08/19/02 "WAG THE GASSED DOG" This is the purest war propaganda. One video of what may be Osama bin Laden plus a video of a dog being gassed which could have been created anywhere equals the US sinking to new lows trying to manufacture support for a war nobody but the oil companies want. This dog-video reminds me of Hill & Knowlton's much ballyhooed claim that Iraqi troops were stealing incubators from Kuwait hospitals and leaving premature babies to die on the floor. That was a hoax to sell a war. And until proven otherwise, the safest course is to assume this latest "shock video" is just another hoax by the public relations firms which grow rich and fat off of your tax dollars by lying to you for the US Government. Anonymous US officials have declared this to be "unquestionable" evidence that al Qaeda has chemical weapons. I find it very questionable. For one thing, compare the quality of the dog video with that of the famous Osama "confession" tape or even the most recent Osama tape. Why does a dog get much better video quality than the boss? Add to that the cuteness of the dog, as if intentionally selected by central casting to provoke the greatest feelings of sympathy in the viewer, instead of just grabbing any old mangy stray mongrel to use in such a test. Yes, this video is shocking, but the shock is intended to shock people past questioning the claims of where the video came from. All day long the media has been blasting the "Arabs kill puppy dogs" story all over the airwaves, trying to create a linkage between Arabs and chemical weapons where none can be proven to factually exist. Given the sensitization to chemical weapons contained in this media barrage, I have to wonder if the next stage provocation, intended to further the war against Iraq, will also involve chemical weapons.
COMMENT FROM A READER
As well as the cuteness and the video quality, the dog is not malnourished and its coat seems to be in very good condition. Stray dogs in Canada don't look that good, or as well fed. Imagine how stray dogs in Afghanistan look where people don't even get fed.
COMMENT FROM A READER
Just a short note to tell you that any common average Muslim knows that Islam expressly forbids mistreatment of animals...
COMMENT FROM A READER
Here are some question raised by the 'gassed dogs' videos.- Why weren't the videos found by US special forces who have actively been hunting for material like that? If the videos were from 'the official' Al Qaeda library, why wasn't this library or it's contents actively been hunted down? And even if CNN really got hold of a share of the videos, without government involvement, why didn't I hear of any US actions to recover the rest of the videos?, which can hold possible evidence overlooked by CNN people.
- The dogs from the movies are too well taken care of. They look like soft cozy domestic dogs, which are well taken care of. In Muslim countries, dogs aren't popular at all. They don't life inside the houses. When I visited Turkey I only saw wildered stray dogs. Osama Bin laden and his organization Al Qaeda are fundamentalist Muslims, they would have never had a animal that is considered a unclean beast and kept it in mint condition for the video.
- My theory is that if chemical test were filmed deep inside Afghanistan they would have used dirty looking, maybe crippled walking, stray dogs and not three fuzzy dogs.
"People in this devoutly Muslim country rarely keep dogs as pets because their religion frowns on them as dirty. Night brings a cacophony of barking, howling dogs in a city where the 8:30 p.m. curfew and the fear of American air attack keep people off the streets." -- http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/103001_nw_OEFHealth.html
COMMENT FROM A READER
I lived briefly in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and my husband took me to buy me a cat for my birthday. We went to various "pet stores" to look at cats. While looking, I noticed how HORRIBLY the animals were kept...and I can tell you, that the very few dogs I DID see in Saudi Arabia were small mangy looking things.....certainly not the fluffy, healthy looking puppy I saw on that film, (was that meant to tug at the American "soul"...."awwww...that poor, fluffy, cute puppy.....would America had reacted the same had the dog been a more realistic "picture" of an animal that is being used as a lab animal to test poison?)
The consensus of opinion seems to be that the condition of the dogs in the videos is inconsistent with the claims regarding where the tape was made.
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COMMENT FROM A READER
do you really think gassing people is something terrorists would be doing? you need people in a small closed room and enough gas pumped in. I guess it COULD work in a building if you had truckloads of gas to pump in. but really. this looks so faked.
COMMENT FROM A READER
I'm not an animal-rights type guy, mind you, it just seems weird how the press and public can demonize one country for gassing a couple of dogs for military research, yet comepletely ignore the fact that we gas dogs by the dumpster-full, every day of the year, simply because we have too many dogs.
COMMENT FROM A READER
What about the chem weapons that the US of A has in their stockpile...Weren't there tests conducted during development of the weapons. Maybe thot video actually comes from the Pentagon's shelf itself...I wonder..
COMMENT FROM A READER
I had the same feeling watching the al Qaida - gasses - the - cute - yellow - lab video that you did: pure sensationalist propaganda. Even if the video is authentic one has to wonder at the timing of its release. Over the last week more newpapers have come out with editorials opposing, or at least questionning, Bush's impending attack on Iraq. Even some big name Republicans are going public with their doubts. How can the Bush people counter this bad press? By bypassing people's brains and shocking them with the dog video: "See the kind of bad people we're up against? They hurt a cute doggie!"
COMMENT FROM A READER
No one would feel at ease when he sees the photo of that poor dog, but any human being who has an average knowledge of Islam would consider that photo a fraud. Here are two (out of many)sayings of prophet Muhammad excerpted from a well known Islamic reference (sahih Muslim):1- “Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, reported: Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: A man suffered from intense thirst while on a journey, then he found a well. He climbed down into it and drank (water) and when he came out he saw a dog lolling its tongue and eating the moistened earth out of thirst. The man said: This dog has suffered from thirst as I had. So he climbed down into the well, filled his shoe with water, then caught it in his mouth until he climbed up and let the dog drink it. Allah appreciated this act of his and pardoned him. Then (the Companions around him) said: Allah's Messenger, is there for us a reward even for (serving) such animals? He said: Yes, there is a reward for service to every living animal.” Hadith number in Sahih Muslim: 4162
2- “Anas bin Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, reported: Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) had forbidden tying animals (and making them the targets of arrows, etc.) “ Hadith number in Sahih Muslim: 3616
So, how could bin Laden and his people do such a cruel thing to an innocent animal?? This may happen in one case: they are not true Moslems... the question is: are they or aren't they!!
COMMENT FROM A READER
Seems that everyone is in concensus that this puppy video is just another "U.S Gov - Golan/Globus Production" of a 2002 version of "Old Yeller" (In my opinon HIS fate was actually much worse than the puppy's..) but the reader who mentioned the fact that this act of "chemical testing" is no different from the fact that we gas dogs by the dumpsterfull because we cant find them homes hit it on the nail.. but I guess thats okay, those dogs arent cute anyway right?? The very fact that this video WILL in fact dupe those who have no idea what war is really like ( I dont but I grew up in LA and the cops and Al Qaeda arent any different..) the masses are going to be scared to death by this.. and actually believe that big bad al gaeda is coming to their town.. and THATS whats truly frightening!! that theyd believe it.. If they think that gassing that dog is truly a marker of their evilness then the duped-all-believeing public should go rent (or buy its only 9.99) a video called "Atomic Bomb Movie in 3D" which has all the test blasts from the 50 and the 60's and look at what we did to Goats, Pigs, Cows, Chicken, Advarks (well not ardvarks but you get my point..) WE NUKED THEM (and also the inhabitants of bikini atoll) and it was good because they put on DVD and allowed blockbuster to sell it.. But CNN isnt putting that one on the air are they???
COMMENT FROM A READER
It occurred to me that, even if Al-Qaida did test chemical weapons on dogs, where the fuck does our government get off acting horrified by it?:http://www.peta.org/mc/facts/fsae9.html
http://www.idausa.org/facts/military.html
COMMENT FROM A READER
I was watching a local news station and saw them re-airing CNN's Gassed Dog film, and I saw something that might be of interest to you (I don't know if it's in CNN's Version, but the "CNN Exclusive" banner remained the whole time). The images of the Dog being gassed segued to images of "chemical or biological weapons being manufactured." They show torsos and arms/hands only, handling various chemical compounds that look rather sinister, bubbling and smoking... Ordinarily this would not be too odd since some chemical weapons do in fact do these sinister things, except for two details:1) The hands shown in the images are all WHITE men's hands….
2) The hands shown in the images are all UNGLOVED….
No one in their right mind would be manufacturing or handling chemical or biological weapons without gloves, and the hands themselves were not Arab!
COMMENT FROM A READER
Ever saw the report on the zoo of Kabul? These animals were living skeletons, most half dead!
COMMENT FROM A READER
I just wanted to say that I visited the Middle East (syria) for two months over a summer when I was 13 years old and I never recall seeing any golden retrievers anywhere. The only kinds of dogs there were mutts, and none of them remotely resembled a golden retriever. I know that Syria is a different country than Iraq, but it's all the middle east and I guarantee you personally that there are no golden retrievers in Iraq, cause, wouldn't they have to be imported from europe or america or somewhere since they aren't found in Iraq? And I'm pretty sure that nobody in the middle east loves dogs that much, and even if they did I'm sure they have better things to spend their money on with the sanctions and starving children in that country. I mean seriously, Dubya & co. need to give it a break!
COMMENT FROM A READER
Green, in Islam, is the representative color, present on all Islamic countries' flags if I remember correctly. Health and appearance aside, why would they put a green scarf, the sacred color, on an unclean animal?
08/20/02 U.S. Army 'Psyops' Specialists worked for CNN Is this why CNN got the "bad guys killing a puppy" tape?
