On Fear and Misdirection

Naomi Wolf writes:

Of course, reliance on fear and misdirection may still be part of official strategy. With Dzokhar Tsarnaev in custody and his brother dead, the next round of stories reported on alleged “sleeper cells” and planned attacks that had been thwarted by America’s security services. The Boston Globe, for example, ran an article about the man – identified only by his first name, Danny – whom the brothers carjacked three days after the attack. Danny claimed that the only word of the brothers’ conversation that he understood was “Manhattan,” and that the terrorists had asked him if his car could leave the state – say, to get to New York. The Globe’s one-source report proved nothing – and was unverifiable by other reporters or citizens – but it suggested much, leading to a spate of equally unverifiable reports that New York had been targeted.

Other recent “terror”-related reporting has been as flimsy. In Charles Savage’s recent account of the Guantánamo “uprising,” The New York Times credulously reproduced the “arsenal” that GITMO officials showed reporters in a video still. The “weapons” were allegedly made from mop handles and nail files – objects that, as I know from having reported from Guantánamo, are literally impossible for any detainee to obtain. The prisoners are housed far from anything like mops or other cleaning articles; they are given no chores to perform; and they receive no mail.