Sectarianism in Iraq. posted by Richard Seymour

Following the 'Terror in the Hands of Justice' show that appears on the US-sponsored television network al-Iraqiya , there can be little doubt that the occupiers intend to fuel and use sectarianism in order to minimise the threat of cross-sectional political collaboration of the kind witnessed recently in Firdus Square. The show features guests who 'confess' to various crimes of insurgency, and usually flesh them out by mentioning the alleged homosexuality of their commander or by painting lurid pictures of insurgents fucking in mosques. Usually, the victims were named as Shi'ite, while the commanders were given Sunni names. As even the timid BBC reported recently, after an item about it had been on their website for several weeks, one person confessed to having killed people who were still very much alive and well.

Now, we learn that the rumours put about of 100 Shi'ites kidnapped and held hostage by Sunni guerillas were false . Allegedly, Sunni guerillas had issued a threat to kill all 100 alleged hostages unless every Shi'ite left the town. It was such a crisis that leading Shi'ite clerics had to appeal for calm, the National Assembly engaged in a flurry of activity worrying about sectarian violence, and Iyad Allawi issued a condemnation of the "savage, filthy, and dirty atrocities" taking place. Yet:

[A]s 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.

Psyops, anyone?