The Disinformation Campaign is ON! (Was: Ambassador Says Critical Letter Is Hoax)

Reuters ^ | 7/15/02 | Reuters

[jriemer]

Ambassador Says Critical Letter Is Hoax

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. ambassador told the State Department Tuesday that a letter attributed to him and critical of career diplomats was a hoax, a U.S. official said.

"The ambassador has said the letter is a complete fake and does not reflect his views," said a State Department official, who asked not to be named. The State Department will make a formal statement later Tuesday, he added.

The Washington Times, which published the letter as though it were from Stephan Minikes, ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, withdrew the text from its Web site.

The letter said many career diplomats at the State Department were disloyal to the Bush administration.

[jriemer]

OK .. who is Stephan Minikes?

Amb. Stephan Minikes, U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

[mystery-ak]

We have a real problem here...we have to find out who is behind this and Wilson....we all know the usual suspects, but they have out did themselves with these two *stories*....Bush better take off the gloves.

[Mo1]

I know nothing about it .. I'll do some search later .. I've gotta get dinner on the table for now

[Cachelot]

The letter said many career diplomats at the State Department were disloyal to the Bush administration.

Why the retraction? This is a true statement if I ever saw one.

[Dog]

They had to retract the article he didn't write it.

This is getting dangerous now.

Now we have someone writing letters claiming to be government officals....this could cause some serious damage.

[PhiKapMom]

I was on the Washington Times website this morning looking for the Gephardt article to post for Countdown and I didn't see anything like that when I was on the site.

RATs are in an all out attack on the Bush Administration led by the Hillary and her attacked dogs at DNC and with the support the DemocRAT liberal media.

So they get this letter to Washington Times, they print it, and then they say it is a phoney? How convenient for the RATs. All of the conservative news sources (the few that there are) better double and triple check their sources from now on!

Now I am beginning to wonder if Doug Thompson, CHB, was really set-up! I might owe the man an apology.

[Peach]

What is going on? We need a map to keep up with the dirty tricks being played. The question is: by whom?

[cake_crumb]

"Bush better take off the gloves."

It needs to be THOROUGHLY investigated. Probably written by Terry McCauliff or some stoned, leftist college student in the throws of his or her first real, intellectual elitism trip.

[Political Junkie Too]

What does this mean, that it's okay for the media to splash gossip found in a forged document all over the press, but it's not okay for the president to make a 16-word statement in the State Of The Union address based on intelligence of events that were tangentially connected to a forged document?

-PJ

[swheats]

What it further proves is that the Washington Times are not vetting their articles before going online.

How many others have not been verified before going public? One more "news" source with questionable ethics.

[jriemer]

The significant problem with the letter is not the issue of the opinions contained in the letter but the forged authoriship. Why stop at letters to the editor? This type of forgery / misrepresentation could have been an Op-ed or a special publication to a trade group. Let your mind wander and think of all the potential mayhem that such identification fraud could cause on a national and international level.

[Mo1]

So they get this letter to Washington Times, they print it, and then they say it is a phoney? How convenient for the RATs. All of the conservative news sources (the few that there are) better double and triple check their sources from now on!

BINGO!!

[Dog]

Someone just set up the Washington Times. From now on people will have the reaction you just posted .....they won't trust what the Times says. Maybe that is what the writer of this hoax letter wants.

Discredit the conservative media..

[Peach]

Since when does a major newspaper print a letter of such importance without CALLING the person who presumably wrote the letter?

[swheats]

Didn't we just deal with that last week? Doug Thompson "Bush Admit He Lied" article gave Wilson's article legitimacy and it went literally around the world.

[Dog]

AM......quick get the Lysol!!!

[Mo1]

What is going on? We need a map to keep up with the dirty tricks being played. The question is: by whom?

Who are all the people that were behind those ad's about Bush .. they sure did come out pretty fast

Wasn't it Moveon that made them? .. with the aprroval of the DNC I'm sure

[Dog]

Boy you only signed up 3 hours ago and you seem to be in full voice Bashing the President..

[PhiKapMom]

That's a good point! What is with the media not double checking sources? Easy way to get set-up!