ABC 9/11 "Dramatization"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Diana Cirillo <diana.cirillo () mail com>
Date: September 8, 2006 4:57:30 PM PDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] ABC 9/11 "Dramatization"

Couldn't agree more that people will take this "docudrama" as truth,  
and it
will be a very bad thing.

RE: 43% believe that Saddam had something to do with 9/11.
And 50% still believe that Iraq had WMD (see excerpt from AP story  
below).
This is just plain aggressive ignorance.

D.

Associated Press

[.]

Despite this, a Harris Poll released July 21 found that a full 50  
percent of
U.S. respondents - up from 36 percent last year - said they believe  
Iraq did
have the forbidden arms when U.S. troops invaded in March 2003, an  
attack
whose stated purpose was elimination of supposed WMD. Other polls  
also have
found an enduring American faith in the WMD story.

"I'm flabbergasted," said Michael Massing, a media critic whose writings
dissected the largely unquestioning U.S. news reporting on the Bush
administration's shaky WMD claims in 2002-03.

"This finding just has to cause despair among those of us who hope  
for an
informed public able to draw reasonable conclusions based on evidence,"
Massing said.

Timing may explain some of the poll result. Two weeks before the  
survey, two
Republican lawmakers, Pennsylvania's Sen. Rick Santorum and  
Michigan's Rep.
Peter Hoekstra, released an intelligence report in Washington saying 500
chemical munitions had been collected in Iraq since the 2003  
invasion. "I
think the Harris Poll was measuring people's surprise at hearing this  
after
being told for so long there were no WMD in the country," said Hoekstra
spokesman Jamal Ware.

But the Pentagon and outside experts stressed that these abandoned  
shells,
many found in ones and twos, were 15 years old or more, their chemical
contents were degraded, and they were unusable as artillery ordnance.  
Since
the 1990s, such "orphan" munitions, from among 160,000 made by Iraq and
destroyed, have turned up on old battlefields and elsewhere in Iraq,
ex-inspectors say. In other words, this was no surprise. "These are not
stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction," said Scott Ritter, the ex- 
Marine
who was a U.N. inspector in the 1990s. "They weren't deliberately  
withheld
from inspectors by the Iraqis."

[.]

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 5:59 PM
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] ABC 9/11 "Dramatization"

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: September 8, 2006 2:52:02 PM PDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: ABC 9/11 "Dramatization"


Dave,

I don't much care whether a film or mini-series is seen as biased
toward the left, the right, or toward little green outer-space
aliens.  These kinds of fictionalized "docudramas," which become
ingrained in the popular consciousness as if they were documentaries
-- complete with false dialogue, "composite" characters, and all the
rest -- do an immense disservice to this country.

There is enough confusion among the U.S. population regarding 9/11
as it stands right now.  A poll released a few days ago says that
43% of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein was directly
involved in the 9/11 attacks.  This despite a continuing array of
reports (including a new one just out) that deny this, and President
Bush's own recent categorical statement that Hussein was not involved
(despite the administration's constant attempts at blurring
its Iraq war and the "war on terror").

I do hope that everyone who cares about real facts vs. fictionalized
TV trash will keep in mind which organizations, sponsors, and related
entities have supported this and similar classes of productions.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
    - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, IOIC
    - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com




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