Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

We've been deluged over the past day with repeated images of cheering Iraqis, thrilled that “the war is over” and Saddam has been overthrown (quick pre-explanation question: if 250 Iraqis celebrate when Saddam is overthrown, how many Americans — let alone Iraqis — would celebrate if Bush was overthrown?). We've watched a US flag smeared over the face of a statue of Saddam, as a US tank pulled it over with crowds of Iraqis cheering in the background. The image below is typical of what the Hollywood war machine is generating:

Wow, the Iraqis sure are happy, right! The middle photo is a Reuter's shot subtitled something along the lines of “happy Iraqi man welcomes liberating coalition troops”. It should be noted that this “event” took place right across the street from the Palestine Hotel where most of the media was located. Hey… There's a camera on the roof — let's look at the long shot:

That's kind of odd, isn't it? For some reason it's almost entirely deserted. Is that strange for a city of five million people? Let's take a look at a longer shot. To make it clear, I've circled the statue and the crowd shown on TV in green.

I've also circled some of the US tanks in yellow… So… Basically the area is deserted and surrounded by the US military. There's a cheering crowd of people that are positioned so that they look like a giant crowd in front of the cameras. Have you ever seen a small TV talk show taping? They don't have much of a live audience, but by the time it makes it to TV it sure gives that illusion.

Earlier today I'd mentioned the Ahmed Chalabi (more, more), who left Iraq in 1958 and runs the “Iraqi National Congress” who claim to be the rightful leaders of Iraq — he's just returned along with a small band of his thugs, with US protection of course. Incidentally, he's also outrageously wealthy, and is buddy-buddy with many people in the Bush regime. He was also indicted in 1992 for embezzlement and fraud (are you surprised he's associated with Bush). Anyway, here's a photo of him and some of his thugs from the Washington Post:

Oh! Hold on! I think I've seen that dude behind him before… But when I first saw him (look up) he was a cheering citizen of Baghdad. I don't know. Maybe it's not the same guy. Maybe that long shot photo has a different explanation… Come up with your own stupid (or very stupid) fairytale, hopefully one that sells a product or at least distracts you from the corpses of children… That's what the news certainly seems to do.

But remember a few things: There is still massive fighting going on in Baghdad and around Iraq, and will be for years potentially (more, more). Iraqis are killing returning “leaders” (more). Turkey is set to invade as well (more, more). US warplanes are pounding the Syrian border right now (more, more). Basra and other “liberated” cities are anarchy where armed gangs of thugs loot the city (more, more)… And so on…

"You'll see the celebrations and we will be happy Saddam has gone," one [Iraqi] said to me. "But we will then want to rid ourselves of the Americans and we will want to keep our oil and there will be resistance and then they will call us "terrorists". Nor did the Americans look [like] happy "liberators". They pointed their rifles at the pavements and screamed at motorists to stop one who did not, an old man in an old car, was shot in the head in front of two French journalists.

- Robert Fisk (more)

Then you've got the latest claim from Fox (more) that “weapons grade plutonium” has been found at the Iraqi nuke complex (more). Not only that, but they're saying that when people get within a hundred yards of the facility that the radiation counters go “off the charts”.

Let me remind people that the IAEA and weapons inspectors checked that site. For this story to be true, the UN inspections team and dozens of “friendly” Western states would have had to be involved in a massive cover-up designed to hide an H-bomb program by Iraq.

Will people believe anything?