Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GLOBAL 'WAR' ON TERROR (GWOT) Years 1 and 2, ie 9/11-2003
Fact or Fiction? Fact or fiction April 10 2003 April 16 The claim: That the US could use DNA samples to identify Saddam and his family, whether dead or alive. US General Tommy Franks was asked by CNN on Sunday whether US authorities had DNA samples of Saddam and his sons. "Of course," he said. But the FBI, which maintains DNA databases, said it did not have Saddam's DNA. A Pentagon official said he was surprised by General Franks's comments and did not know what the general meant. April 10 The claim: That a makeshift morgue in southern Iraq was used by the Iraqis as a torture chamber. British soldiers made the claim on Sunday after discovering 664 wooden coffins and 408 corpses in a warehouse at an abandoned military camp near Zubayr. They also found scrapbooks filled with photographs of corpses, most of which appeared to have gunshot wounds to the head. "Bloody hell, these are all executions," Captain Jack Kemp told the Press Association as he leafed through the photographs. But after preliminary investigations, a special US military war crimes documentation unit said the injuries were all war-related and the bodies belonged to soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq war. The unit leader said the documents suggested Iraqi officials had been preparing to exchange the bodies with Iran. The head of Iran's missing-in-action recovery committee agreed. April 9 The claim: That US forces on Sunday fired on a convoy of Russian diplomats and journalists as it left Baghdad for the Syrian border, wounding the Russian Ambassador, Vladimir Titorenko, three other diplomats and a driver. Titorenko said the convoy "faced a number of American armoured vehicles, tanks and guns. There was shooting [at us], and some hand grenades were thrown at other vehicles. We tried to warn them, but they fired at us directly". US Central Command at first denied its troops were present, but a senior unnamed US official later told Agence France-Presse that US forces probably fired at the Russian diplomats, but that there were indications the Iraqis had tried to create an international diplomatic incident by altering the route of the convoy. Witnesses said the convoy was caught in crossfire between US and Iraqi soldiers. April 8 The claim: That two British soldiers, whose corpses were shown on al-Jazeera TV, were executed after being captured by Iraqi troops. The soldiers, Sapper Luke Allsop, 24, and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth, 36, went missing after an operation near Zubayr, in southern Iraq. Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said on March 27 that the men had been executed in "an act of cruelty beyond all human comprehension". The next day Allsop's sister denied the claim, saying the family had been told by his commanders that he was killed in action. Britain's Ministry of Defence later said it was seeking information regarding the location of the bodies and was "trying to establish the circumstances of their deaths". The British Armed Forces Minister, Adam Ingram, expressed regret for any distress Mr Blair might have caused and conceded that the cause of the soldiers' deaths had not yet been established. Mr Blair's spokesman insisted the soldiers "may well have been" executed. April 7 The claim: That the poison ricin, discovered in a London flat in January, was probably made at a camp in north-east Iraq. After the facility was destroyed last week, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, said the facility, operated by Ansar al Islam and al-Qaeda, was "probably where the ricin found in London came from". "At least the operatives and maybe some of the formulas came from this site," he said. A similar claim was made by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in February that the camp was the origin of the ricin that was "bouncing around Europe". But investigators and a French intelligence source quoted by CNN said the ricin found in London was low quality and clearly home-made. State Department officials followed by watering down Powell's claim. April 5 The claim: That Jessica Lynch, the US private rescued on Wednesday by commandos from a Nasiriyah hospital, had suffered gunshot and stab wounds as she heroically resisted an Iraqi ambush. US officials said that during an Iraqi ambush on March 23 Lynch had shot several enemy soldiers, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition despite having sustained multiple gunshot wounds. The official said Lynch was also stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in on her position. "She was fighting to the death," said one official. "She did not want to be taken alive." Pentagon officials said they had heard "rumours" of Lynch's heroics but had no confirmation. Lynch's father, Gregory Lynch, said that he and his wife had spoken to her after she underwent surgery at a hospital in Germany and that she had "no multiple gunshot wounds or knife stabs". He said his daughter had received surgery to relieve pressure on a nerve in her back and would undergo further surgery on her fractured legs and right forearm. April 4 The claim: that a US warplane attacked a bus convoy in western Iraq carrying American and European human shields in the western town of Rutba between Jordan and Baghdad on Monday. On Tuesday Iraq said people in two Iraqi buses were wounded, but US central command denied that yesterday. A group of activists arriving in Amman from Iraq on Tuesday denied coming under US attack, but said they saw damaged vehicles beside the road. April 3 The claim: that up to 1500 Turkish crack troops crossed the border and planned to move beyond long-held positions in the Kurdish-controlled area just inside northern Iraq in the first days of the war. Several thousand Turkish troops gathered on the border before the outbreak of war, amid fears they would spark a war within the war between Turkey and the Kurds, who control northern Iraq with US help. The Turkish military issued conflicting statements before Ankara denied the troop incursion. The US coalition commander, General Tommy Franks, said on March 23 that US forces had noticed "light formations" of Turkish forces entering northern Iraq but would not be drawn on whether the Turks were planning an offensive against the Kurds. April 2 The claim: That a popular uprising against the Iraqi regime broke out in Basra last Tuesday. British military officials based the claim on Iraqi radio communications and on radar intelligence apparently showing that mortars fired on civilians had come from Ba'ath Party headquarters. British military spokesmen said on Wednesday the uprising was continuing, but reporters stationed in Basra from Abu Dhabi television and Al-Jazeera said they had seen no signs of civilian unrest. On Thursday, a British captain said Saddam supporters in Basra had shelled civilians to discourage dissent, but the reported uprising was exaggerated and was no more than a gathering of "40 to 50 people standing on a street corner". April 1 The claim: that Saddam Hussein was killed or seriously injured during the "decapitation" strike on March 20 that started the war. A US television network quoted intelligence sources claiming Saddam was carried from his wrecked compound with an oxygen mask over his face. The CIA said there was a 50-50 chance he was dead. An hour after the strike, a rattled Saddam appeared on television, but speculation persisted the speech was made by a body double, or was prerecorded. Then, on Monday last week, Saddam appeared fit and well, in a televised speech which made seeming references to current events. On Sunday however, Donald Rumsfeld renewed scepticism that Saddam was alive. "Where is Saddam Hussein? Where is Qusay, where is Uday his sons? They're not talking." March 31 The claim: that coalition missiles killed up to 77 people in residential Baghdad markets. On Friday allied commanders said United States missiles had struck close to civilian centres, but other allied officials said stray Iraqi missiles might have caused Wednesday's Al Sha'ab and Friday's al-Shu'la explosions. The allied director of operations in Qatar denied that bad weather affected precision-guided missiles. On Saturday the US suspended Tomahawk launches from the Mediterranean and Red seas after missiles strayed into Turkey and Saudi Arabia. March 29 The claim: That Iraq's entire 51st Mechanised Division surrendered to coalition forces last Friday. Hours after the start of the US-led ground offensive, US defence officials said the division's 8000 regular soldiers had surrendered in southern Iraq. US officials said the next day that only the division's commanders had surrendered and the rest had left the battlefield and returned home. On Tuesday, British forces reported a tank battle with elements of the 51st Division near Basra. Asked about the confusion, US General Vincent Brooks said soldiers from the division were continuing to fight, but many were being compelled by pro-government militias. March 28 The claim: That US forces used napalm (banned by the UN) in taking Safwan hill, near Basra. Embedded reporters for the Herald and CNN reported on Saturday that US navy aircraft supported a Marine ground assault by dropping napalm. The Pentagon later denied this, issuing a statement to the Herald, saying: "Your story claiming US forces are using napalm in Iraq is patently false ... We completed destruction of our last batch of napalm on April 4, 2001, and no longer maintain any stocks of napalm." The Herald's Lindsay Murdoch, who is attached to units of the 1st US Marine Division, said his report was based on information from two marine officers. March 27 Military officials and various news agencies said some of the missiles fired at Kuwait were banned Scud missiles. US General Stanley McChrystal said Iraq has not fired any Scuds and that US forces searching airfields in the far western desert of Iraq have uncovered no missiles or launchers. Iraq denies having any Scuds, which have sufficient range to reach Israel, but General Tommy Franks said Iraq has yet to account for about two dozen Scuds UN inspectors said were left over from the 1991 Gulf War. March 26 Claims that a chemical weapons site had been discovered at Najaf have been described as premature. The US military's discovery at a chemical plant was first reported on Sunday in the Jerusalem Post, which has a reporter travelling with the army's 3rd Infantry Division. US TV network Fox News trumpeted the find, citing a senior US defence official. It was not immediately clear what, if any, chemicals were being produced at the facility, but both reports said the Iraqis had tried to camouflage the facility. Later in the day, US Central Command said troops were examining several "sites of interest" but it was "premature" to call the plant in Najaf a chemical weapons factory. This story was found at: 
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