Thank you for serving our country. I did happen to see a recent reference to this book but cannot remember where. A "friend" of mine actually was with the contingent that conducted some interviews and reviewed intelligence gleaned from captured terrorists. There have been a few (not enough) people in the conservative press that have mentioned this "Ghost Caravan" led by the Russians to Syria, which I have no doubt that they (the Ruskies) did. Who, other than the Chinese and the French, had as much of a vested interest in Saddam's regime than one of their major weapons suppliers?
Dear Fellow Conservative,
This is an email about one of the most powerful weapons of our time... "disinformation."
It's a weapon that is used on all of us over and over every day of our lives. How do I know this?
The deliberately suppressed list above is one reason. Here's another: Have you heard that Osama bin Laden is on kidney dialysis? I'll bet you have. Much of the Western media report bin Laden's presumed affliction as a matter of fact -- and most Americans believe it. But...
...it's just not true.
Now, you may well be thinking: "Why would the news media want to make me believe that Osama bin Laden is a very sick and perhaps dying man?" Well, here's why...
The news media are -- overwhelmingly -- against the Iraq War. The image of an aged, 6-foot, 8-inch Arab limping from cave to cave, trailing a camel loaded down with dialysis equipment -- eluding George W. Bush and the most powerful military in the world -- appeals to them enormously.
And so the myth lives on -- for SEVEN YEARS now! -- long past the normal life expectancy of patients hooked up to dialysis in the best hospitals, let alone the freezing, rugged mountains of the Afghan-Pakistani border.
There is a name for this phenomenon -- disinformation.
The term refers to the deliberate dissemination of FALSE information (and the intentional omission of TRUE information) for the purpose of confusing rivals or influencing public opinion.
Indeed, the false conclusion that "Bush lied, there were no WMDs in Iraq," is the main supporting claim of the anti-war Left. Without it, the movement collapses.
My name is Tom Winter, Editor in Chief of HUMAN EVENTS. It grieves me to admit that millions upon millions of Americans unknowingly accept blatant falsehoods as facts due to the power and prevalence of disinformation.
Take a look at some of the most pernicious lies that you have no doubt read or heard:
There is no connection between Iraq and al Qaeda
The U.S. funded the Taliban in the 1980s
Suitcase nukes are in place across America
Osama bin Laden was trained by the CIA
Halliburton made a fortune in Iraq
There were no Jews in the Word Trade Center on 9/11
What do each of these widely publicized, widely believed "facts" have in common? Here's what:
They are undeniably false... as you will discover in Disinformation, the new blockbuster book by veteran reporter Richard Miniter, and it will be my pleasure to send it to you FREE in hard cover, just for trying HUMAN EVENTS.
Rich Miniter's career sounds like something out of a spy thriller -- except it's real. In addition to writing for newspapers in the U.S., Western Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia, he has traveled with rebels into war zones in Uganda, Sudan and Burma and along smugglers' routes in Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.
Few reporters are more familiar with the methodology of disinformation -- the clever misdirection, false rumors, press manipulation, and endless repetition of falsehoods until they morph into "truth." Disinformation is a dark art, and Richard Miniter understands its shadings and subtleties.