Mirror of Wildernesses...

Susan Madrak directs us to:

Behind the Looking Glass in Iraq: On May 10, Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi, the newly appointed governor of Iraq's Anbar province, was kidnapped by insurgents. Five days later, according to news reports, he was freed. But today, more than two weeks after he was freed, he was "found dead along with his militant captors after a clash with U.S. forces."

Notice anything unusual in this chain of events? You do? No one in the media did. Not one report that I've seen of al-Mahalawi's death mentions that, according to the Iraqi government, he had been freed by his captors 16 days previously. I wonder why. Why was't one editor brave enough to print the following, "Raja Nawaf al-Mahalawi, the governor of Iraq's Anbar province, was killed along with his kidnappers 16 days after they had released him." After all, if you're going to print statements of U.S. and Iraqi officials as legitimate news--that is, if you're going to print absurdities--why try to hide them?

An examination of what else was happening in Iraq on May 15 explains the mystery. That was the day of Condoleezza Rice's surprise one-day visit. Evidently, it was too embarrassing for Iraq's putative leaders to have to meet with their boss while the governor of Iraq's largest province was being held by the insurgents. So they "freed" him. Simple as that. Reality? It's no longer a limitation.

Comments

[Ken Houghton]

THAT will teach me to use angle brackets...

(stunned silence)

[paul]

Another possibility is that he was actually fighting alongside the dead-enders, and that the original kidnapping was a ruse. Or is this just another one of those logical possibilities with no empirical support similar to the stuff that Okrent took Krugman to task for not mentioning?

[Joe O]

good lord.

[A. Zarkov]

From the Command Post:

http://www.command-post.org/2_archives/019533.html

“The confirmation of al-Mahalawi’s death ended a lingering mystery surrounding his whereabouts. Relatives and a government official said May 15 that al-Mahalawi’s kidnappers released him, but U.S. military officials maintained he had not been seen until his body was discovered Sunday.
Kuba said al-Mahalawi had never been released, but instead had been handed from one terrorist cell to another.”

The media did of course cover Mahalawi’s putative release, that how you know about it. I don’t understand the problem. Not every statement floating around the wire services is true. Evidently the first story was incorrect.

[KenS]

I think we can forgive the Iraqis for confusing "freed" and "killed."

[Steve]

Thanks, KenS, you nailed it.

[sm]

When the US is forced to withdraw from Iraq, there will be no recriminations, because the official line will be, "Iraq? There's a country called Iraq?"

[JR]

The AP reported: "Also Sunday, gunmen freed the kidnapped governor of Iraq's western Anbar province after U.S. troops ended a weeklong offensive in the region, relatives and a government official said...

"The governor's cousin, Safi Jalal, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the captive had been freed."

"He was released and he is currently in the (village) of Obeidi," he said. "People celebrated by firing shots in the air."

Perhaps the cousin is in on the conspiracy, or perhaps something else is going on.

[nomial]

Maybe they cloned him.

[gcochran]

Evil twin.

[Barry]

Or maybe one of those bullets came down in the wrong spot, and killed them.

There there was an urgent need for some BS, fast.....

[chris]

The official line will be liberals lost Iraq which will be the next major subject in the media, how did liberals lose our chance for democracy in Iraq? Frigging hypocrite liberals.

[chris]

Liberals blocking recruitment:

washingtonpost.com
Pentagon delays release of May recruiting data
Reuters
Wednesday, June 1, 2005; 3:47 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Wednesday postponed by more than a week the release of military recruiting figures for May, as the Army and Marine Corps struggle to attract new troops amid the Iraq war.

The military services had routinely provided most recruiting statistics for a given month on the first business day of the next month.

Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the May numbers for the active-duty and reserve components of the all-volunteer military will be released on June 10.

"Military recruiting is instrumental to our readiness and merits the earliest release of data. But at the same time, this information must be reasonably scrutinized and explained to the public, which deserves the fullest insight into military performance in this important area," Krenke said.

Asked whether the move would simply delay the release of bad news, Krenke said, "That's not necessarily true," noting that "we expect the numbers to improve during the summer months."

Military recruiters have said potential recruits and their parents were expressing wariness about enlisting during the Iraq war. They said improving civilian job opportunities also were affecting recruiting.

The regular Army missed its recruiting goals for three straight months entering May, falling short by a whopping 42 percent in April. The Army was 16 percent behind its year-to-date target entering May, with a goal of signing up 80,000 recruits in fiscal 2005, which ends Sept. 30.

The Marine Corps missed its goal for signing up new recruits for four straight months entering May and was 2 percent behind its year-to-date goal. It hopes to sign up 38,195 recruits in fiscal 2005.

I was pointed to this article from the Drudge site. Sometimes he lets the veil slip like last week when a story about the Pat Tillman lying was up for about 30 minutes.

[rea]

"They said improving civilian job opportunities also were affecting recruiting."

Uh-oh--time for the administration to tinker with the tax code, or something . . .

[chris]

That laughter before you cry curve is coming into effect.

[christopher ball]

The lesson is read AP rather the Reuters. AP wrote:

Relatives and a government official had announced May 15 that al-Mahalawi's kidnappers released him. But U.S. military officials maintained he had not been seen until his body was discovered Sunday in Iraq's volatile western Anbar province.

Government spokesman Laith Kuba told reporters Tuesday that al-Mahalawi was killed by rubble that fell when the house where he was held became the scene of a fierce battle between U.S. forces and foreign fighters.

Kuba said al-Mahalawi had never been released, as his family thought, but had instead been handed from one terrorist cell to another.