In Friday’s statement on Syria SoS John Kerry referenced a photograph to impress the American public and the world with the horrific chemical weapons gassing of Syrian civilians (reference comes @ 5:40 mark – 6:17 mark).
Only problem is that was not a photo of the dead Syrians.
From photographer Marco di Lauro’s site the above photo’s caption:
Al Musayyib, Iraq – May 27, 2003
An Iraqi child jumps over a line of hundreds of bodies, in a school where they have been transported from a mass grave, to be identified. They were discovered in the desert in the outskirts of Al Musayyib, 40 km south of Baghdad. It has been estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 Iraqis had been reported missing in the region south of Baghdad. People have been searching for days for identity cards or other clues among the skeletons to try to find the remains of brothers, fathers, mothers, sisters and even children who disappeared when Saddam’s government crushed a Shi’ite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War.
Obviously the Obama administration, after 5 years, is STILL unable to check its sources and vet its information before using it. The above photograph Kerry referred to had been used a day earlier by the BBC and was picked up by other news outlets in the U.S. and Europe, as well the U.S. State Department’s head Friday. It is said the photographer “nearly fell off his chair” when he saw how wrongly his 10 year old photograph of Iraq was being used to promote a strike on Assad in Syria.
Some are also reminding that this very same photo was used by Kerry’s ilk and the media as proof our troops were mass murdering Iraqis during the Iraq War…
The Universal Spectator 
25 responses to “John Kerry: Fake But Accurate on That Photo of Dead Syrian Children … Or Something”
Assad has a lot to gain from gassing his people. He’s using the perfect strategy. Keep it low-scale and intermittent so that response is hesitant. Then .. the world becomes desensitized to its use, completely ignore it and Assad can continue an effective terror campaign. Assad is a master at this game.
LikeLike
“The above photograph Kerry referred to had been used a day earlier by the BBC…”
“A day earlier”…? Check the date on the article you link this statement to, it was written by Hannah Furness on 27 May 2012, more than a year before Kerry’s speech about the chemical attack even happened.
Who’s not doing their homework? Or was this just dishonest manipulation. No one wants another Iraq in Syria, but you’re not helping stop it with bullshit.
LikeLike
Maybe he was referring to this image:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/world-urges-un-to-investigate-syria-chemical-attack/
But at the same time, you have to remmeber that Muslims do not cover their dead before they are properly washed, you will never see the blood stained corps in any muslim country unless they die in a “jihad” where it is said to be OK to bury them with blood stains.
LikeLike
So the link that you provided of the BBC using the photo from the day before somehow is a UK Telegraph site from May 2012. Out of curiosity, did you listen to Kerry’s speech or are you going on hearsay? There was never any reference to that particular picture and if you think that is the only one of children in white linen then you haven’t spent 5 seconds on google.
This is a direct quote. Feel free to point out which picture was being referenced.
“And just as important, we know what the doctors and the nurses who treated them didn’t report: not a scratch, not a shrapnel wound, not a cut, not a gunshot wound. We saw rows of dead lined up in burial shrouds, the white linen unstained by a single drop of blood.
Instead of being tucked safely in their beds at home, we saw rows of children lying side by side, sprawled on a hospital floor, all of them dead from Assad’s gas, and surrounded by parents and grandparents who had suffered the same fate.”
full transcript from the speech.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.544503
LikeLike
One big problem with this “story” … Kerry never references this photo this in his speech.
LikeLike
“The Obama administration just doesn’t appear to do its homework very well.”
Luis, that’s the understatement of the decade…
LikeLike
It’s me again Jeremy.
It occurred to me that your issue here could be that you may lack a working understanding of what it is that constitutes intellectual dishonesty in a debate, so I thought I’d give you an example:
Me: I don’t like Obamacare because I believe it to be too costly, too intrusive, and it expands the size and scope of the Federal government to a degree that stands in stark contrast with my core political ideological values of fiscal responsibility, and minimal intrusiveness.
Obama supporter: You don’t like Obamacare because you’re a racist.
Which one do you think is an intellectually dishonest (and bankrupt) debating stance?
LikeLike
Jeremy. I’ve read the post half a dozen times now, and there is no reference to there only being one photo of rows of dead bodies at all in it. That is something that you made up out of whole cloth, and perhaps what you wanted to extract from the post in order to attack the post.
The post simply points out that,
A. Kerry showed a ten year-old photo of dead Iraqis and misidentified the picture, and
B. The Obama administration just doesn’t appear to do its homework very well, even when it comes to stating the reason why we’re about to bomb a foreign nation.
So, if there is in fact an intellectually dishonest argument going on here, it is the one where you raised an objection to something that was not said by anyone in an attempt to bring into question the accuracy of an accurate post.
LikeLike
You’re writing that I’m “too stupid to understand” yet you write this —
“I suspected the post would stay, so a like it quite a bit.”
— that is non-sensical and incoherent. Stick to Facebook, Jeremy. It’s closer to your IQ range…
LikeLike
In other words, Jeremy, your energy would be better spent commenting on actual (alleged) “news” sites, networks and newspapers, that for years now have been setting up complete false premises with their criminally deceptive ‘creative’ editing of audio/video/photos from throughout the Iraq War to TEA Party gatherings to 911 calls (Oh, and typing up fake military documents), and then presenting it as fact. And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the false premise(s) this administration for the last 5 years has operated under with every government department in conjunction with the American people.
LikeLike
If you are worried about “intellectual dishonesty” you should check your sources for news information, and then reflect on the daily practice of it coming out of this administration.
We are not a news organization. We present news stories and include our informed and instinctual opinion(s). We were those in the few that a couple years ago warned of exactly what direction the “Arab Spring” would go, especially in Egypt, and we were 100% right. As a matter of fact, we had opposing commenters come back and eat crow.
LikeLike
“Don’t worry, this is the last time I’ll ever click here.”
Don’t let the door hit you, etc., etc.
LikeLike
Don’t worry, this is the last time I’ll ever click here. George, since you are too stupid to understand, that “first sentence” was saying that I was glad you left up your bullshit. It’s better that people like you guys expose your stupidity and unwillingness to admit your lies, as opposed to keeping it hidden.
Why would Kerry reference an old, fake photo, when there are plenty of new, legitimate ones? I oppose war in Syria, as I oppose intellectual dishonesty like this pathetic little “blog.” I’m glad I have no power in this waste of space. Good day.
LikeLike
Really? I “lie”?
You cited Salon, and I have no doubt you are an avid NYTimes champion. You know, that very same NYT that eviscerated then Pres. Bush and our troops for 8 years, aiding the enemy in so doing, and just a few days ago insisted Obama MUST “Bomb Syria, Even if It Is Illegal”. Maybe you even hang on every dripping word the MSNBC clown posse spews.
Take your simpering little liberal arse over to your own community where you will get slaps on the back for pumping your fist in support of yet another scatter-brained Obama conflict in a region where he is consistently promoting and aiding radical Islamists (“rebels”). Your ilk has gone into idological debt over the last 20 years presenting conservatives in a landslide of false premises and spoon-fed the willfully ignorant American public on it.
In a nutshell, if you don’t like what is written here go away. There is no discussion or debate with your side anymore. You all have made that pretty clear. We have better things to do than clean up troll crap on our blog.
Get your own. You have no power on this one.
LikeLike
Of course you have no doubt in your lies, Maggie. Propagandists never do.
LikeLike
Clever editing of my
postscomment,fucksticksir, you’re hilarious.Did you get a nice big boner while you did that? You’re the geek in high school that grows up to be a power-tripping cop. My mistake trying to engage in reasonable debate with ideologues.[Ed.: No, Jeremy, I was the guy in high school who walked out on leftists spewing bullshit. I could smell your kind then, and I can still smell ’em now…]LikeLike
I suspected the post would stay, so a like it quite a bit. You fucking morons have a nice day.
[Ed.: “Fucking morons”? Exactly what was that first sentence trying to say?]
LikeLike
“Propagandist” and “liar”: project much, do you?
The post stays. The photo stays. If you don’t agree with it, well, that’s just too fucking bad, ain’t it?
LikeLike
I am admitting to no such thing. Perhaps you should check your premise that I have. And perhaps you should check your premise that you believe you can come in here and dictate what the content of this blog should and shouldn’t be. Get your own site and write whatever you want. If you don’t like our views move along, nothing for you to see here.
This administration over the last nearly 5 years has admitted to getting its news on important events/issues from the media news. I have no doubt it IS the BBC’s 1 day prior use of that exact photo Kerry was referring to. They know they can get away with their vague references, even when they are completely wrong, because they know: 1. they will not get called on it by the MSM, 2. they have sycophants (perhaps you’re one) that will ride in on a tricycle and use your water pistol to give them BS cover.
Now bite on this: Everything Kerry said in the 2004 presidential debate on matters such as this (Syria) are now in a very stark 180 degree opposition to that 2004 stance. And he is not getting called on that either.
(I use this video because it has the Kerry quote in it without the full hour to sift through for it) http://youtu.be/IGnbsolh6Js
LikeLike
Sorry for your confusion, George. I am a
COMMENTERTROLL, suggesting that the EDITOR remove an inaccurate post. That or they are a propagandist and a liar. Don’t worry, I suspect I know which.LikeLike
Jeremy, who made you an editor of this blog?
LikeLike
But I’m glad you’re admitting that’s not the photo Kerry was describing. Perhaps then, this entire post should be taken down, since you’ve admitted it’s 100% false.
LikeLike
I have no doubt the rebels commit many brutalities as well. And I might even agree with your logic re Assad’s lack of motivation v the rebels. But if he had nothing to hide, he wouldn’t have held up UN inspectors 4 days. I’m not saying I support a full-scale war, or even intervention necessarily, I just oppose intellectually dishonest arguments like this one.
LikeLike
Yeah…
That’s a photo, alright. Not the one Kerry was describing, however.
But the real WEAK premise here is assuming Assad, who had nothing to gain from it, did this gassing when it is the radical-infested “rebels” who have everything to gain from gassing civilians in order to get Obama involved under the pressure of his own “red line”.
The people within Syria, as within Egypt, are not happy with the Western media reporting warped and one-sided storiets on what is going on in their countries. The brutalities committed everyday on Syrian civilians by the “rebels” is not getting out in the mainstream media. What is also surprising is the lack of anti-war voices in the US.
LikeLike
Your premise is that there’s only ever been one photograph of rows of dead bodies in white shrouds? WEAK. http://www.salon.com/2013/08/23/obama_calls_alleged_chemical_attack_in_syria_a_grave_concern/
LikeLike