The echo effect

Has anyone seen any evidence that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is alive?

As we noted a couple of days ago, the Reverend Moon's Washington Times carried a story (placed under the Drudge magnifier) detailing an alleged FBI interrogation of the captured Al Qaeda chief. In language peppered with incongruous Americanisms, he indicated that the terror network had also targeted the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Library Tower in Los Angeles. Fortunately, the bad guys were thwarted by the mighty men of the Bush administration.

At least, so saith the Moonies.

Unfortunately, the yarn has one major problem: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed seems to have, er, died well before his alleged capture. So, at least, reported the Asia Times, which ran a very persuasive investigative piece.

Has the recent Washington Times report received confirmation from a more responsible news organization? No. Not exactly. But a right-wing "echo chamber" has created the appearance of confirmation.

The Washington Times report was echoed by one appearing on UPI -- also owned by Moon. This led to a report in the London Times, owned by Rupert Murdoch. The Murdochians seem to have satisfied themselves with a re-write of the Moonie piece.

This led to a flurry of news accounts repeating the story, all crediting the London Times. Another "mirror" version -- with the exact same quotes from KSM, and no further information or investigation -- appeared in the right-wing Los Angeles Daily News. So now other news organizations can carry the story and credit that rag.

I've yet to see any evidence that a single reporter has called the FBI to verify the initial report or to ask for more data. Everything -- everything -- can be traced back to a single story in the Washington Times. Keep in mind that this same newspaper tried to sell us on the "Kerry intern" story well after it was exposed as a fraud. This is the newspaper which gave the world the verb "to Prudenize" as an indicator of journalistic mischief. This is a newspaper owned by a would-be Ian Fleming arch-fiend who -- laugh if you will, but it's true -- wants to turn the world into a theocracy.

I would like an editor at any one of these "echo effect" journals to explain why the Moon people deserve greater respect than does the Asia Times. Strained rationalization always provides a good laugh.