Apologies if this is the wrong forum but I wasn’t sure where to put it…
After watching Panarama detailing the attack on reporter John Simpson and others I remember something.
Towards the end of the war there were horrific reports in UK papers about 1000’s of Iraqi prisoners who had been buried alive in secret underground cells in Baghdad and desperate attempts to rescue them.
Anyone know what happened?!?
Thanks
Probably the same thing that happened to all those Weapons of Mass Destruction ™ that they were so damn sure existed.
Namely, it turns out that it was just propaganda.
IIRC, when they finally broke into the cells, they were empty.
I see. Thanks.
I hate it that you can’t know if what you’re reading is fact, fiction, or a mix of both :rolleyes:
As a rule of thumb, if there is no followup to a sensational story, the original story was a fake.
So far 40 mass graves have been found, and more are expected.
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20031108-082450-2560r.htm
I don’t know see any logic to assuming a story is fake.
As for WMD’s, Iraq did use WMD’s on the Kurds and Iranians several years ago. Even those WMD’s have not been found. Other WMD’s were reported to the UN, and even these have not been found. So it is clear he had some WMD’s, and none of them have been found. So either he destroyed them, hid them, or moved them to a third country. I suspect they are hidden in Syria. I don’t believe they were destroyed since he would have little motive to not document their destruction and to make this public.
This is not the place to debate the justification (or lack thereof) for the war. But still, the fact remains that no WMD’s were found.
Any further discussion about WMD’s should occur in Great Debates.
As for the ftg’s comment, it is true that in war you often get a lot of confused, and sometimes contradictory, information. The true stuff eventually gets confirmed while the mistaken reports just kinda fall by the wayside.
Perhaps the thinking is that a correction/retraction of a story by a news medium can be taken as a confirmation of it by those who aren’t paying close attention. The story is what sticks for some people, and it might be best not to reinforce it.
I don’t know if this is the same thing that the OP is remembering, but it’s quite similar. I saw reports and video where Iraqis (in Baghdad, IIRC) were trying to get into various underground structures to “rescue” missing relatives and friends.
From what I saw, this was all based on rumors among the Iraqis and perhaps wishful thinking that those missing would be found alive. I never saw any indication that there was any involvement by the U.S. military or any others in an official capacity to lead any credibility to the existence of these “underground prisons”.
Diceman, you are the one that hijacked this thread with talk about WMD’s. Is your policy to make a point then terminate discussion?
They have found 40 mass graves. Its unclear if these are the ones in the news report mentioned by the OP.
Few emerge from liberated Iraqi prisons
BREAKING NEWS: Underground prison found
See? Just like it says in the OP. Cells, NOT graves. Different things.
Or more likely, was true. I’m not saying in this case that that is the fact, but there have been plenty of other stories that have made it past the censors, only to be ‘buried’, and never followed up on again. Remember what happened to all the pre-911 insider trading allegations? Well, nobody else knows either…