Main stream media reports about an event in Iraq's Ramadi were all over the place today.
Reuters, as of this evening, reports "masked militants attacked a U.S. base and a local government building with mortars and rockets .... before holding ground on central streets." Scores of heavily armed men set up roadblocks at major entrance and exit points to the city ... and patrolled the main thoroughfares.
The Reuters article refers to an earlier report:
"They've taken control of all the main streets and other sections of Ramadi," a reporter for Reuters there said earlier. "I've seen about 400 armed men controlling streets, some of which were controlled by Americans before."
The Washington Post reports there were U.S. military officials adamantly denied widely distributed stories that there had been numerous attacks by armed men in the city:
A U.S. official said there was only one insurgent attack by midday Thursday in Ramadi, a rocket-propelled grenade hitting a U.S.-Iraqi observation post.
The denials followed morning reports by Iraqi officials speaking to The Washington Post as well as to the Associated Press and Reuters news agency, of a much more serious situation, in which some 250 armed men took control of the center of the city, fired mortars and rockets at U.S. bases and a government building and set up roadblocks.
The insurgents reportedly targeted a meeting between Marine officers and tribal leaders who support resistance to the U.S. presence, part of a groundbreaking series of contacts that got underway earlier this week.
But Marine Capt. Jeffrey S. Pool, a spokesman for the 2nd Marine Division, said the day's follow-up meeting with tribal leaders was held without incident at a U.S. base outside Ramadi.
And Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch in Baghdad, the top U.S. spokesman here, said, "The idea that there's this mass uprising and the insurgents took control of the city is incorrect."
The Associated Press report was more sensational:
The attacks in Ramadi occurred as local tribal leaders and U.S. military officials were to hold their second meeting in a week at the governor's office in the city center. The insurgents apparently tried to shell the building, but reporters inside said there was no damage or injuries.
Police Lt. Mohammed al-Obaidi said at least four mortar rounds fell near the U.S. base on the eastern edge of the city, but that there were no reports of casualties.
An AP Television News video showed the insurgents walking down a shuttered market street and a residential neighborhood, as well as firing four mortar rounds. The masked men, however, looked relaxed and did not engage in any battles, and no U.S. bases or government buildings were shown.
Residents said that within minutes, scores of masked gunmen, believed to be members of Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group, ran into the city's streets but dispersed after launching attacks with mortars in what U.S. officers said may have been little more than a propaganda stunt.
The U.S. military reported that only one rocket-propelled grenade was fired at an observation post and there were no injuries of significant damage.
At Rantingprofs, Cori Dauber posts that tonight CBS had a piece composed of combat footage from Ramadi. The footage is from mid-November, and the source is Time magazine's Michael Ware.
Cori's incisive analysis makes several important points about this coverage. Most importantly she contrasts the coverage the placement of accurate stories for pay, to the situation where a primary source shaping the American public's perception of the war may have passed on a hoax prepared by the enemy.
But I want to focus on Mr. Ware. Cori asks why was a print journalist taking video? And why did it end up with CBS, and not CNN? And then there is Ware cavorting around Iraq with the enemy.
Cori links to this CNN article from last year about Ware serving as a conduit for the terrorists' videos of their evil acts. Two years ago I posted "Time Finds A WMD" about NPR's Robert Siegel's interview of Ware. The interview revealed that Ware had been going on adventures with the terrorists for the previous five months. These outings even included one during which Ware witnessed an attack being launched against a U.S. facility.
Ware is getting even more attention today. At Think Progress, Judd posts about Ware's appearance on Anderson Cooper yesterday. During this appearace Ware said President Bush's description of Iraqi forces in the battle of Tal Afar was completely untrue. Ware was embedded with the U.S. troops during that engagement.
I just don't understand how someone who is so tight with the enemy becomes embedded with U.S. forces.
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