CBS Report Uses al Qaeda Propaganda Film, Claims it’s ‘CBS Obtained’

January 29, 2007 | Filed Under Entertainment, Foreign Policy, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Uncategorized, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, here is a question: Why is CBS using propaganda film originally posted on an al Qaeda website and claiming it is merely “CBS obtained” with no mention of the actual source for Lara Logan’s report on The “Battle of Haifa Street”?

The anti-Iraq website called Iraqslogger posted a story about how CBS reporter Lara Logan is crying that CBS seems to have spiked her “Haifa Street” story . Logan has sent out a mass email to all her friends and colleagues in the world of journalism in hopes that they will pressure CBS to show her report that has not yet made it to TV. It has, though, appeared on the internet.

In her email, Logan claims that this story is “largely being ignored” and she asks for her pals to email CBS to get them to air it. But she urged supporters not to mention her “request” to pressure the network to air the piece if they did so. I guess she feels like begging is unseemly…. even though she is doing it anyway.

But, Iraq watcher, Nibras Kazimi a Visiting Scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC., noticed something strange about Logan’s piece.

Kazimi seems to have discovered that some of the film in Logan’s piece is the exact footage that first appeared on an al Qaeda sponsored website. Yet during the CBS piece they claim is just “footage obtained by CBS” and they do not mention its original appearance on the al Qaeda site.

Says Kazimi:

Al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq released 8 minutes of cell phone footage through its media arm, the Al-Furqan Institute for Media Productions, under the title ‘Some of the Casualties of the Heretics in Haifa Street After Sunday’s Fighting, January 7, 2007, in Baghdad.’ The grainy images were of six or seven bodies wearing Iraqi military fatigues with ‘carry-out’ lunch boxes strewn about them.

So, the big question is, why is CBS not telling viewers that the film used is al Qaeda propaganda? And, further, why don’t they mention that this fighting was claimed by al Qaeda as their handiwork? Why does CBS just call the fighters “insurgents”?

Worse, the piece contains a purported civilian denouncing the Americans. This so-called man on the street also does not mention al Qaeda’s participation in the fighting.

Does CBS have enough friendly contact with al Qaeda to get their video and propaganda? If so, why don’t they tell us this is so? Why the smoke screen with the film being benignly termed “CBS obtained”? Why the refusal to mention al Qaeda at all?

Are they trying to somehow screen al Qaeda’s work from the American people?

I have seen the video and it sure looks the same to me.

You be the judge:

View CBS report here

Download al Qaeda video here

(Hat tip to Freeper Ganeshpuri89)

UPDATE 1
I am getting reports that the CBS link is not playing well, now. Maybe they have taken it down or maybe there are too many requests?

UPDATE 2
As Robert below indicated, you can view the report at YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJeNkQefPok

Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

Bookmark this story to your favorite service: