Anatomy of a Fake Terror Threat

[n2doc]

BY GLENN GREENWALD AND MURTAZA HUSSAIN

As the Obama administration prepared to bomb Syria without Congressional or U.N. authorization, it faced two problems. The first was the difficulty of sustaining public support for a new years-long war against ISIS, a group that clearly posed no imminent threat to the “homeland.” A second was the lack of legal justification for launching a new bombing campaign with no viable claim of self-defense or U.N. approval.

The solution to both problems was found in the wholesale concoction of a brand new terror threat that was branded “The Khorasan Group.” After spending weeks depicting ISIS as an unprecedented threat – too radical even for Al Qaeda! – administration officials suddenly began spoon-feeding their favorite media organizations and national security journalists tales of a secret group that was even scarier and more threatening than ISIS, one that posed a direct and immediate threat to the American Homeland. Seemingly out of nowhere, a new terror group was created in media lore.

The unveiling of this new group was performed in a September 13 article by Associated Press. who cited unnamed U.S. officials to warn of this new shadowy, worse-than-ISIS terror group:

While the Islamic State group is getting the most attention now, another band of extremists in Syria — a mix of hardened jihadis from Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Europe — poses a more direct and imminent threat to the United States, working with Yemeni bomb-makers to target U.S. aviation, American officials say.

At the center is a cell known as the Khorasan group, a cadre of veteran al-Qaida fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan who traveled to Syria to link up with the al-Qaida affiliate there, the Nusra Front.

But the Khorasan militants did not go to Syria principally to fight the government of President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials say. Instead, they were sent by al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to recruit Europeans and Americans whose passports allow them to board a U.S.-bound airliner with less scrutiny from security officials.

AP warned Americans that “the fear is that the Khorasan militants will provide these sophisticated explosives to their Western recruits who could sneak them onto U.S.-bound flights.” It explained that although ISIS has received most of the attention, the Khorasan Group “is considered the more immediate threat.”

more

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/28/u-s-officials-invented-terror-group-justify-bombing-syria/

[smiley]

1. who can keep up...

a new boogeyman every week.

[MohRokTah]

2. Anatomy of a fake journalist, more like it.

[KoKo]

5. Agree...NYT, MSNBC and Daily Beast Reporters hyping false info

just like the false info from same sources who got us into invading Iraq in the first place.

These fake journalists who work for "sources inside Govt." with own agenda (MIC & Neocons) just continue their dirty work..same as usual.

Glenn and his contributors to the article did a great job exposing this manipulation to a newer audience who isn't aware and reminding the rest of us.

[Logical]

11. LOL, so you believe it is a serious threat to our national security? nt

[pkdu]

3. Lazy and unsource , but hey , what's new. Nt

[KoKo]

4. Greenwald's article points out media manipulation by Usual Media Suspects/Plants

And, one wonders who would believe James Clapper about anything after the lied to Congress and the rest of the "usual media mouthpieces" who were pushing us into Invading Iraq based on false information from their "Government Insider" sources who has a stake in putting out false info.

------snip-----

Later that day, Obama administration officials began publicly touting the group, when Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned starkly: “in terms of threat to the homeland, Khorasan may pose as much of a danger as the Islamic State.” Then followed an avalanche of uncritical media reports detailing this Supreme Threat, excitingly citing anonymous officials as though they had uncovered a big secret the government was trying to conceal.

On September 20, the New York Times devoted a long article to strongly hyping the Khorasan Group. Headlined “U.S. Suspects More Direct Threats Beyond ISIS,” the article began by announcing that U.S. officials believe a different group other than ISIS “posed a more direct threat to America and Europe.” Specifically:

American officials said that the group called Khorasan had emerged in the past year as the cell in Syria that may be the most intent on hitting the United States or its installations overseas with a terror attack. The officials said that the group is led by Muhsin al-Fadhli, a senior Qaeda operative who, according to the State Department, was so close to Bin Laden that he was among a small group of people who knew about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks before they were launched.

Again, the threat they posed reached all the way to the U.S.: “Members of the cell are said to be particularly interested in devising terror plots using concealed explosives.”

(Greenwald gives more quotes, tweets and snips...verifying the manipulation)

[Fred Sanders]

7. "Deliver us from evil", pretext for all war, needs manufacture of an evil, followed by fear.

[Fred Sanders]

6. American propaganda is far more sophisticated than Russian propaganda.

[Doctor_J]

8. Amy Goodman -

If we actually DID have state- run media, could you tell the difference?

[Blue_Tires]

9. Of course if congress actually gave a shit, they'd get their asses back from vacation

They intentionally punted this issue to the White House to let Obama take the political heat...

And if Glenn Fucking Greenwald wants to accuse someone of fabrication, I'll need to see better evidence than what he's laying out here...He's already gotten criticism on twitter for the sloppiness of that Qatar piece...

[Comrade Grumpy]

18. Ooh, criticism on twitter! Well, that seals it.

[libodem]

10. K&R

Bookmarked. I can't give any actual examples of how I feel propaganized but the whole ISIS manifestation makes me feel mentality manipulated.

I think it all faked up to grab oil fields and refineries to manage the cost per barrel for the Koch Bros.

[whatchamacallit]

12. Idiot Authoritarian Americans gobble up this Orwellian shit every time

Doesn't matter how ridiculous or frequent, they're along for every inch of the carnival ride.

[wandy]

13. Josie weighs in on the Kardassians/Cardassian/Bad_Guy_Other group.............

It would appear that Josie (the teller of Ferguson, Mo truth) has some news for us about the Cardassian group. Although her approch is a bit more professional this time, it's easy to see the script and master copy are the same.

From The//Intercept as told By Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain

The solution to both problems was found in the wholesale concoction of a brand new terror threat that was branded “The Khorasan Group.” After spending weeks depicting ISIS as an unprecedented threat – too radical even for Al Qaeda! – administration officials suddenly began spoon-feeding their favorite media organizations and national security journalists tales of a secret group that was even scarier and more threatening than ISIS, one that posed a direct and immediate threat to the American Homeland. Seemingly out of nowhere, a new terror group was created in media lore.

While the Islamic State group is getting the most attention now, another band of extremists in Syria — a mix of hardened jihadis from Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Europe — poses a more direct and imminent threat to the United States, working with Yemeni bomb-makers to target U.S. aviation, American officials say.
At the center is a cell known as the Khorasan group, a cadre of veteran al-Qaida fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan who traveled to Syria to link up with the al-Qaida affiliate there, the Nusra Front.
But the Khorasan militants did not go to Syria principally to fight the government of President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials say. Instead, they were sent by al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to recruit Europeans and Americans whose passports allow them to board a U.S.-bound airliner with less scrutiny from security officials.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/28/u-s-officials-invented-terror-group-justify-bombing-syria/


From The National Review as told by Andrew C. Mcarthy.

There is a reason that no one had heard of such a group until a nanosecond ago, when the “Khorosan Group” suddenly went from anonymity to the “imminent threat” that became the rationale for an emergency air war there was supposedly no time to ask Congress to authorize.
You haven’t heard of the Khorosan Group because there isn’t one. It is a name the administration came up with, calculating that Khorosan — the –Iranian–Afghan border region — had sufficient connection to jihadist lore that no one would call the president on it.

The “Khorosan Group” is al-Qaeda. It is simply a faction within the global terror network’s Syrian franchise, “Jabhat al-Nusra.” Its leader, Mushin al-Fadhli (believed to have been killed in this week’s U.S.-led air strikes), was an intimate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the emir of al-Qaeda who dispatched him to the jihad in Syria. Except that if you listen to administration officials long enough, you come away thinking that Zawahiri is not really al-Qaeda, either. Instead, he’s something the administration is at pains to call “core al-Qaeda.”
“Core al-Qaeda,” you are to understand, is different from “Jabhat al-Nusra,” which in turn is distinct from “al-Qaeda in Iraq” (formerly “al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia,” now the “Islamic State” al-Qaeda spin-off that is, itself, formerly “al-Qaeda in Iraq and al-Sham” or “al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant”). That al-Qaeda, don’t you know, is a different outfit from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula . . . which, of course, should never be mistaken for “al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb,” “Boko Haram,” “Ansar al-Sharia,” or the latest entry, “al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/388990/khorosan-group-does-not-exist-andrew-c-mccarthy


So, we have to ask the question.
Is our gubbernment and Obama lying to us again or is this just another Right Wing story of the day?
Hay, its out on 'dem 'dar internets so it has to be true.

I guess if you can differentiate all of the al-BAD_GUY_OTHER groups you may be able to figure that out.
For myself I'll just have to wait for the MRI to come in showing the extent of Benjamin Sisko' s fractured orbital socket injury.

[woo me with science]

15. K&R

[woo me with science]

16. kick

[leftstreet]

17. DURec