Three Iraqi Army battalions had surrounded the town of Madaen, just south of the capital, where Sunni kidnappers were said to be threatening to kill hundreds of Shiite hostages unless all Shiites left the town. As the national assembly met, Iraq’s top political figures warned of a grave sectarian crisis. Iraq’s most revered Shiite cleric issued a plea for restraint. Even the outgoing prime minister released a statement decrying the “savage, filthy, and dirty atrocities” in Madaen.
But as the army battalions arrived in Madaen, they saw streets full of people calmly sipping tea in cafés and going about their business. There were no armed Sunni mobs, no cowering Shiite victims. After hours of careful searches, the soldiers assisted by air surveillance found no evidence of any kidnappings or refugees at all.
By this afternoon, Iraqi army officials were reporting that the crisis in Madaen, which had been narrated in a stream of breathless television reports and news agency stories, was nothing but a tissue of rumors and politically motivated accusations.
The hysteria over Madaen was one vivid illustration of the way Iraq’s daily violence and sectarian tension, which are real enough, can be easily twisted into fantasy here. In a country where phones are unreliable and roads between cities often blocked, facts can give way to a fast-running engine of rumor. And most people have good reason to believe the worst.
NYT: Free Reg
I’m too ill to fill in the blanks. Maybe you BooTribbers can run down the fallout from this story and offer some analysis.
Sorry you’re sick, Boo. Go rest … we promise we won’t make too big a mess of things.
Isn’t that just a huge joke? I mean … how on earth did this get going? Does anyone believe the “unreliable phones” excuse?
I mentioned this yesterday on some diary I forgot which one and was wondering then how this whole ‘story’ could be fabricated and wondered why. If it was true it was said to be some sort of tribal war…believe I read it on Al Jeezera so will go back and check that out.
I think the question might be if the story is not true what exactly was the point of this big distraction story? And probably more proof that reporters can’t get out anywhere in Iraq to check out news stories and basically report rumors and hearsay.
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage Several stories here on the whole hostage taking story. No one is either telling or really seems to know what is going on including the Iraqi ‘government’.
http://www.iraqdaily.com/ Here is another link that has much local news from around Iraq that I like to check often. Also with stories of the ‘hostage’ situation. At this point I’m not even going to venture a guess as to what might be going on there.
I remember reading a story shortly after the US invasion, about the extent to which Baghdad (and Iraq) operate according to rumor – it makes sense, when you figure under Saddam there wasn’t much of a press – how else would information be disseminated?
Hey, with our lazy and incompetent media of dubya enablers that makes them just like us. Our media traffics in rumors without ever checking the facts our following up with multiple sources, too.
For reasons that I must do a diary on, the most interesting part of this nonsense is what is being said by way of obiter dicta: “they saw streets full of people calmly sipping tea in cafés and going about their business.”
I have more trust in what is said in passing in news stories than in what those stories are leading on. So I take this description of life in that town as being fairly accurate.
Nothing that we believe or are led to believe about Iraq is reality.
I’m hoping Riverbend will have a new entry soon and possibly also shed some light on what might be the real story on this ‘story’.
Welshman, I’d like also to say again that your diary about Bolton/books was truly poetic and lyrical yet had some great insight. Great writing, thanks.
http://www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ Riverbend has new entry up today on her site. She has some thoughts about the whole hostage story.
Maybe you should post this on World/open, others may not see it here and it is an important diary she has written.
good idea, went and did that Diane.
Iraq Kidnap Reports May Be Exaggerated
AP
By KHALID MOHAMMED, Associated Press Writer
NEAR MADAIN, Iraq – Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops had the town of Madain surrounded Sunday after reports of Sunni militant kidnappings of as many as 100 Shiites residents, but there were growing indications the incident had been grossly exaggerated, perhaps an outgrowth of a tribal dispute or political maneuvering….
From al Jazeera:
—
Kurds kidnapped
Elsewhere, seven Iraqi Kurdish civilians working on a US military base were kidnapped late on Sunday in central Iraq after leaving work, a police chief told AFP.
Iraqis working for foreign forces
are often targeted
Armed men seized the seven Kurds after stopping their bus as they travelled home from the base in the Mansuria region to Khanaqin, some 180km northeast of Baghdad.
The bus driver, whom the armed men beat up, alerted police.
Civilians working for foreign forces in Iraq are often targeted by fighters.
—
Good gracious…
Maybe in Saddam’s time the press was restricted but people could call one another on telephones that worked and find out what was going on. And surely Saddam was well-informed if no one else.
Looking at the reported bits of this story, it looks like the entire country is disintegrating into an Afghanistan, where roads, telephones and basic infrastructure are crumbling. Iraq used to be a fairly modern country for goodness sakes! Certainly there were villages with a simpler more pastoral lifestyle but in general the cities and towns were modern with paved roads, satellite television and the internet…
Now it seems like everyone and their brother is banning together in small groups, a sort of modern tribalism if not based on de facto tribal lines. The Kurds with the Kurds, the XX party with the XX party, the clan of Y with the clan of Y, and gunning for power at the expense of the rest.
This looks like someone started a nasty rumor and it got out of hand precisely because there is no central control. Not in American hands, not in Iraqi hands. None!! Not even Al-Jazeera or other Arabic-speaking media can move freely around this country to report on what’s going on…
That’s why it is sickening when an American General estimates “insurgents” or something else because nobody has a durn idea what’s going on there or who is there or what they’re fighting for or against. Nobody. It is just pure and utter chaos and getting worse every day.
Mark my words, it won’t be long before an Iraqi mafia springs up to start controlling various sectors of the economy. It’s the organic result of such chaos.
Pax
For your information
I thought you might enjoy this site and its blogroll.
Now why does that suggestion bring to mind the reintroduction of the Mafia into post war Italy? A Mafia in Iraq may be just what the US wants! Unless of course it is a radical islamic one!