ETEMENANKI
Following
taken from http://tbrnews.org/Archives/controling.htm
In-House Memos on
Television News Presentations
[highlights only; authenticity
unknown]
(Feb
26) Shots of GIs must show a
mixed racial combination….any interviews must reflect the youthful
and idealistic, not the cynical point of view…the liberation of
happy, enthusiastic Iraqis can be best shown by filming crowds of
cheering citizens waving American flags. Also indicated would be
pictures of photogenic GIs fraternizing with Iraqi children and
handing them food or other non-controversial presents…of course, pictures
of dead US military personnel are not to be shown and
pictures of dead Iraqi soldiers should not show examples of violent
death…also indicated would be brief interviews with English-speaking
Iraqi citizens praising American liberation efforts…
(March
10) ...pro-Government rallies are to be given the fullest coverage…if
anti-Government demonstrations are shown, it is desired to stress
either a very small number of “eccentrics” or shots of social
misfits; i.e., with beards, tattoos, physical deformities, etc.
Pro-Government supporters should be seen as clean cut with as many
well-groomed subjects as possible….subjects should stress complete
support for the President’s programs and especially support
for American military units en route to combat…also interviews
with photogenic family members of participating GIs stressing loyalty
and affection…American flags are always a good prop in the
background…
(April
4) …no comments equating the President with Hitler will
be made….and the invasion of Iraq may not be compared with
Hitler’s invasion of Poland, and such allegations now being made
extensively in offshore media coverage are not to receive any
attention.
(
April 4 ) Alliance casualties to be played down. The massive Iraqi
civilian casualties also played down. Use the phrase, “most civilian
casualties caused by vindictive Saddam supporters.”
Again, no pixs of dead women and children.
(April
19) …The on-going killings of pro-US Iraqis and occasional US
military personal are to be downplayed and attributed to “rogue,
pro-Saddam” persons. It is to be stressed, with photos and
feature articles, that the Iraqi people “warmly greet their
American liberators…”
(May 6) …at the present time,
it is anticipated that proof of Iraqs possession of WMD will be
uncovered by US specialists. This proof is necessary to offset the
growing criticism that Iraq had no such weapons...
(May
9) It is obviously going to be a long time before peace and civil
order is restored in Iraq… The Administration’s intentions of
allowing specific Christian missionaries into Iraq to effect
widespread conversions of the Muslim population is now on hold. DOS
claims that this might set off major rioting…White House officials,
speaking off the record, say that this missionary activity is “close
to the President’s heart” but will be put on temporary hold
“until we have a stronger military presence” in Iraq.
(May
16) Chaos in Iraq is given as the reason why a massive continued US
military presence in that country is to be anticipated. Stories in
foreign media about GIs shooting young children for throwing rocks are
not to be repeated. No pictures…
(June
10) …growing unrest, even in the media, over the lack of WMD in
Iraq. The President’s people want it stressed that both the CIA and
military intelligence gave him faulty information. It is felt
that this will run its course, especially in light of the “new
revelations” The public’s interest is short-lived on such things
and a good, lasting distraction with plenty of commentary will keep
them excited until the issue fades away. The Demos are too timid to
make much use of this anyway….
(June
13) The Administration has gotten burnt by attacking Sharon. It
won’t happen again. Human interest stories about Israeli families
mourning their dead is always a good thing. The Hamas people are
slated for utter destruction by a possible joint US/IDF action in the
near future so point out repeatedly how they are sabotaging the
sincere efforts of both the President and Sharon to achieve a real and
lasting peace….
(June
18) Now it appears that the faked (call them ‘inaccurate’) reports
about Saddam’s purchase of enriched uranium will not go away. The
White House hopes that Muslim terrorists will commit some atrocity, preferably
in the United States, so as to deflect rising negative attitudes
on the part of the electorate…although no one has said it, such an
attack(s) would not be surprising.
(June
23) …We are all assured that North Korea will not attack unless
attacked and the media has to play this aspect down. In
short, the less said the better. Iran is the new target, not
North Korea. Keep that strictly in mind on coverage..
(June
28) The situation in Iraq vis a vis the guerrilla war is now reaching
critical proportions... Our sources indicate that Bush’s temperament
and personality will not permit him to retreat an inch... Pacification
could take years, not weeks or months, and with elections coming up
next year, inside White House sources have said the President and Rove
are in a panic.
(July
12) We forsee problems in some of our coverage of the Iraq business.
Until fairly recently, the public support has been fairly strong for
the President’s actions. Our own poll results showed that the
President enjoyed a solid 52% national support (although the agreed
figures were closer to 65%) Now, with the prolonged and escalating
Iraqi resistance and growing questions about Bush’s State of the
Union speech and the glaring errors contained in it, it is very
evident that other media elements are beginning to raise questions. We
have known for some time that Tenet would take the blame for the
glaring forged documents the President used to whip up a panic and
gain public support for his determination to attack and occupy Iraq.
We have a copy of the December, 2002 memo from the White House to the
DCI concerning documentation of Iraqi WMD. Quote: The President feels
that it is vital to have supportive material concerning known Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction. You are requested to search your files
for anything that would support this important thesis endquote. It was
well-known inside our circles and the Beltway that the reports of
Nigerian uranium sales to Iraq were hopeless frauds. These faked
reports were duly sent over to the White House with a cover letter,
a copy of which we also have in our files, to the effect that this
report was the only one that addressed the President’s request but
also contained a specific warning that its authenticity was quote
dubious at best and therefore could not be supported by other
evidence endquote
As
pressure on the President ratchets up over these faked papers, it is
obvious that he is going to find a fall guy for his slipping
reputation. Our sources indicate that Tenet (and others) will be
reprimanded in public but praised in private. He will in all
probability not be given the sack because, quite simply, George T
knows where the bodies are buried. The best way to cover this is
to be strictly neutral in comment and we must now maintain a completely
neutral position in all of this. If Bush has the same problems
Nixon did over Watergate, we cannot be seen by our viewers as being
blindly partisan. We have to have
plausible deniability in this. The NYT is now beginning
to crack the wall of silence surrounding the Presidency and as they
are the bellweather, best to watch them closely.
(July
13) The figures given out about a 3 billion monthly bill for the Iraq
occupation and “pacification” is going to blow up in the
Administration’s face.(More like 5 billion a month!) The Democrats
have been in disarray because they feel that by attacking the wartime
President, they can be accused of disloyalty to the American
people…The major disaster for the White House is that they cannot
get oil out of Iraq. The plan always was to root out Saddam, occupy
the country after securing the oil fields first and then put a CIA
trained and controlled local governments into place. This puppet
governments (let’s face it gentlemen, that is what it would be but
we can call it Iraqi autonomy) would graciously grant to the US the
right to protect their oil resources and assist them in recovering
their pre-Desert Storm production levels. In fact, the Iraqis would
get none of the proceeds of the oil sales…The President and
his top men, including Rumsfeld, were fully warned by both
the CIA and MI that there was a very strong probability that
internal unrest in Iraq could tie the US up for years, not months
but as we know, the White House has always listened to a different
drummer…The Administration is over a barrel on this because if they
try to make too many scapegoats, someone will let the cat out of the
bag over who really knew what and what kind of specific warnings the
White House had actually received…the same scenario as the 9-11
warnings….It’s strongly suspected that the Russians know exactly
where Saddam is but will never tell us…Bush has refused to allow any
Iraqi oil resources to flow into Russia and has also refused to pay
off Saddam’s bills with Russia. The President hates Putin, calling
him a quote KGB thug
endquote. The President is certainly a good hater!
(July
14) Happy talk at the Pentagon about a universal draft is fading away.
No chance of this disaster even being broached and it should not be
mentioned at all. It is doubtful that the White House will touch this
one now…There is a growing fear in counter intelligence circles that
if the resistance movement in Iraq is not stopped, the resulting very
bad PR might cause an “incident” somewhere in the US just before
election time to whip the voters up to vote for Bush as a “wartime
leader” who can put a number of draconian laws and edicts in place
to “protect the American people.” Someone in the FBI said to one
of our people, entirely off the record, that quote it will probably be
the Statue of Liberty endquote. There must be no speculation on
this subject under any circumstances. If some rigged incident does
happen and we comment on it in advance, new regulations could cause us
serious problems …If this happens, it will be Rumsfeld who plans
and executes it. This will give the President the usual deniability.
It is more than likely that we will get some advance notice of such an
action and then decisions can be made relative to going to the public.
On one hand, it would be a magnificent media coup guaranteeing ratings
off the chart and on the other, a death sentence…
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