Propagandists caught in major deception??

by Gamaliel 6 Replies latest social current

• 

  Gamaliel

  This subject has come up in another thread, but the other thread has of course turned into a left/right controversy which is not the point of my post. I wanted to share a curious find with respect to a letter which is making the rounds all over the Internet. One version, which is not making the rounds, is one that a Church evidently is claiming is the original they received from a member who is an Army Major on duty in Iraq. Following it will be another version that has been posted to over a dozen web sites that I've seen so far. The reason for the popularity of the latter versions should be obvious. For anyone who has studied propaganda, textual criticism or even Biblical textual rescensions, this might prove interesting:

  from the forum: http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=7379

  39	Lizzel 7/7/2003 03:54PM PST

  Audrey from the First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach was kind enough to send me the original letter.She also told me the letter is fro May 23

  OPEN LETTER
  TO
  FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH
  OF
  RICHMOND BEACH
  3 July 03

  To all the wonderful people of First Lutheran Church from Iraq, Greetings. This will be my last letter as my time here is quickly coming to a close. I would like to provide some final thoughts on my time in Iraq.

  First, you need to understand that, in general, the Iraqi people are industrious, resourceful, and eager for a new life. The news, again, has been bad, and this time, things have gotten a little worse. There has been more disorganized hostile activity against US forces AND Iraqi civilians. We are taking fewer casualties than before, even with the increased attacks. The Iraqi civilians, specifically businesses, are being threatened and even bombed or burned out, for dealing with coalition forces. These are the same people as before, Fedayeen and Ba’ath Party members who are now officially out of a job forever. They will not go away quietly, but with these methods, they will gain no new recruits and will not stay alive long either. We send out forces on raids to capture major Fedayeen and Ba’ath Party leaders everyday, mostly on information from Iraqi’s and we are more often than not, successful. Time is on our side.

  There have also been attacks against Iraqi Infrastructure by these terrorist forces as well, that again, does nothing but hurt the Iraqi people. Oil pipelines and electrical power transmission lines have been the main targets. What do we do about it? We hire Iraqi companies to go out and fix them and pay top dollar and help the Iraqi economy, that’s what we do. Then we train Iraqi security forces to secure the pipelines and the power lines, paying more Iraqi people and creating jobs where there were none before. That’s what we do too.

  Are we making progress? Overall? Yes. There has been a little backsliding. When the power lines go down, the power grid fluctuates wildly and the power plant shuts down. When the power plant shuts down, the oil refinery shuts down and when the oil refinery shuts down, the oil flow has to stop because there is only so much storage capacity and there is no LPG produced for people to cook with. So you see, it’s all interconnected. So how can I say we are progressing? Easy. We are contracting to repair two key 400Kv Ultra-high voltage lines as I type this. It’ll be 60 days until they are complete, but this will stabilize power for the entire country. We have companies going to the Bayji Thermal Power plant to repair the last 2 of 6 turbines adding 250 Mega-watts to the grid in the next 2 weeks. We have another company going to the Bayji Gas Turbine plant to repair 2 of it’s 4 turbines in the next two weeks adding ANOTHER 250 Mega-watts to the national power grid. I have personally signed two contracts with local Iraqi companies to repair and upgrade water treatment plants in 2 cities. The Al Dour water facility contract is $23,000 worth of pumps and chlorination equipment and the Baqubah water treatment facility is $99,795 worth of pumps, laboratory testing equipment, pipes, chlorination metering and injection equipment and upgrade of their distribution towers. The work at these two facilities will be complete within the next 30 days and provide CLEAN and TREATED drinking water to 100,000 people for the first time in their lives.

  THAT’S HOW I CAN SAY WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS……

  People have to remember, the 4th Infantry Division has been in central Iraq for a total of 96 days now, 3 months and 1 week. Patience is a virtue. 96 days to both secure an area the size of West Virginia, defeat remaining terrorist forces inside that area AND fix things destroyed in a war, looted by the local population to survive and keep an economy functioning at some level. Yes, patience is a virtue, and most news channels and many Americans need to be more virtuous.

  What about the UN? We are all persons of faith, please don’t waste it on the UN. I may elaborate in person when I get back.

  Respectfully,

  ERIC RYDBOM
  MAJOR, ENGINEER
  Deputy Division Engineer
  4th Infantry Division
  Tikrit, Iraq

  ---------------------------------

  See my next post for the popular version

  Gamaliel
• 

  Gamaliel

  Here is the more popular version:

  ---------------------------

  Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 1:45 PM
  Subject: Open Current Events Letter From A U.S. Army Major In Iraq

  It has been a while since I have written to my friends at First Lutheran Church about what's really going on here in Iraq. The news you watch on TV is exaggerated, sensationalized and selective. Good news doesn't sell.

  The stuff you don't hear about on CNN? Let's start with Electrical Power production in Iraq. The day after the war was declared over, there was nearly 0 power being generated in Iraq; 45 days later, in a partnership between the Army, the Iraqi people and some private companies, there are now 3200 mega watts (Mw) of power produced daily, or 1/3 of the total national potential. Downed power lines ( big stuff, 400 Kilovolt (Kv) and 132 Kv) are being repaired and are now about 70% complete.

  Then there is water purification.

  In central Iraq between Baghdad and Mosul, home of the 4th Infantry Division, water treatment was spotty at best. The facilities existed, but the controls were never implemented. Simple chemicals like Chlorine for purification and Alum (Aluminum Sulfate) for sediment settling (the Tigris River is about as clear as the Mississippi River) were in very short supply. Or not used at all. And when chlorine was used, it was metered by guessing.

  So some people got pool water to drink and some people got water with lots of little things floating around in it. We are slowly but surely solving that. Contracts for repairs to facilities [that are only 50% or less operational ] are being let. Chemicals are being delivered, although we don't have the metering problem solved yet (... but again, it's only been 45 days).

  How about oil and fuel?

  Well the war was all about oil wasn't it? You bet it was. It was all about oil for the Iraqi people ! They have no other income. They produce nothing else. Oil is 95% of the Iraqi GNP. For this nation to survive, it MUST sell oil.

  The Refinery at Bayji is at 75% of capacity in producing gasoline. The crude oil pipeline between Kirkuk (Oil Central) and Bayji will be repaired by tomorrow (2 June). LPG, what all Iraqi's use to cook and heat with, is at 103% of normal production. And WE, the US ARMY, are insuring it is being distributed FAIRLY to ALL Iraqi's.

  You have to remember that only 3 months ago, ALL these things were used by the Sadam regime as weapons against the population to keep them in line. If your town misbehaved, gasoline shipments stopped .. LPG pipelines and trucks stopped .. water was turned off .. power was turned off.

  Now, until exports start again, every drop of gasoline produced goes to the Iraqi people. Crude oil production is being stored and the country is at 75% capacity right now. They need to export or stop pumping soon, ... so thank the UN for that delay.

  ALL LPG goes to the Iraqi people EVERYWHERE. And water is being purified as best it can be, but at least it's running all the time to everyone.

  Are we still getting shot at? Yep. Are American Soldiers still dying? Yep, about 1 a day from my outfit, the 4th Infantry Division, most in accidents. But dead is dead.

  If we are doing all this for the Iraqis, why are they shooting at us?

  The general Iraqi population isn't shooting at us. There are still bad guys, who won't let go of the old regime. They are Ba'ath party members (read Nazi Party, but not as nice) who have known nothing but .. and supported nothing but .. the regime all of their lives. These are the thugs for the regime that caused many to disappear in the night. They have no other skills. At least the Nazis had jobs and a semblance of a national infrastructure that they could go back to after the war, .. as plumbers, managers, engineers, etc. These people have no skills .. but terror. They are simply applying their skills. But we are applying ours. There is no Christian way to say this .. but they must be eliminated and we are doing so with all the efficiency we can muster.

  Our troops are shot at literally everyday by small arms and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs). We respond and 100% of the time, the Ba'ath party guys come out with the short end of the stick.

  The most amazing thing to me is that they don't realize that if they stopped shooting at us, we would focus on .. fixing things more quickly .. and then leave back to the land of the Big PX. And the more they shoot at us, the longer we will have to stay.

  Lastly, all of you please realize that 90% of the damage you see on TV was caused by Iraqi's, NOT by us and not by the war. Sure we took out a few bridges from military necessity, we took out a few power and phone lines to disrupt communications, sure we drilled a few palaces and government headquarters buildings with 2000 lb. laser guided bombs (I work 100 yards from where two hit the Tikrit Palace), he had plenty to spare. But, ANY damage you see to schools, hospitals, power generation facilities, refineries, pipelines, was ALL caused either by .. the Iraqi Army in its death throes .. or from much of the Iraqi civilians looting the places.

  Could we have prevented it? Nope.

  We can and do it now, but 45 days ago the average soldier was fighting for his own survival .. and trying to get to his objectives as fast as possible. He was lucky to know what town he was in much less be informed enough to know .. who owned what .. or have the power to stop a 1,000 people from looting and burning a building by himself.

  The United States and our Allies, especially Great Britain, are doing a very noble thing here. We stuck our necks out on the world's chopping block to free an entire people from the grip of a horrible terror that was beyond belief.

  I've already talked the weapons of mass destruction thing to death, .. bottom line, who cares? This country was one big conventional weapons ammo dump anyway. We have probably destroyed more ground weapons and ammo in the last 30 days than the US Army has ever fired in the last 30 years (Remember, this is a country the size of Texas), so drop the WMD argument as the reason we came here ... if we find them GREAT.. if we don't, SO WHAT?

  I'm living in a "guest palace" on a 500 acre palace compound with 20 palaces with like facilities built in half a dozen towns all over Iraq that were built for one man. Drive down the street and out into the country side 5 miles away, like I have, and see all the families of 10 or more, all living in mud huts and herding the two dozen sheep on which their very existence depends, ...then tell me why you think we are here.

  WMD ? ...important .. have to find 'em wherever they may be (.. in Syria?), but not OUR real motivator. Don't let it be yours either.

  Respectfully,

  E. R. MAJOR Deputy Division Engineer 4th Infantry Division

  ----------------
• 

  Simon

  The first one sounds believable and genuine. The second is just blatant propaganda that pro-war supports have foolishly seized on and 'fallen for' IMHO.
• 

  expatbrit

  Snopes.com is now classifying this as true, with a copy of the email like the second one above:
• 

  Gamaliel

  I have a feeling that even if the "Church's" copy is the original, that the second letter is the only one that Army would allow to be validated at this point, which means it will be the only one that MAJ E R is supposed to or allowed to validate.

  There are a couple oddities that make the first much more fitting for a Church audience which are gone from the second. Also, it seems much more reasonable that the real letter to the Church is the first one. I can't see why he'd make comparisons that unnecessarily make the Nazis come out in a slightly better light when he's writing to his friends in a Lutheran Church, unless he's truly insensitive. But the first letter, as Simon says, makes more sense to me, too.

  Gamaliel
• 

  Gamaliel

  Simon,
  

  I just spoke at length (4:30-4:55 PM EST) with the Major's wife, Audrey Rydbom, and there is a potential issue here. I only gave a first name, no association with this site, and after pleasantries, said that I was working with a group discussing the authenticity of various versions of her husband's letter. I'm sure she has the impression I am working with one of the sites that specializes in those matters, but I didn't say anything about a specific site. She is admittedlly upset with herself that the July 3rd letter went out. Major Rydbom himself, she says, wishes "to be associated with" only the "late May/early June" letter which is the one that is the most popular on the Internet. She completely validates the contents of the July 3rd letter but does not want the "July 3rd" letter publicized. She said she wishes she could take it back and she tried to contact both people to whom she accidentally forwarded it. One was a Lutheran Pastor in Texas who had already published it in a newsletter. She paused for an awkwardly long few seconds, I think, hoping that I would tell her where the other copy of the July 3rd letter got posted. She didn't ask, though. I told her that it might be a bit difficult to keep a lid on the second because a copy exists on a public forum. She made NO specific request to try to remove the July 3rd version from any site, she is just "sorry" that she "sent the wrong one out."

  She validated both of them as the work of her husband, in so many words, however, I'd say she seemed careful not to make a direct claim that the popular version she now "stands by" was directly the work of her husband. To me, her choice of words implied that she knew, the popular version is based on her husband's style but has been edited somewhat. She pointed out how the admittedly spurious portions didn't sound like him, but she had more than a twinge of emotion here, which made me think she realized more than anyone that many more parts of the letter were not his own voice. She "carefully" dates the popular letter only to a range of dates (perhaps she doesn't recall that it dates itself internally in all versions we've seen). On the other hand, she gives the exact date and explicitly validates the July 3rd letter's contents, but didn't realize all the implications of validating that one until I went over them with her. I doubt that there will be any official effort to remove the July 3rd version from all ocurrences on the Web, because it would be nearly impossible. I get the feeling that the idea has been discussed, however. (I called her through a PBX that only provides a primary number rather than a direct number to Caller ID, by the way.)

  She has already confirmed to "truthorfiction.com" the popular version but without the "return to the land of the big PX" reference and the Syria/WMD reference. She cannot believe that she has already been swamped with phone calls as her "prayer team" is primarily a group of people 65 years old or older. She has already heard of "many" other versions of the letter and "several" people have presented it as their own, making their own adjustments.

  When I asked if I could offer a good explanation for those who ask about the fact that the two letters will appear to be one "more realistic version" which will be compared with a another "version of the same letter with a higher element of propaganda", she said that it was because he wrote once a month, or so, to the Church. When I mentioned that I might need to offer a good explanation for the different styles he used when discussing identical subject content, she seemed to understand perfectly but got silent. I told her I just needed an explanation that would help avoid futher questions, but then after another silence, I told her that her explanation that he wrote once a month was good enough. We started to discuss some other issues about her husband's style which led me to believe that the good wife knew more than any of us that the popular letter, although clearly based on her husband's general style and beliefs, was re-edited in a stronger one-sided voice (with her husband's knowledge) to make it ready for National Internet Prime-Time. In my opinion, getting this letter more widely distributed was no accident; the Army already knew that his letters home were being distributed on a small scale, and that his general style was popular.

  She says that she had personally e-mailed the popular version out to the first 12 or so people who asked, but that she finally had to implement a new policy of not mailing or emailing any more copies, and in fact they will no longer be publishing them in their own Church newsletter. From now on they are just going up on the wall, she said. She said her last one from him, she knows is not going anywhere, because that one she's keeping to herself, and she is definitely keeping a lid on that one.

  I apologized for the trouble and told her that we wish for her husband's safe and happy return as soon as possible.

  Gamaliel
• 

  Jayson

  The first one sounds believable and genuine. The second is just blatant propaganda that pro-war supports have foolishly seized on and 'fallen for' IMHO.-Simon

  Well this letter issue in combination with the double cross that Blair did with the British intel used to create that sentence in the State of the Union speech proves that you are right. There were never any wmd in Iraq. This whole thing was a UK conspiracy from the start. You guys are to smart for us simpton americans. I know that all those anti war dudes are really UK spys. I will talk to Bush in the morning and see if we can't just get those troops out of Iraq and back home to defend against the invasion.( This is all part of the UK masterplan to take back the British colonies.) I only hope that I can warn people before the British invade again.