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(3,430 posts)WhiteTara
(29,703 posts)Welcome to DU
Rhiannon12866
(205,202 posts)Russian intelligence sources have claimed that Michael DAndrea, head of CIA operations in Iran and who orchestrated the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a US spy plane downed yesterday in Ghazni, Afghanistan.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2424965
wishstar
(5,268 posts)The wreckage of a U.S. military plane that crashed and burned in a snowy mountainous region in Afghanistan on Monday was still fresh when Iranian state TV ran a story claiming a top CIA officer was among the dead. Like all good propaganda, the story was mostly false, but with a scintilla of truth. Two American service members had been killed when the U.S. Air Force jet slammed into the snowy ground, but U.S. officials insist there was no CIA onboard
After a couple of fringy Iranian and pro-Kremlin news outlets reported that Michael DAndrea, head of the CIAs Iran Mission Center, was onboard the E-11A communications jet, the story was picked up in The Daily Mail, a major British tabloid, and a second British newspaper, The Independent, carried the news of DAndreas alleged demise to London, albeit with some skepticism. While the Pentagon confirmed to TIME on Friday that there were only two Air Force officers on the plane, none of the official public statements say they were the only passengers. And the CIA has refused to comment on whether DAndrea or any other CIA personnel were onboard.
he U.S. military says it could not have gotten the news out sooner. But the Iranian version of events that circulated in the information vacuum had people inside and outside the U.S. wondering who to believe. The Trump Administrations now-familiar pattern of slow, incomplete and sometimes disingenuous responses to events has ground down public and internal trust of its messaging and created an opportunity for adversaries like Iran and Russia to spread disinformation and sow confusion among allies and U.S. officials. The wrong information can spread about an event whether it happened on a remote Afghan mountainside or a maximum-security American compound. If false reports are not authoritatively or convincingly disproven, they can take on a life of their own, James Cunningham, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan told TIME. Once that happens, its very hard to undo that.
Critics and some U.S. officials say the growing dearth of trust in Americas word is symptomatic of an Administration led by a President who calls journalists the enemy of the people, frequently labels factual or unflattering news coverage as fake news, and has himself made more than 12,000 false or misleading statements during his tenure, according to a count by The Washington Post. A trust gap has formed between journalists and Administration spokespeople who often see challenging questions as political attacks, and treat offending outlets with disdain.
https://time.com/5775758/military-crash-cia-disinformation/
Rhiannon12866
(205,202 posts)That was an old article and of course the source was suspicious...
wishstar
(5,268 posts)Final sentence of the above article says it well "No one believes us anymore" :
"Overall, there are fewer on-record press briefings in the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House and other agencies in this Administration, says a former senior Trump Administration official. He says thats due in part to the top-down nature of the Administration and in part to subordinates efforts to protect the President. There is an internal battle afoot with some senior Administration officials arguing for more public briefings, and while the White House Press Secretary hasnt briefed from the podium since March 2019, the Pentagon and State Department have resumed holding more frequent press conferences to win back that global public trust. But its an uphill battle against the megaphone of the Twitter presidency and the active disinformation campaigns being waged overseas against the U.S. No one believes us anymore, one frustrated senior U.S. official."
Rhiannon12866
(205,202 posts)If it comes from Trump, it's likely a self-serving fantasy - same with anything that comes from his chosen minions. Not to mention, press briefings are non existent.