At
his pathetic news conference, Senator Man-on-Dog fielded various questions from those in attendance.
Just as the media types began to shake their heads as the bullshit meters screamed in their ears, some intrepid wingnut wearing a press badge engaged in this exchance with Rep. Hoekstra:
QUESTION: We have video, a DVD of a nerve gas attack, March 16, 1988, in Halibayah (ph), Iraq. And 5,000 people were killed. Fifteen shells were reportedly used in this attack.
HOEKSTRA: So 5,000 people killed, 15 shells?
(Reporter): I don't know exactly what size artillery shells or whatever, but it may be very similar to the type of stuff that we are finding today.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!! If fifteen of those shells killed everyone at Halabja, then imagine what 500 could do! Get the 101st Fighting Keyboardists to mobilize!
There's just one problem: It's complete and utter bullshit.
There is no better source on just what happened at Halabja than Human Rights Watch. And I quote:
The Iraqi counterattack began in the mid-morning of March 16, with conventional airstrikes and artillery shelling from the town of Sayed Sadeq to the north. Most families in Halabja had built primitive air-raid shelters near their homes. Some crowded into these, others into the government shelters, following the standard air-raid drills they had been taught since the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980. The first wave of air strikes appears to have included the use of napalm or phosphorus. "It was different from the other bombs," according to one witness. "There was a huge sound, a huge flame and it had very destructive ability. If you touched one part of your body that had been burned, your hand burned also. It caused things to catch fire." The raids continued unabated for several hours. "It was not just one raid, so you could stop and breathe before another raid started. It was just continuous planes, coming and coming. Six planes would finish and another six would come."28
Those outside in the streets could see clearly that these were Iraqi, not Iranian aircraft, since they flew low enough for their markings to be legible. In the afternoon, at about 3:00, those who remained in the shelters became aware of an unusual smell. Like the villagers in the Balisan Valley the previous spring, they compared it most often to sweet apples, or to perfume, or cucumbers, although one man says that it smelled "very bad, like snake poison." No one needed to be told what the smell was.
Well, color me shocked.
Use of lies about WMD's to spread false fear and justification: check.
Blatantly incorrect factoid thrown out by rightwing 'reporter' and regurgitated by the Freeptards: check.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
UPDATE: It is possible that there is a mistake in the press conference transcript, in which case it is Rep. Hoekstra who is blatantly lying about this. If so, I think it's even better to nail a big Pachyderm instead of a little one.
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