Category: media

Can you feel it? Propaganda has peculiar ways and the U.S. continues to be one-upped as some left-field Web dispatches are making waves in the American press despite garnering little mention elsewhere.

Yesterday’s beheading video, in which, according to AP’s feature Iraq story: the “al-Qaida-linked Ansar al-Sunnah” web site, signaling that “the fight is still on after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death,” posted video “showing the beheading of three alleged Shiite death squad members in revenge for killing Sunnis.” Al Jazeera, fwiw, had nothing on their web site regarding the video.

A Washington Post headline on Saturday suggested: “Zarqawi Helped U.S. Argument That Al-Qaeda Network Was in Iraq.” That being the case, this Guardian UK headline, a quote attributed to folks in Zarqawi’s native Zarqa, Jordan, is an understatement: “‘He is not dead, he is alive with God. This is a wedding, not a funeral.'”

Well color me poopless as so-called al-Qaida in Iraq is having one more field day with the media. Yet another “Web statement” is fronting AP, complete with the ominous headline: “Al-Zarqawi death prompts attack warning.”

Maliki/Bush can proclaim yet another “new day” in Iraq following al-Zarqawi’s death. But Riverbend says it best: “If ‘New’ is equal to ‘More’ and ‘Day’ is equal to ‘Suffering’, what does “New Day for Iraqis” mean?”

And as if one attack warning isn’t enough, the U.S. Embassy in China on Friday issued a warning: “Terrorist Threat against U.S. Interests in China.”

And if that’s not enough to convince us that the Communists are back as a leading nemesis in the war on terror, consider this: an act of war against the U.S. was committed yesterday in Cuba. We’re not talking Bay of Pigs, just reflecting on the completely absurd remarks by Navy Rear Admiral Harry Harris following the “coordinated suicides” of three “committed jihadists” who died in acts of “asymmetrical warfare.”

Now THOSE are fighting words. After all, these Guantanamo detainees — all suspected terrorists, will never get to stand trial. Now that they’re dead.

“They have no regard for human life,” Harris added. “Neither ours nor their own.”

Dare say it goes both ways? Now that’s something to fear.

Perhaps it’s because I’m on the West Coast, but immediately when the ‘Special Report’ music broke into Nightline, I thought for a second that I must be watching Saturday Night Live.

Of course, 11:35pm Nightline in L.A. plays 3 hours behind the East Coast, where, for some reason, ABC has broken through in all time zones with an Abu Musab al-Zarqawi special. Granted, I have visited the headquarters of other major networks and know that certain obituary pieces are pre-produced and ready to go (Gerald Ford, Nancy Reagan, to name a couple), but “Now with Zarqawi gone, the U.S. can claim a tangible victory in Iraq,” stated on tape by Brian Ross, seems a bit far-fetched.

Zarqawi had a 25 million dollar bounty on his head. Considering the “insurgency” and all, I find it hard to believe that the non-profit U.S. troops would have hauled in the prize.

This will keep me up for a few hours, nonetheless.

UPDATE: Iraq PM Nouri al-Maliki and Gen. Casey just announced the death of Zarqawi on Iraqi TV. He was killed in a U.S. military-led airstrike at a “safehouse” north of Baquba, 30 miles north of Baghdad and not far from a handful of horrific beheadings earlier this week. Christiane Amanpour, on CNN Pipeline, is saying that the applause that followed the announcement of Zarqawi’s death is reminiscent of the official announcement of the capture of Hussein.

Gen. Casey is quick to add, “this is just a step….” Here is a link to the AP report that will continue to update with details. Full press conference at 3pm Baghdad time, 5am here in Pacific Daylight Time.