article_internal.php?article=44703&list=/newsarchive/index.php&offset=25Background:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,893901,00.html
http://www.jihadunspun.net/newsarchive/article_internal.php?article=44739&list=/newsarchive/index.php&offset=25
http://www.jihadunspun.net/newsarchive/article_internal.php?article=44740&list=/newsarchive/index.php&offset=25- PW
You remember when Colin
Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said Iraq has got
laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons ... They're illegal.
They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two.
And we'll find more weapons as time goes on, But for those who say we haven't
found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We
found them.
USA President George
W Bush, lying in remarks to reporters, May
31, 2003.
The labs were later judged not to contain any such weapons, that they most
likely were used for weather balloons.
Pages
News
In fact, President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, after
having ceased to comply with UN weapons inspectors on October 31, had sent a
letter to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan offering to
facilitate the inspections. On December 16, Richard Butler (pictured), head
of UNSCOM, the UN weapons inspection team withdrew
the team from Iraq, 
