Contessa_Sharra
Searcher for Accuracy
- Apr 27, 2008
- 1,639
- 149
- 48
Why it's impossible to support the war in Afghanistan
It's been eight years since the United States invaded Afghanistan. After all these years many Americans have lost sight of the alleged purpose of our invasion - to hunt for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.
What has also been lost is any government inquiry whatsoever into the accuracy of the "smoking gun" evidence that the Bush Administration presented as the final justification for invading Afghanistan - the peculiar "Osama bin Laden confession video".
Released on December 13, 2001, the videotape of bin Laden and associates taking pleasure in the 9/11 attack was seen around the world - over and over again. I remember the 24 hour news channels playing the same scenes practically non-stop while the talking heads told their audiences that this was absolute proof that the United States invasion of Afghanistan a few months earlier on October 7, 2001 was the right action.
The corporate media, liberal and conservative, failed to question the Department of Defense Press Release 630-01 that accompanied the video release. No so-called professional journalist found the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the video unusual. The corporate types just accepted at face value that the videotape was discovered by U.S. forces in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The names of the troops that discovered the video, the name of the unit, the circumstances as to how the video was actually discovered, and what prompted the troops to look at the video in the first place was never asked by the White House Press Corps or any other corporate media type. How U.S. troops discovered the video and what prompted the troops to explore the content of the video remains a mystery.
That is if you believe Press Release 630-01was factual.
AND
On February 26, 2007 CENTCOM received my FOIA request. In the request I wrote:
1.Please provide documents related to the discovery of the December 13, 2001 released Osama bin Laden video. Documents include action reports, logbook entries, e-mails, and transcripts, etc., which the U.S. forces that reportedly found the video would have recorded upon "discovering" the video. I am trying to identify the - who, what, when, where, and why of how this video dubbed the "confession video" by the corporate media, was actually discovered. To my amazement, nearly three years later, I finally received a response from CENTCOM. What didn't surprise me is that CENTCOM found "no records" related to the discovery of the video.
It's been eight years since the United States invaded Afghanistan. After all these years many Americans have lost sight of the alleged purpose of our invasion - to hunt for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.
What has also been lost is any government inquiry whatsoever into the accuracy of the "smoking gun" evidence that the Bush Administration presented as the final justification for invading Afghanistan - the peculiar "Osama bin Laden confession video".
Released on December 13, 2001, the videotape of bin Laden and associates taking pleasure in the 9/11 attack was seen around the world - over and over again. I remember the 24 hour news channels playing the same scenes practically non-stop while the talking heads told their audiences that this was absolute proof that the United States invasion of Afghanistan a few months earlier on October 7, 2001 was the right action.
The corporate media, liberal and conservative, failed to question the Department of Defense Press Release 630-01 that accompanied the video release. No so-called professional journalist found the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the video unusual. The corporate types just accepted at face value that the videotape was discovered by U.S. forces in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The names of the troops that discovered the video, the name of the unit, the circumstances as to how the video was actually discovered, and what prompted the troops to look at the video in the first place was never asked by the White House Press Corps or any other corporate media type. How U.S. troops discovered the video and what prompted the troops to explore the content of the video remains a mystery.
That is if you believe Press Release 630-01was factual.
AND
On February 26, 2007 CENTCOM received my FOIA request. In the request I wrote:
1.Please provide documents related to the discovery of the December 13, 2001 released Osama bin Laden video. Documents include action reports, logbook entries, e-mails, and transcripts, etc., which the U.S. forces that reportedly found the video would have recorded upon "discovering" the video. I am trying to identify the - who, what, when, where, and why of how this video dubbed the "confession video" by the corporate media, was actually discovered. To my amazement, nearly three years later, I finally received a response from CENTCOM. What didn't surprise me is that CENTCOM found "no records" related to the discovery of the video.
CENTCOM wrote:
"Pursuant to procedures established in 5 U.S.C. 552, Freedom of Information Act and DOD 5400.7-R, Department of Defense FOIA Program, our search included all existing records in USCENTCOM. Despite our extensive search for documents pertaining to your request, we were unable to locate responsive documents."
Complete OP"Pursuant to procedures established in 5 U.S.C. 552, Freedom of Information Act and DOD 5400.7-R, Department of Defense FOIA Program, our search included all existing records in USCENTCOM. Despite our extensive search for documents pertaining to your request, we were unable to locate responsive documents."
