No Questions Asked

On Friday Donald Rumsfeld announced that Muslim extremists are winning the media war. It is an interesting declaration — in essence Rumsfeld is saying that Muslim extremists are more effectively denouncing torture, abuse and killings in Iraq and Afghanistan than the U.S. is defending the acts. They are more successfully questioning the new “freedoms” being spread in Iraq and Afghanistan than the U.S. is in defending them — they are winning the propaganda war.

Rumsfeld’s comments come in the wake of international criticism about U.S. military action worldwide. New images of bloodied prisoners under American soldiers’ care in Abu Ghraib emerged and were published. The UN called for the U.S. to close Guantanamo Bay and criticized its interrogation techniques as being cruel torture.

Other reports have revealed that some men being held at Guantanamo are completely innocent of wrongdoing and have no connection to al Qaeda — and were declared innocent by a secret military tribunal — but remain in custody.

Last weekend the headline in British papers stated that UK troops “executed” an unarmed Iraqi.

Of course the U.S. and its allies are losing the support of Muslims — we are shooting them and torturing them. No amount of propaganda will change the opinion of someone who has lost a family member to abuse, torture or a bullet from an allied soldier’s gun. No amount of discussion will ease the humiliation of a man whose door was broken down in the middle of the night and his family harrassed .

As Rumsfeld complained that the U.S. was losing the propaganda war, not one reporter followed up with a question about whether were losing the “actual war” or why the U.S. was losing the media war.

Didn’t the Bush administration just spend $254 million on PR contracts to push its policies? The administration spent millions more on the PR push in the months before the war in Iraq was launched. They seemed to be able to successfully convince the American public that its bogus intelligence was viable and that Saddam Hussein was somehow complicit in the 9/11 attacks. They are doing a pretty good job now of convincing Americans that Iran and Syria are the new al Qaeda partners.

U.S. officials have not loudly and consistently denounced torture or the “abuse” at Abu Ghraib. But they have consistently decried the release of the pictures of the abuse and torture and the negative publicity that accompanies it. They have not attempted to change policy, but complain only about being unable to change the perception abroad that U.S. policy is unjust.

Actually, Rumsfeld has once again masterly manipulated the media and the American public. His message is that it the U.S. is not suffering from lack of support because of the reality of its policies or its actions abroad, but because Muslim extremists are spreading propaganda. It is brilliant psychological maneuver and journalists didn’t stop to question the logic.

Rumsfeld said: “Consider that the violent extremist have established “media relations committees” — and have proven to be highly successful at manipulating opinion elites. They plan and design their headline-grabbing attacks using every means of communications to intimidate and break the collective will of free people. They know that communications transcend borders — and that a single news story, handled skillfully, can be as damaging to our cause and as helpful to theirs, as any other method of military attack. And they are doing it.

They are able to act quickly with relatively few people, and with modest resources compared to the vast — and expensive — bureaucracies of western governments.”

The only way we can win, Rumsfeld said, was to create an efficient 24-hour propaganda machine.

In his speech Rumsfeld used an example that in reality illustrates just how effective the U.S. is in handling the media war.

In this environment the old adage that: “A lie can be half way around the world before the truth has its boots on” becomes doubly true with today’s technologies.

We saw this with the false allegations of the desecration of a Koran last year. Once it was published in a weekly news magazine, it was posted on websites, sent in e-mails, and repeated on satellite television and radio stations for days, before the facts could be discovered.

And, in those first days, the false story incited anti-American riots in Pakistan and elsewhere, and human beings were killed in the ensuing riots.

Once aware of the story, the U.S. Military, appropriately, and of necessity, took the time needed to ensure that it had the facts before responding — having to conduct interviews and pore though countless documents, investigations and log books. It was finally determined that the charge was false.

But in the meantime the lives had been lost and great damage had been done.

What complicates the ability to respond quickly is that, unlike our enemies, which propagate lies with impunity — with no penalty whatsoever — our government does not have the luxury of relying on other sources for information — anonymous or otherwise. Our government has to be the source. And we tell the truth.

Actually, Rumsfeld is not telling the truth here. What is the truth about the Newsweek story and the riots in Afghanistan? They were unrelated as I note in the introduction to my book:

What are the facts?

* The riots in Afghanistan were unrelated to the Newsweek report. The top member of the U.S. military, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs, General Richard Myers, explained: “It is the judgment of our commander in Afghanistan, General Eichenberry, that in fact the violence that we saw in Jalalabad was not necessarily the result of the allegations about disrespect for the Koran, but more tied up in the political process and the reconciliation process that President Karzai and his cabinet are conducting in Afghanistan. He thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine.”
* There have been several reports of American military members desecrating the Koran during interrogations, including from other American news organizations, Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross and former Guantánamo Bay prisoners. There are also numerous reports of attempts to crack prisoners by preying on their religious beliefs. For example, there were several reports about “female interrogators flaunting their sexuality to humiliate devout Muslims, including smearing red fluid said to be menstrual blood on prisoners.” In fact, the New York Times reported weeks after the Newsweek story ran that “an American military inquiry found five cases in which the Koran had been mishandled by interrogators and guards at Guantánamo.” The administration said the incidents were accidents. According to the Pentagon, a guard’s urine ‘splashed’ a prisoner and his Koran, guards in a water balloon fight hit two prisoners and got their Korans wet and a guard kicked a prisoner’s Koran. Officials said a two-word obscenity was found in a Koran but it was unclear whether guards or a prisoner wrote it.

* Colin Powell used a single source to justify much of his case for war in Iraq (anyone remember Curveball?). He wasn’t asked, as McClellan asked of Newsweek, “to help repair the damage that has been done, particularly in the region.” Or to the reputation of the U.S. worldwide.

Rather than highlight these facts the media largely allowed the administration to make its case that Newsweek was part of the unpatriotic media establishment and that its carelessness inflamed anti-American sentiments abroad and put soldiers’ lives at risk. The media enabled the administration to disregard all the potential reasons anti-American sentiment may be growing abroad — such as abuse at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and complaints by civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Newsweek’s editors crumbled, issued an apology and accepted responsibility for the unrest in Afghanistan even after Meyers said the protests were unrelated to its article. Editor Mark Whitaker said, “whatever facts we got wrong, we apologize for. I’ve expressed regret for the loss of life and the violence that put American troops in harm’s way. I’m getting a lot of angry e-mail about that, and I understand it.” Newsweek was being blamed for inciting riots in news stories weeks after Meyers told reporters that the protests in Afghanistan were caused by anger over the political situation there.

Did American press corps miss Meyers’ statement that the Newsweek article had nothing to do with the emotions boiling over in the Muslim world?

The Newsweek example illustrates how the administration has shaped the American public’s perception of events through the media. Years after the administration used the media to spread its point of view after the 9/11 attacks, the circle of misinformation continues and major issues are buried under more minor ones. For example, what kind of structure do they have in place at Guantánamo Bay that makes it okay for guards to have water balloon fights while on duty? It is another hint that the lack of oversight that resulted in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse is more widespread than acknowledged by the Pentagon.

Rumsfeld may not believe the U.S. is winning the propaganda war abroad, but he is certainly winning the war at home. He knocked the condemning statements by UN officials about Guantanamo Bay right out of the headlines.

The public is already being primed for the next targets — Iran and Syria.