Propaganda 22

Via Truthout: '"Wash Post" Obtains Shocking Memo from US Embassy in Baghdad, Details Increasing Danger and Hardship

New York - The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked "sensitive," that it says show that just before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, "the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees."
This cable outlines, the Post reported Sunday, "the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government."
It's actually far worse than that, as the details published below indicate, which include references to abductions, threats to women's rights, and "ethnic cleansing."
A PDF copy of the cable shows that it was sent to the SecState in Washington, D.C. from "AMEmbassy Baghdad" on June 6. The typed name at the very bottom is Khalilzad - the name of the U.S. Ambassador, though it is not known if this means he wrote the memo or merely approved it.
The subject of the memo is: "Snapshots from the Office - Public Affairs Staff Show Strains of Social Discord."
As a footnote in one of the 23 sections, the embassy relates, "An Arab newspaper editor told us he is preparing an extensive survey of ethnic cleansing, which he said is taking place in almost every Iraqi province, as political parties and their militiast are seemingly engaged in tit-for-tat reprisals all over Iraq."
Among the other troubling reports:
· "Personal safety depends on good relations with the 'neighborhood' governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. The central government, our staff says, is not relevant; even local mukhtars have been displaced or coopted by militias. People no longer trust most neighbors."
· One embassy employee had a brother-in-law kidnapped. Another received a death threat, and then fled the country with her family.
· Iraqi staff at the embassy, beginning in March and picking up in May, report "pervasive" harassment from Islamist and/or militia groups. Cuts in power and rising fuel prices "have diminished the quality of life." Conditions vary but even upscale neighborhoods "have visibly deteriorated" and one of them is now described as a "ghost town."
· Two of the three female Iraqis in the public affairs office reported stepped-up harassment since mid-May.... "Some groups are pushing women to cover even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative." One of the women is now wearing a full abaya after receiving direct threats.
· It has also become "dangerous" for men to wear shorts in public and "they no longer allow their children to play outside in shorts." People who wear jeans in public have also come under attack.'
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002690071 Of:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061906L.shtml

De vraag is waarom de Nederlandse commerciele media die wel het bliksembezoek van Bush meldden, hierover niet berichten. Waarom wel een propaganda bericht en niet de werkelijkheid?

PS: Het is inmiddels een dag later en Paul Bloemers wees me vanochtend op het volgende:
'In reactie op Propaganda 22: De NRC had dit bericht gisteren wel (op
pag. 5)'