CIA paid mullahs to counter anti-US feeling

[Nottingham]

CIA paid mullahs to counter anti-US feeling

TABASSUM ZAKARIA IN WASHINGTON


THE CIA paid mullahs and created fake Islamic religious leaders to preach a moderate message and counter anti-American sentiment in the Arab world after the 11 September attacks, a new book claims.

In The CIA at War, Ronald Kessler, an investigative reporter and author of several books about the CIA and the FBI, also details espionage activity in Iraq which supported the March invasion that toppled the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein.

For the book, Mr Kessler interviewed the CIA director, George Tenet, and other senior CIA officials. The agency supplied most of the photographs in the book.

"In Islam, as in many other religions, anyone can call himself a religious leader," Mr Kessler is quoted as saying. "So, besides paying mullahs, the CIA created fake mullahs - recruited agents who would proclaim themselves clerics and take a more moderate position about non-believers."

"We are taking over radio stations and supporting clerics," another CIA source is quoted as saying. "It’s back to propaganda. We are creating moderate Muslims." Mr Kessler claims the CIA also paid for mullahs to issue fatwas, or religious edicts, urging Iraqis not to resist American forces.

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More....

Hey if only they could get Rush Lumbow to be a mullah
:bounce:

[MRDU]

1. Criminals In Action

"We are creating moderate Muslims"

Wow! Now we can kill Muslims
and create them at the same time!

Rush Limbo is a big fat mullah!

Never trust the CIA.

!

[cliss]

2. This is sorta like...

painting your dirty clothes with white paint so they will "look clean". Why not get it right instead? Is that asking so much?

Man, what an unbelievable waste of money. How many dollars they must have poured down the rathole? Building up a fake charade, kind of like these sitcomes with "canned laughter" to make the listeners believe they're really more funny than they are.

When will they ever learn?

[PennyLane]

3. As Gomer Would Say........

Well, SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!

[Nottingham]

4. Whats the going price for a Moderate Mullah

1 million 2 mill???

[dfong63]

5. i bet the CIA had some of the "extremist" mullahs on the payroll too

[westerby]

6. Exactly this kind of Covert Operations was announced by NY Times

...now they are executing.

December 16, 2002, Monday
THREATS AND RESPONSES: FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM; Pentagon May Push Propaganda in Allied Nations, By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT (NYT)

The Defense Department is considering issuing a secret directive to the American military to conduct covert operations aimed at influencing public opinion and policy makers in friendly and neutral countries, senior Pentagon and administration officials say.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has not yet decided on the proposal, which has ignited a fierce battle throughout the Bush administration over whether the military should carry out secret propaganda missions in friendly nations like Germany, where many of the Sept. 11 hijackers congregated, or Pakistan, still considered a haven for Al Qaeda's militants.

Such a program, for example, could include efforts to discredit and undermine the influence of mosques and religious schools that have become breeding grounds for Islamic militancy and anti-Americanism across the Middle East, Asia and Europe. It might even include setting up schools with secret American financing to teach a moderate Islamic position laced with sympathetic depictions of how the religion is practiced in America, officials said.

As a military officer put it: ''We have the assets and the capabilities and the training to go into friendly and neutral nations to influence public opinion. We could do it and get away with it. That doesn't mean we should.''