Pentagon totally unreliable as news source

The consistent lies by the Pentagon regarding the development of this illegal terrorist attack on the sovereign state of Iraq makes this the source of deception and denial, not news. Arab news sources like Al Jazeera are more credible as indeed is the Iraqi Information Ministry.

The Pentagon continues to insist at 18.36 MSK that there are no coalition aircraft missing, despite claims by the RAF that an aircraft has not reported back. It is not yet clear whether this aircraft was the one shot down by a US Patriot missile (a Tornado) or another one reported downed by anti-aircraft fire over Baghdad. In this incident, two US pilots are reported to have been captured by al Jazeera while Iraqi sources claimed that one US pilot has been captured and another is being searched for, a claim that it later denied.

The Pentagon started the weekend claiming that the entire Iraqi 51st Division had surrendered. Some hours later the reports quoted “massive numbers of soldiers surrendering”, then a more precise “8,000 soldiers from the Iraqi 51st Division” and finally on Sunday afternoon, Richard Myers, US Chief of Staff, admitted that only 400 Iraqi prisoners of war had been taken.

The Pentagon stated that Iraqi Information Ministry claims that a group of US soldiers had been taken were lies, now, after they have been shown on television, Rumsfeld is forced to do an about turn and admit that indeed, a group of five soldiers, including one woman, have been taken alive. Al Jazeera claims that a further four US soldiers were killed in combat.

The fact that the Pentagon admits that the Iraqi Information Ministry claims were true also means that the Pentagon admits that it was telling lies. Rumsfeld adds the quality of barefaced liar to his growing list of negative attributes: terrorist, murderer and war criminal.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru