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10/29/2001
If you have trouble deciding how to answer the poll on the right, if you just can't be sure, then you have a lot in common with CNN reporters, Jeff Levine and Bob Franken. Early Thursday morning, 10/25/2001, from the Pentagon, Levine offered this report:

"Well, in the last couple of days, food has surfaced as a major new weapon in the Afghan war and both sides are hoping to use this tool to win a kind of propaganda victory. The latest accusation is that the U.S. has used the humanitarian relief effort to poison the Afghan people. Now, the Pentagon is heatedly denying that charge."

Admiral John Stufflebeem: "We are confident in the information that we have that they may intend to poison one or more types of food sources and blame it on the Americans. We are releasing this information pre-emptively so that they will know if the food comes from Americans, it will not be tainted."

Levine: "Now, the U.S. is actually warning the Afghan people not to eat food provided by the Taliban sources, for example, Taliban controlled Red Cross warehouses."

"Another situation that comes up is that military equipment is being stored near precious sites, near religious sites. For example, as this picture shows, a helicopter is being parked near a mosque. The idea apparently is to draw fire to the mosque. Now what happened in this case, says the Pentagon, is that the helicopter was destroyed but the mosque was saved."

"Overall it's very, very difficult, of course, to assess these charges, to say what is what and what is right and what is wrong. However, both sides will continue to make these accusations. They're both very, very anxious to win the battle for public opinion."

Well, Duuuhhh!!! Is this guy trying to sound stupid? And the way he's going on about public opinion, you'd think he's reporting on the Clinton White House!

Later that morning, in further discussion of the same story, Bob Franken had these comments:

(T)he Taliban . . . claiming, first, that the United States was trying to poison food. The United States, at its briefing, saying that in fact, the concern was that the Taliban would be poisoning the food so it could blame the United States. So you can see the kind of battle that was going on. The U.S. offers no proof of its claims, the Taliban offers no proof of its claim. The U.S. claimed in the briefing that it was relying on credible sources, others told us that those were intelligence sources."

I feel so bad for these reporters. They work in such a values-neutral culture at CNN that they can't tell who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. For most Americans, our first clue was when the terrorists, the bad guys, hijacked four airplanes full of people and purposely crashed three of them them into buildings full of people, killing and injuring many. That was very bad! They don't deserve to be granted any credibility, as they have shown themselves to be evil and untrustworthy.

This concept is so simple that any child could explain it, yet it escapes these guys completely. Perhaps we can help them with it. Below is the contact information.

CNN
P.O. Box 105366
One CNN Center
Atlanta, Georgia 30348
Phone 404-827-1500
FAX 404-681-6363

CNN Feedback Page
E-mail CNN

Washington Bureau:
820 First Street NE, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20002
Phone 202-898-7900
FAX 202-898-7923

Owner of CNN:
AOL TimeWarner
75 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, New York 10019
Phone 212-484-8000

Read more here:

U.S.: Taliban Could Poison Food
U.S. Calls Taliban 'Tough Warriors'
Pentagon Says Taliban Might Poison Food Aid