The Olympian: Army letter from Iraq creates national stir

[Newsjock]

Here's a new report from Tuesday's paper that advances the story. Spot the lie!

http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20031014/frontpage/123568.shtml

Army letter from Iraq creates national stir
Military brass don't know how it began, spokesman says

WASHINGTON -- An Army spokesman maintained Monday that commanders have no knowledge of a letter-writing campaign involving soldiers whose names appeared on form letters to newspapers promoting their accomplishments in Iraq.

"Some soldiers wrote some letters independently. I guess that's what happened," said Lt. Col. Bill MacDonald, who is with the 4th Infantry Division that is heading operations in north-central Iraq. "Nobody I have spoken to in the chain of command knows where these letters came from."

... The Olympian was flooded with dozens of e-mails from across the country after a story appeared about the form letters in Saturday's newspaper.

It's not clear who wrote the letter or organized sending it to soldiers' hometown papers.

"Certainly soldiers are free to write people and let them know what's going on here," MacDonald said.

more

[oneighty]

1. Free to write

Just so it is not true, they are free to write.

180

[ninkasi]

2. Republicans are so phoney

and so transparent. They also think nothing of cheating. Things in Iraq are bad, soldiers are begging their families to send them "care" packages with basic necessities, they are being shot at, blown up, they are committing suicide in alarming numbers...we here at DU know what's going on.

The people in the Bush administration will stop at nothing to get what they want. It's disgusting that in addition to putting our soldiers in harm's way, they also use them as props to lie about what's going on over there.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. i mail this letter to the WH on the 11th

Dear Mr. Bush*,

You need to fire your advisors and/or your PR firm immediately. They are either making you out to look like a complete incompetent fool or just evil. Please read the attached article below and you tell me what you should do?

Sincerely a concerned citizen,
<my name deleted>


Many soldiers, same letter
Newspapers around U.S. get identical missives from Iraq

LEDYARD KING GANNETT NEWS SERVICE The Olympian Online

[]

WASHINGTON -- Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours.
And all the letters are the same.

A Gannett News Service search found identical letters from different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, also known as "The Rock," in 11 newspapers, including Snohomish, Wash.

The Olympian received two identical letters signed by different hometown soldiers: Spc. Joshua Ackler and Spc. Alex Marois, who is now a sergeant. The paper declined to run either because of a policy not to publish form letters.

The five-paragraph letter talks about the soldiers' efforts to re-establish police and fire departments, and build water and sewer plants in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where the unit is based.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

more at @ below:
http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20031011/frontpage/121390.shtml

[RobertSeattle]

4. ABC News has the low down

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/World/iraq031013_letters-1.html

Letter written by a "Johnny DoGooder" LTC in Iraq.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/World/iraq031013_letters-1.html

[Rose Siding]

6. So the Lt Col admits

that he wrote it, offered it to the soldiers and only twelve decided to participate? How many refused? I'm curious about the % that view the work in such a positive light as opposed to those who *wouldn't* sign on.

snip>
Caraccilo wrote that his staff drafted the letter, he edited it and reviewed it and then offered it to the soldiers. "Every soldier who signed that letter did so after a careful read," he said. "Some, who could find the time, decided to send their own versions, while others chose not to take part in the initiative."

Caraccilo was unapologetic, saying that the letter "perfectly reflects what each of these brave soldiers has and continues to accomplish on the ground."

[arcane1]

8. "perfectly reflects what EACH of these brave soldiers..."

hmmm, then why so many declined to participate...?

and if the pace is so fast that there is no time to write letters yourself, how did some soldiers 'find the time'?

P f-ing R

[Say_What]

9. Sign the letter or you're gonna do another Iraq tour

is probably how he got them to *sign* the letter. What f*ck'n horseshit!!

From the article: "Kirkuk is a hot and dusty city of just over a million people. The majority of the city has welcomed our presence with open arms. After nearly five months here, the people still come running from their homes, into the 110-degree heat, waving to us as our troops drive by on daily patrols of the city. Children smile and run up to shake hands and in their broken English shouting, "Thank you, Mister."

Funny, I haven't seen ANYTHING like that on the nightly news and you know that they'd be running the sh*t out of a clip like that.

[gratuitous]

5. Another one of those happy coincidences that "just happened"

Naturally, if a series of letters to hometown newspapers had gone out bitching about conditions in Iraq, low morale, inadequate supplies and hostile natives, we'd be finding out toot fucking sweet how it happened.

[arcane1]

7. what lie? Sometimes letters write themselves, you know

remember the forged Niger documents? Nobody "seems" to know who wrote those, either...

:shrug:

[Say_What]

10. Remember Otto Reich & the State Depart. Office of Public Diplomacy (OPD)

<clips>

...On September 30, 1987 a Republican appointed comptroller general of the U.S. found that Reich had done things as director of the OPD that were "prohibited, covert propaganda activities, "beyond the range of acceptable agency public information activities...". The same report said Mr. Reich's operation violated "a restriction on the State Department's annual appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress." Reich used the covert propaganda to demonize the democratically elected Sandinista government of Nicaragua and establish the Contras as fearless freedom fighters. The purpose was to make the U.S. public afraid enough of the Sandinistas to get Congress to fund the Contras directly. The Boland Amendment was passed by Congress in 1982 that prohibited U.S. funds from being used to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. Meanwhile, the Contras were being illegally armed by the Reagan administration via the Iran-Contra arms deal.

On the night of Reagan's re-election in 1984, Reich's office put out the news that "intelligence sources"revealed that Soviet MIG fighter jets were arriving in Nicaragua and Andrea Mitchell interrupted election night coverage on NBC to give the phony report. This resembles the Joseph Goebbel's fabrication that Polish troops had attacked German soldiers to give the Third Reich an excuse to launch the Nazi blitzkrieg into Poland to begin World War II in 1939. Other Reich prevarications given to media sources included: Nicaragua had been given chemical weapons by the Soviets, according to the Miami Herald; and leaders of the Sandinistas were involved in drug trafficking, according to Newsweek magazine.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0419-03.htm