US military accuses media of reporting 'false' Iraqi claims

[cal04]

The US military accused the international media on Saturday of exacerbating Iraq's violent tensions by reporting false claims of massacres which it said were deliberately fabricated by extremist groups.

This week several newspapers and agencies reported that Iraqi police had found 20 beheaded corpses in Salman Pak, just south of Baghdad.

AFP did not carry the report after its sources were unable to confirm the rumour.

"It now appears that the story was completely false and fabricated by unknown sources," a statement from the US military said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070630/pl_afp/iraqunrestusmedia_070630153213

[jimshoes]

1. I take this to mean

that there were only 19 headless bodies found so the report is false. See how that works. That's just my cynical guess. I could be wrong, it's just I've become so jaded lately.

[struggle4progress]

2. Riiiight. When Iraqis want to know what's going on, they don't talk to friends and neighbors:

they just pick up a copy of the New York Times (say).

Abu Ghraib? Car bomb blasts? Bodies overflowing from the Baghdad morgue? Why, nobody in Iraq would have had the faintest idea that there was anything amiss if it weren't for that damned international media ... :eyes:

[Cobalt-60]

3. too late, the military p*ssed away its credibility

planting false stories and lying about conditions in Iraq.
i wouldn't believe them if they reported the sky was blue.