Outside the wire.

"I have concluded, based both on my experience, and the reports of other newsmen, that an unconscionable amount of what we in the press have been feeding the American public regarding the war in Iraq is fashioned by the propaganda arms of our enemies. Ba’athist kidnappers and Jihadi bombers are planning their operations not to win the war in Iraq, but to win it in America. To that end, they are assessing what American reporters are willing to cover, and what American news organizations are willing to risk.

This has been made abundantly clear in Al Qaida documents recently released by Centcom and the Coalition. An excerpt of the translated document reads:

The policy followed by the brothers in Baghdad is a media oriented policy without a clear comprehensive plan to capture an area or an enemy center. In other words, the significance of the strategy of their work is to show in the media that the American and the government does not control the situation and there is resistance against them.

Stated simply: Al Qaida is not even trying to win the war on the ground anymore. It is attempting to win the war in the press. And they’re doing pretty well. On April 2, 2005, when Al Qaeda in Iraq attempted to assault Abu Ghraib prison, I was the only reporter there. The unit I was with was patrolling the area as part of a week-long op, and caught the tail end of the assault. The Marines didn’t think much of it. The main result was a bunch of dead insurgents. The next day, when the sun came up, we saw the v-beds that didn’t even make it off the highway and the remnants of so-called lions of taweed.

It wasn’t until we were back in base, watching TV in the chow hall, that we discovered that the failed assault was “BIG NEWS” and reporters were showing up after the fact. Two-to-three days after the fact. As a Marine Colonel told me. Al Qaeda lost that fire-fight in Iraq, but they won on CNN (mais aqui)."

Text of JD's Speech at the American Enterprise Institute