Primarydoc just published a diary on Daily Kos contending that the site is contributing to false advocacy and Iran-bashing based totally on false propaganda, principally the long unsubstantiated notion that Iran was contributing to the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq.
The ad features these words, with background visuals,
Iranian Bombs Are Killing Americans
On The Battlefields of Iraq
It is accompanied by shots of an IED exploding and a picture of a helmet and rifle, usually a symbol of a dead soldier. The Website skin is the advertising strip across the the top of Dkos' front page and is prominent, and highly expensive.
The diary itself, The DKos Website Skin is Misleading and Wrong (links are in the original), quoted Juan Cole prominently on the falsity of the accusations.
Fri Mar 05, 2010
Contrary to the advertisement banner at the top of the frontpage, Iran is not threatening the US. The Iranian military isn't actively killing American soldiers. The Bush administration tried claiming in 2007 that Tehran was funneling weapons to Iraq and even the Taliban but these are unproven accusations -- Juan Cole has called it the New Yellowcake Scandal.
The purpose of such accusations is to build up momentum for invasion, and is reminiscent of the 45-minute claim made by Bush and Blair or the mushroom cloud scare tactics of Condoleeza Rice.
Sunni Arab guerrillas are increasingly deploying explosively formed projectiles, roadside bombs that can pierce even tank armor. My guess is that the more sophisticated EFPs supposedly coming only from Iran are also sometimes made in Iraq, and that any Iranian ones are on the black market and could be bought by anyone, including Sunni groups.
Look at the left and right side of the screen: an M-16 rifle, barrel down, is topped by a helmet--clearly a gravemarker for a soldier. A caption floating above mentions Iran and the money it's using "against us." In the background a military Humvee or armored vehicle with flames interposed in the distance between.
The skin is warmongering and alarmist and utterly irresponsible.
The ad is paid for by Vote Vets Action Fund at VoteVets.Org, and seems to be masked by a Pass Clean Energy message.
When I clicked the ad to go to their website, my security suite reported, 'Suspected Fraudulent Web Site Detected.' Was it a fraudulent website? I continued to the website anyway but was still blocked. A search on Google, however, led me to Youtube and this video:
And here's the Clean Energy connection:
Everytime oil goes up $1, Iran gets another $1.5 billion to use against us. Pass Clean Energy now.
As of this writing, Fri, March 5, 2010, 10 am EST USA, the ad is still up.
