Pentagon Stages Illegal Media Tours of Afghanistan

[Panaconda]

Pentagon’s Stages Illegal Media Tours of Afghanistan

American law bars military propaganda

Sunday 19 September 2010, by Matthew Nasuti


Section 720 of U.S. Public Law 111-117 bar the Pentagon from using taxpayer funds to generate propaganda for use within the United States. In blatant disregard for the rule of law, U.S. military officials conduct media tours in Afghanistan almost every week to American press representatives. The goal is to spin the news, showcasing only positive accomplishments and happy events, which propaganda is then fed to the American people.

During this media circus, there is no little or no mention of the growing desertion rates among Afghan police and Army units; NATO’s decision to ignore opium production in some areas; the dismal lack of electricity, pure drinking water and sewage treatment facilities in Afghanistan; Taliban successes and expansion; the growing number of Afghan districts with security problems; and the fact that one third of Afghans still do not get enough good food to eat (according to the latest data from the U.N.’s Food Programme).

Section 720 reads as follows:

“No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used directly or indirectly, including by private contractors, for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States, not heretofore authorized by the Congress.”

The Congressional intent behind Section 720 is clear: The American people insist that they be told not just the truth by their government, but the whole truth - the good and the bad.

...

http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article30274

[unhappycamper]

1. THAT ain't gonna happen.

The Propaganda Department at the Pentagon is the only organization that can turn Afghanistan into a 'winnah'.

[w8liftinglady]

2. you'd think the Pentagon would have gotten it right after the Tillman fiasco..that they created.

geez...they need to hire BP's propaganda department.

[RandomThoughts]

3. And if they don't prosecute war crimes.

Are they going to let people know about that? Some media is from people under direct contract, some of it might be just making places for 'veterans' in private sector. And some of it is cabal with just like thoughts.

But Generals were paid to coach US media in Iraq war drumbeat, so talking about it being illegal does mean much without enforcement.

Half of law is enforcement. Otherwise they are not laws but just ways to control with two tier justice.

[babylonsister]

4. kabul press??? Good thing that's a source w/o an opinion. And

what are they actually griping about? That media is informing us? All information shared=propaganda? I don't think we're getting enough info out of Afghanistan.

[Panaconda]

5. Try to be more discerning

Media Feeds Americans Fake News About Afghanistan
Submitted by Anne Landman on April 5, 2010

Glen Greenwald of Salon.com reports that Americans are being fed false and misleading "news" about the U.S. war in Afghanistan because major American media outlets, like the New York Times and CNN, publish propagandized Pentagon accounts of the violence and killing occurring there, without questioning the information they are fed.

An egregious example of this occurred on February 12, 2010, when NATO's joint international force issued a press release that bore the headline Joint Force Operating In Gardez Makes Gruesome Discovery. The release said that after "intelligence confirmed militant activity" in a compound near a village in Paktiya province, an international security force entered the compound and engaged "several insurgents" in a fire fight. Two "insurgents" were killed, the report said, and after the joint forces entered the compound, they "found the bodies of three women who had been tied up, gagged and killed."

But an Afghan news report about the same incident differed wildly.

"The Latest Imprecise Operation"

Pajhwok Afghan News reported that U.S. Special Forces, acting on a misleading tip-off, mistakenly stormed the residence of the intelligence chief in the Zurmat district. His name was Daud, and he was inside the home celebrating the birth of his son with his family. Killed in the raid were Daud, his brother Zahir, and three women. The Afghan news further reported that "A gubernatorial spokesman ... verified the latest imprecise operation by NATO-led troops."

...

http://www.prwatch.org/node/8991

[babylonsister]

6. Greenwald? ROFL! Try it yourself. And discern for

yourself the source in the OP. Or better yet, get lost. Bye.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Chances are that t "mistaken tip off" was intentional.

An example was wonderfully recounted in the book
"The Bookseller of Kabul".

As was done in Viet Nam, in Iraq, in other areas of the world, the military uses
"locals" to give them information and often pays them to identify and /or hand over
"enemy insurgents".
Some people in said country use this opportunity to get revenge on local rivals.

[MisterP]

8. recall ex-Contra Edgar Chamorro and others' stories of the Pentagon and CIA taking reporters

on Potemkin tours in the 80s, saying they were deep in Contra-held Nicaragua--so it seemed the Contras were making great inroads--while they were in Honduras all the while (similar technique with Guatemala 1954, where false radio reports of "rebel" penetration were used to spook the central military into ousting Arbenz)

the Afghan elections resemble Herman and Brodhead's "Demonstration Elections," where the election equals democracy and only the Bad Guys are threatening people, and threatening them against voting (coerced voting, ballot-rigging, preselected candidates are never noted by the steganographic media)