Which Iraq War stories do you think are planted or false? Report them here.

[Alexander's Horse]

I've been meaning to start a thread like this for some time.

Over the last few months there have been lots of false news stories planted by one side or the other. Truth is the first casualty of war and it seems both sides have gone into overdrive.

The trouble is, the Iraqis aren't very good at it. I saw a spokesman claim last night that the allies had only penetrated a few kilometres at most into Iraq

They have been very good however at making the allies look like a bunch of bullies beating up on poor Iraq. Lots of footage of injured in hospital and so forth.

Its allied policy to lie and spin. They've made no secret of it. The stories about Saddam's sex life a few months ago were clearly part of a covert campaign imo.

The biggest planted story I see at the moment is the one about Saddam being seriously wounded or dead. Its clearly designed to demoralise and confuse Iraqi forces. So Saddam has been regularly appearing on TV.

What suspect/planted stories have you spotted?

[BeBMan]

I think the entire war is faked, like the landing on the moon...

[The Mad Monk]

The biggest planted story I see at the moment is the one about Saddam being seriously wounded or dead. Its clearly designed to demoralise and confuse Iraqi forces. So Saddam has been regularly appearing on TV.

He has? We haven't seen anything beyond the first night.

[Case]

There was a televised Iraqi war cabinet meeting today. It may have been prerecorded, but most analysists think that the Iraqi command and control system is still functioning well enough to indicate that Saddam Hussain is alive, if not necessarily well.

I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't spotted any obviously planted stories yet, though the 'shock and awe' bombing is looking questionable, and *may* have been invented in order to encourage the Iraqis to stay in their bunkers.

Several major US military units are noticable for their total lack of media coverage though - I haven't heard anything about the US 2nd Marine or 82nd Airborne divisions despite both formations having large numbers of troops in the region.

[The Mad Monk]

It's likely you won't hear anything on the 82nd.

[Case]

...untill they drop somewhere in brigade strength.

This counts more as bad journalism then as misinformation, but I saw an Australian journalist on TV today refer to the four British armoured personel carriers he's traveling with as the, quote, "Duke of York Division". I guess that it was too much trouble for him to learn the difference between a platoon, a battalion and a division before heading off to cover a war.

[Urban Ranger]

What about Scud attacks on Kuwait? I saw it in a couple of places, but there are no confirmations. Ditto with the "Iraqi setting oil fields on fire" stories.

[Sandman]

Umm Quasr captured. Seems there's still fighting going on there.

The Iraqi claims to have shot down an enemy plane are probably false. We'll see.

[Urban Ranger]

Mass surrenders.

[Az]

Turkish entrance into northen iraq, seems to be false, as well. Both the Turks and the Kurds denied it.

[Stefu]

All the stories which don't include bare-chested, buff American soldiers speed-marching to Baghdad wielding nothing but American flags with cowardly Iraqis surrendering to them every step they take. Come on, we know the truth no matter how the librul media is covering it up!

[GePap]

I have to agree geenrally with the whole Saddam is dead..line of rumors going on endlessly.

You know, the coverage of this war is supposed to be so much better than the last, yet in some ways I feel it is so much less. And the 24 hour "news" networks don't help too much, since they endlessly repeat what little they get. There is also a huge dearth of news form the north..are there no reporters there?

[Bereta_Eder]

We have a dozen journalists in Bagdat and it's apocalypse day there.

All reports about minimum civilian casualties are false.

[GePap]

Paitkis: not even the Iraqis say its that bad, and they have every reason to make it seem so.

[Bereta_Eder]

Your media simply isn't reporting what the Iraqis are saying I pressume.

Hospitals are filled with mamed people.