2 posts tagged “bush”

Where did this take place? The Gulf Of Tonkin? No? Oh, sorry, my mistake...

"The incident, described by Pentagon officials as a 'careless, reckless and potentially hostile' provocation by Iranian boats that nearly led to gunfire, was actually a nonthreatening, 'almost routine' encounter that officials in Washington distorted. 'The initial press stories on the incident, all of which can be traced to a briefing by deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs in charge of media operations, Bryan Whitman, contained similar information that has since been repudiated by the navy itself,' Porter writes. 'Then the navy disseminated a short video into which was spliced the audio of a phone call warning that US warships would 'explode' in 'a few seconds"

In short, the Navy says it was a nonthreatening, routine encounter.  The Pentagon reported it as dangerous and hostile.  CNN and CBS news ran with the story, making it seem like a dangerous encounter with a hostile Iran, when in fact it was nothing of the kind.  Of course, now Bush is echoing the false story too..

What is weird about this, is that there was another similar incident that actually happened, but it hasn't been picked up as much, or used by Bush.

So the next time something does happen, what are we to believe?

The story is from Asia Times, January 17th 2007.
I saw it here at PR Watch.