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DAY 2 - THIS IS OUR 'TOP' POST UNTIL WE GET A RESPONSE FROM AP Page views since posting: 10,411 - First posted: 7.25 PM 10 August 2006. New post underneath this one. They hunt in packs, they film in packs and they lie in packs. And their bosses, sitting in their air-conditioned offices, thousands of miles from the action, back up their lies. And the liar-in-chief is Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president and executive editor for Associated Press. Unlike Reuters' who have at least admitted their photo-fraud and started their own internal investigation, Carroll's hastily-produced "rebuttal" of the staged...

At first everyone thought they were just blowing smoke, but the debunking of a Reuters photograph by a group of Web sites has launched a fiery online war in which bloggers have taken on the mainstream media. Bloggers, or writers on web logs, were the first to reveal that a Reuters photograph depicting plumes of black smoke rising over Beirut was doctored to enhance smoke above the city. The Web site www.LittleGreenFootballs.com is credited with first revealing the scandal, which has been dubbed Reutersgate, but the affair has spread far wider than the Reuters News Agency and into several of...

ATTENTION EDITORS - CAPTION CORRECTION FOR SJS01 - 05 WHICH WERE TRANSMITTED AT APPROXIMATELY 1725 GMT ON AUGUST 9, 2006. THE CAPTION INCORRECTLY STATES THE CAUSE OF DEATH. CORRECTED VERSIONS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOW THIS ADVISORY. WE ARE SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE CAUSED. REUTERS. A Palestinian man carries the body of three year-old Raja Abu Shaban, in Gaza August 9, 2006. The three-year-old girl who had been reported killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza on Wednesday actually died of an accident, Palestinian medical workers said on Thursday. Workers at Gaza's Shifa hospital said on August 10, 2006 that the...

-Snip- As we said about the Reuters incident, media bias is a consensus, not a conspiracy. Consensus is what this apparent rash of unprofessional photography appears to be, which should remind U.S. policy-makers that active public diplomacy is indispensable as long as there are journalists who find war stories too good to check. -Snip-These new instances appear to be shoddy journalism, not propagandizing, and so their bias is inadvertent but nevertheless revealing. -Snip- Once the facts emerge in such cases, the full weight of the government's communications efforts should be made to ensure that the correct information is distributed broadly...

Warning Graphic Content Germany`s NDR presents unpublished video footage from the qana events, demasking "Green Helmet" as a cynical movie director, staging photographs with a liitle boys body. ... (more) Watch the video here Warning: It's graphic.

LGF: “Fauxtography” is born Slublog: Toys in all the right places Extreme Makeover Beirut Edition Allah Pundit * Lebanese pieta * Gway Pundit Ynetnews on AP photos Watch the Video

This plot involved planes going from Britain to the U.S.....from the "little satan" to the "big satan". I believe this is the Aug 22 surprise/announcement/firworks that Ahmadinejad has been referring to. Anyone else mention this connection?

Media Bias: Need a little anti-war, anti-Semitic buck-up? Try some Reuters coverage. The British news outlet will be only too happy to oblige. Over the weekend, a Reuters photographer was caught trying to make one of Israel's defensive attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon look much more devastating than it was. The photo was eventually withdrawn and the photographer ostensibly fired. The photo, an image of the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, had apparently been altered to give the effect that the smoke was thicker and the damage worse than it was. The doctored version, credited to Adnan Hajj,...

It's like Christmas in August! Watch two Dims pander to their respective target groups to see who is more liberal...

The Passion of the Toys In Platoon, Oliver Stone said the first casualty of war is innocence. He was wrong. As the photos here show, the first casualties of war are...the symbols of innocence. And photographers from Reuters and the AP just happened upon many of these perfectly placed symbols of war's horrors. Ben Curtis, AP Sharif Karim, Reuters Sharif Karim, Reuters Sharif Karim, Reuters Issam Kobeisi, Reuters Mohamed Azakir, Reuters This last one is the only one that seems...untouched. Feel the pathos. Mourn for these oh-so-photogenic and suspiciously dust-free trinkets of childhood. Just don't ask any questions about their...

Reuters reported that 40 people were killed in a Lebanese village by Israeli air strikes. Less than three hours later, the Associated Press reported that the number of casualties had been dropped to one.

Michelle recaps the Hajj/Reuters affair along with great examples of the doctored and staged photos. A must see. Click here to watch the videoA must watch

More Media Manipulation The Unluckiest Beirut Woman?

LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah. Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi called the measure precautionary but said the fact that two of the images by photographer Adnan Hajj had been manipulated undermined trust in his entire body of work. "There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Szlukovenyi said in a statement. "Reuters...

Fox News just reported that Reuters admits second photo was doctored. Here's the image:

Another photo by Reuters photographer Adnan Hajj has been shown to be doctored. The photo, which proports to be of an Israeli F-16 firing missiles on Lebanon has been doctored to make the photo seem more sensational. Here is the original Reuters photo along with its caption.

LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Reuters, the global news and information agency, told a freelance Lebanese photographer on Sunday it would not use any more of his pictures after he doctored an image of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on Beirut. The photograph by Adnan Hajj, which was published on news Web sites on Saturday, showed thick black smoke rising above buildings in the Lebanese capital after an Israeli air raid in the war with the Shi'ite Islamic group Hizbollah, now in its fourth week. Reuters withdrew the doctored image on Sunday and replaced it with the unaltered...

Extract: Environments conducive to the rise of terrorism include international and national environments, as well as subnational ones such as universities, where many terrorists first become familiar with Marxist-Leninist ideology or other revolutionary ideas and get involved with radical groups. Russell and Miller identify universities as the major recruiting ground for terrorists... The physiological approach to terrorism suggests that the role of the media in promoting the spread of terrorism cannot be ignored in any discussion of the causes of terrorism... Moreover, in Guttman's analysis, the terrorist requires a liberal rather than a right-wing audience for success. Liberals make the...

The news wire services are circling the wagons around their propaganda photos from Qana: News agencies stand by Lebanon photos.8/1/06 3:02:32 pm:If the wire services truly want to settle the timing issue, all they need to do is release the actual timestamps from when the photographs were taken. Digital cameras automatically record this information in the photograph itself, so it would be a simple matter for the wires to provide it.Will they? Or are we simply supposed to take their word for it?UPDATE at 8/1/06 4:30:31 pm:For me, by the way, the timing issue is actually not the most damning...

A chilling film about terrorism and it's threat to the world. It's long but worth the time.

52 REASONS NOT TO MOW 37 WAYS TO HELP TREES Please download with 100% cotton, rice, recycled, or scrap paper Ron Howard, director of A Beautiful Mind and many other films,made his first film at age 8.. an anti mowing film which showed the nature of mowers' attacks on lawns. Art Buchwald: People shouldn't be judged by the length of their grass. In 2003 through now, the world has seen floods, famine, fire, mudslides, hurricanes, tornados and other disasters created by the unprecedented destruction of trees around the world. Trees are nature's weather stabilizers. We need trillions of trees.. new...

HOMICIDE/SUICIDE SQUADS HEAD FOR LEBANON UPDATE TO STORY POSTED EARLIER "SUICIDE ARMY": REPORTS REACHING US FROM INSIDE IRAN STATE THAT THE NUMBER OF SUICIDE BOMBERS BEING SENT IS CLOSER TO SEVEN TRUCKLOADS THAN JUST 28 PEOPLE. EVEN THE ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT PRESS HAS MADE MENTION OF A GATHERING OF THE HOMICIDERS AT THE MAIN CEMETARY OF BEHESHT ZAHRA IN TEHRAN AFTER WHICH THEY WILL GO BY TRUCK TO THE TURKISH BORDER, TRANSIT TURKEY TO SYRIA AND REACH LEBANON VIA SYRIA. TURKEY HAS SO FAR NOT DONE ANYTHING TO PREVENT THIS CONVOY WHICH APPARENTLY WILL LEAVE ON WEDNESDAY FROM TEHRAN IN THEIR...

An online banner advertisement that ran on MySpace.com and other sites over the past week used a Windows security flaw to infect more than a million users with spyware when people merely browsed the sites with unpatched versions of Windows, according to data collected by iDefense, a Verisign company.

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 7/16/06 -Mar Mikhail, Safed, Balata, Dahyieh Junubiya, Rafik Hariri Airport, Gaza, Ghoubayri, Hazor, Jiyeh, Kiryat Shmona, Carmiel, Beirut, Jdaydet Yabous, Necore, Rafah, Saida, Sidon, Taanayel, Biddawi terrorist camp, Haifa, Meron, Adousiyeh, Asmiyeh, Tripoli, Tyre, Zahrani BREAKING: Haifa - target of Lebanese and Hizb'Allah terrorism BREAKING: Meron - target of Lebanese and Hizb'Allah terrorism BREAKING: Safed - target of Lebanese and Hizb'Allah terrorism BREAKING: Mar Mikhail - Israel shows restraint BREAKING: Balata - terrorists' training camp BREAKING: Dahyieh Junubiya - Hizb'Allah stronghold BREAKING: Rafik Hariri International Airport - Israel shows restraint BREAKING: Gaza...

SAN FRANCISCO, Jul 3 (OneWorld) - Wind power is "poised to become to become the foundation of the new energy economy," claims a new survey by the Washington, D.C.-based Earth Policy Institute. According to the environmental group, global wind electricity-generating capacity increased by 24 percent in 2005 to 59,100 megawatts--a twelvefold increase from a decade ago, when world wind-generating capacity stood at less than 5,000 megawatts. The report says wind power is the world's fastest-growing energy source with an average annual growth rate of 29 percent over the last ten years. In contrast, over the same time period, coal use...

Heard on Fox that Pentagon sources have concluded there was no cover up in Haditha contrary to Murtha's claim. Still waiting on web posting or something. Last I heard is that relatives have refused to allow the bodies to be exhumed which combined with no cover up, if true, would make it near impossible for the Marines to be charged with murder. If the military thought murder charges were going to be brought they would confine the Marines pending court martial.

THESE ARE THE SENATORS WHO VOTED TO GIVE SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS TO ILLEGAL ALIENS REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL PARTY, THESE POLITICIANS NEED TO BE DEFEATED IN 2006, 2008 OR 2010, WHENEVER THEY NEXT COME UP FOR OFFICE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW; THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION -- THAT IS, UNLESS THEY DO NOT MIND SHARING THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY WITH FOREIGN WORKERS WHO NEVER PAID INTO IT AND AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE BEING LEFT OUT. Grouped by Home State Alabama: Alaska: Stevens (R-AK), Yea Arizona: McCain (R-AZ), Yea Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Pryor (D-AR),...

The US military has intensified its offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq, staging 38 more raids based on information uncovered during the hunt that led to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi... The al-Qaida appeals suggested al-Zarqawi's network may be feeling the heat from the US raids, which have extended beyond Hibhib to include a series of locations in and around Baghdad. ...Major General William Caldwell displayed a suicide belt, explosives and Iraqi army uniforms uncovered in 17 raids conducted in the immediate aftermath of al-Zarqawi's death. The raids targeted people whom the US had been monitoring in the build-up to...

I’ve spent a lot of time with Marines in war zones, and I spent two days and one night in Haditha with the Marine unit that replaced the men who may be accused of murdering two dozen innocent civilians in that western Iraqi town. This doesn't qualify me as an expert, and I have no additional information about the incident, but I’ve been asked to make some observations, so here goes: 1. There is no excuse for the murder of innocent, unarmed civilians, especially women and children, even in a war zone. 2. We are all presumed innocent until proven...

I am curious why none of the media covers the most important aspect of the Malvo shootings. If you look at Newspapers on the dates when the shootings are underway you discover something I find quite interesting. The shootings begin to dominate the news the day before the debate on the Iraq war starts and they catch them the day after the declaration of war??? If you ask most people "do you remember the debate about starting the second Iraq war", they will all answer "yes of course". But if you followup with the question "name one point in the...

I recently received a reply to a post that stated: "This should be beneath a "freeper". Sad." So I asked.. what is it that makes a FReeper? My reply (and I will admit was tasteless) was also questioning. It stirred controversy and was removed? Why Moderators? Can you not tell me? Did it not meet with your "FReeper" mentality? According to all posted guidelines it should be listed but no, you chose to delete it. Yes.. I'm the first one IBTZ, I'm sure you'll nick me for speaking up..

<p>Well, yesterday was just fantastic and I hope I can do the evening justice with my limited writing ability(I was a Math major!).</p> <p>First, I must truly thank the MANY of you who responded to my post announcing my excitment about dining and viewing movie United 93 with POTUS and FL Laura Bush. Your many kinds words were very moving and I appreciate each and every one of your prayers, well wishes and thanks/praise for my father and the 39 others who stood up in the first minutes of the war on terror. I will try to respond to each of you but I the list is long and I my time is limited...family, job, yadda, yadda, yadda. But please do not think for one moment your time and consideration is not appreciated.</p>

Well my good friends George and Laura have yet to see the movie United 93. To see it they have invited 2 people from each of the families of those that died on 9/11 aboard Flight 93. After a late lunch/early dinner with the President and First Lady but only one of us will be able to view the movie w/ them. Since my mother has not seen it yet - but is ready to now - she will go in with them to view it...and I will get an up close and personal tour of the White House. This,...

by Mark Finkelstein May 17, 2006 If the Da Vinci Code was already feeding the flames of controversy with its challenge to the basic tenets of Christianity, actor Ian McKellen managed to throw a refinery tank's worth of gasoline on the fire on this morning's Today show, asserting that the Bible should carry a disclaimer saying that it is "fiction." Matt Lauer, on his second day "On The Road With The Code," was in Cannes for the film festival, where the Code will have its debut. It has already been screened to some critics, who have given it decidedly mixed...

WASHINGTON — President Bush drew fresh criticism from House Republicans today for endorsing eventual citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. On the morning after a prime time speech, the White House sought to emphasize efforts to strengthen border security. "This is going to be a tremendous enforcement support partnership," U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar told reporters at the White House, anticipating the deployment of up to 6,000 National Guard troops to states along the Mexican border. "We can certainly do what is asked by our commander in chief," added Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, National Guard Army Bureau Chief. Blum,...

Moves Signal Tighter Secrecy Within C.I.A. By SCOTT SHANE and MARK MAZZETTI WASHINGTON, April 23 — The crackdown on leaks at the Central Intelligence Agency that led to the dismissal of a veteran intelligence officer last week included a highly unusual polygraph examination for the agency's independent watchdog, C.I.A. Inspector General John L. Helgerson, intelligence officials with knowledge of the investigation said on Sunday. The special polygraphs, which have been given to dozens of employees since January, are part of a broader effort by C.I.A. Director Porter J. Goss to re-emphasize a culture of secrecy. As the inspector general, Mr....

The CIA fired a long-serving intelligence officer for sharing classified information with The Washington Post and other news organizations, officials said yesterday, as the agency continued an aggressive internal search for anyone who may have discussed intelligence with the news media. CIA officials said the career intelligence officer failed more than one polygraph test and acknowledged unauthorized contacts with reporters. The "officer knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence, including operational information" with journalists, the agency said in a statement yesterday. The CIA did not reveal the identity of the employee, who was dismissed Thursday, but NBC News reported last night...

http://htfttf.com/busclips/index.htmLink to Pictures Why are San Diego Unified School Buses being used at Illegal Immigration Rally? by JimbaughNow I know that schools need more and more money. What I don't know is why these buses are at this rally? Are taxpayers sponsoring this rally? It looks like we not only have to accept the illegal immigrants buy we have to pay for them to tell us that we are racist. On monday I will file requests (CalFOI) with the: San Diego Unified School District San Diego Police Department San Diego County Administration I want to know how much this rally...

Events are planned Monday in 90 cities to show immigrant strength - Latino and other. LOS ANGELES – In Los Angeles, Eun Sook Lee will march on behalf of Korean illegal immigrants, at least 50,000, living in southern California. On Boston Common, Punam Rogers will join other Indian émigrés, as well as business clients and students from China, Germany, and Britain. In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Ivalier Duvra will take to the streets to draw attention to Haitian newcomers who he says need refugee status. Coming on the heels of demonstrations in several larger cities, a National Day of Action on...

A few days ago, I posted a translation of a document culled from the captured Iraqi documents that the US found during Operation Iraqi Freedom. This particular memo, dated March 17, 2001, comes from a brigadier general in the Iraqi Air Force and requests a list of volunteers from all units under his command for suicide attackers. The memo explicitly explains the targets for these terrorist attacks, as the original translation from Joseph Shahda shows: The top secret letter 2205 of the Military Branch of Al Qadisya on 4/3/2001 announced by the top secret letter 246 from the Command of...

Thought you all might to see this. This was sent to me by the solider who wrote the following email. Thanks to Freeper eeevil conservative for working out the tech details so I could post it.

DHS Child Sex Sting Official Is A Democrat Earlier today we listed some of the strong reaction to the arrest of Department of Homeland Security deputy press secretary Brian J. Doyle for attempting to arrange sexual relations with what he believed to be a 14-year-old female. Much of the reaction was critical of the Bush administration for not properly vetting one of their appointees. That assessment is dead wrong. Brian Doyle is a career civil servant - NOT a political appointee. Government workers aren't "vetted." Doyle, as a DHS employee probably has a secret or top secret government clearance, but...

An internal document prepared by a top Democratic strategist warns that a majority of African American voters in Maryland are open to supporting Republican Senate candidate Michael S. Steele and advises the party not to wait to "knock Steele down." The 37-page report says a sizable segment of likely black voters -- as much as 44 percent -- would readily abandon their historic Democratic allegiances "after hearing Steele's messaging." "Governor Ehrlich and [Lt. Gov.] Michael Steele have a clear ability to break through the Democratic stronghold among African American voters in Maryland," says the March 27 report by Cornell Belcher,...

There is a simple but moving tribute to our troops here. We truly can never thank them enough.

Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) speaks at a news conference after an altercation with a Capitol Hill police officer earlier in the week in Washington March 31, 2006. McKinney is waiting to learn if she will be charged for apparently striking an officer after she entered a House office building earlier this week unrecognized and did not stop when asked. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Time to dust off the whoopee cushions and hand buzzers. April Fools' Day is here and there's no better place for wisecracks and shenanigans than at work. In its annual April Fools' Day survey, CareerBuilder.com found 33 percent of workers have played a practical joke on a co-worker and 17 percent are planning office tricks for this year's holiday. Although it might be thrilling to finally one-up the office funnyman, pranks also help beat something that's no laughing matter: workplace stress. More than half of workers reported working under stress in another CareerBuilder.com survey. Stress and worry on the job...

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative. At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals. The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street will examine inflation data this week for any signal that an end to Federal Reserve interest-rate increases is in sight, and if it likes what it sees, stocks could climb to five-year highs. Investors were cheered last week by a consumer prices report that showed tame inflation and bought up sectors sensitive to higher-interest rates like financial and home building stocks.

Ex-president Bill Clinton said Sunday that the Bush administration has not done enough to increase port security since the 9/11 attacks, calling the oversight unbelievable. Addressing the Centennial Celebration at Pace University in New York, Clinton complained: "I still really can't believe we only check five percent of our containers at all the ports in America when we've had now for four years a study saying that unless we do ten to twenty percent, there's no deterrent effect at all. " The former president made no mention of his own role advising a Dubai company on how to overcome American...