When bad things happen to bad press releases

July 25, 2005

I’ve written enough press releases to know that coming up with new quotes and phrases can be challenging, but this is embarrassing on a couple of levels.

The U.S. military on Sunday said it was looking into how virtually identical quotations ended up in two of its news releases about different insurgent attacks.

Following a car bombing in Baghdad on Sunday, the U.S. military issued a statement with a quotation attributed to an unidentified Iraqi that was virtually identical to a quote reacting to an attack on July 13.

After questioning by news media, the military released the statement without the quotation. Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, spokesman for the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said use of the quote was an “administrative error.”

In this case, it’s not just that the same quote appeared in two separate releases, weeks apart, but it also raises questions about whether the unidentified Iraqi exists in reality.

Sunday’s news release said: “‘The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the ISF and all of Iraq. They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists,’ said one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified.”

The July 13 news release said: “‘The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the children and all of Iraq,’ said one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified. ‘They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists.'”

Amazingly, this anonymous Iraqi has an uncanny ability to stay “on message,” using the Bush administration’s talking points.

Anyone want to give odds on whether this message-disciplined Iraqi exists?

We all know where this message originates. It comes directly form the White House spin Dr’s

  • Wow. Caught in the act. How did you find this one,
    CB?

    Doesn’t even sound authentic. Not at all like the quotations
    from real correspondents like Dahr Jamail, where the
    Iraqis always identify the occupation as the true culprit.

    There probably was such a character, terrified after some
    bombing, that an interpreter fed a few talking point lines
    to, and then took his excited gestures and noddings as
    affirmations.

  • Hey, it’s always “groundhog day” in Iraq.

    Or maybe “they” made some kind of change in the Matrix.

    Foolishness aside, this looks kind of similar to those notorious letters sent to newspapers around the country bearing different signatures (usually soldiers hyping the war in Iraq) but exactly the same text — remember them? The Bush people have simply run out of ideas about how to promote their war and are recycling old ones, hoping no one notices.

  • Of course he doesn’t. Except for the fact that real soldiers (along with innocent Iraqi civilians) are dying and real tax dollars are flowing into the coffers of defense contractors with ties to the administration, this war is pretty much “Wag the Dog.” From the sexed up “evidence” of Saddam’s imminent threat and intentions to the bullshit being issued daily from the WH and Pentagon, there’s very little truth to be found. What will it take for the rest of our countrymen to come to their senses and realize that this administration is the most corrupt we have ever seen or could have ever imagined?

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