Roger L. Simon
February 1st, 2005 3:01 pm

Dinosaur Alert

It has struck me that the jihadis may not actually be behind today’s absurd “Barbie Doll Terror” hostage posted on Drudge and all over the Internet. Do Zarqawi & Co. benefit from posting something so silly on a website that can be so easily exposed? Not much. So cui bono in making this image which has made the gullible Associated Press seem like amateur buffoons out of a Three Stooges movie? Bloggers, well maybe. Hackers having fun, well maybe. CIA black ops, even possibly. No one has much positive to say about the Associated Press these days, that curious group whose photographers just happen to show up when Iraqi poll workers are gunned down in the street. Decent Iraqis too have reason to despise and therefore ridicule them. Of course, it’s true jihadis still could have done this, but I’ll wager AP, at least in its present form, is going the way of the brontosaurus.

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18 Comments

1. Roger:

test

Feb 1, 2005 - 4:51 pm 2. richard mcenroe:

Dinosaur alert? You’re blaming this on Barney? Roger, that is so 90’s…

Feb 1, 2005 - 4:56 pm 3. Occam's Beard:

Roger, I don’t know what your problem is with this. The photo seems a classic case of “fake, but accurate.”

Feb 1, 2005 - 5:11 pm 4. Fausta:

I guess LEGOs would have been too obvious.

Feb 1, 2005 - 5:13 pm 5. Mr. Davis:

I wish it were the CIA but my money is on a high schooler. Here or Iraq? I don’t know.

Feb 1, 2005 - 5:19 pm 6. Rick Ballard:

Wow. So that’s how AP stringers arrange the set ups. “This is the way we want him posed Achmed, they’ll pay us $50,000 for this shot.”

Feb 1, 2005 - 5:26 pm 7. ambisinistral:

Dammit, I hurt my head when I fell out of my chair laughing. I love good internet hoaxes, and this one is an instant classic. Not quite John Titor territorry, but close.

Feb 1, 2005 - 5:31 pm 8. ex-democrat:

we can play asymmetrical too: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1333699/posts

(spotted by Belmontier wag, Vercingetorix)

Feb 1, 2005 - 5:38 pm 9. PeterArgus:

It is apparent that the AP reporters do not allow their children to play with any war toys. If they only did they would have recognized it as fake.

Feb 1, 2005 - 6:01 pm 10. PJ:

OMG, Look at http://www.jihadwatch.org!!!

Feb 1, 2005 - 7:00 pm 11. Joe Maller:

I’m kind of hoping it’s a PsyOp, cause it’s brilliant. Makes Zarq look pathetic while sliming the AP at the same time. The script kiddee angle is kind of plausible, but I bet it was just a casual prankster with a hotmail account completely 0wning the terrorists’ website and AP.

I’d buy them a six pack.

Feb 1, 2005 - 7:43 pm 12. Wallace:

My 11 y.o. step son has a GI Joe. I feel a Photo Op coming….or maybe a Photoshop.

Feb 1, 2005 - 8:23 pm 13. exguru:

I don’t know why you think the AP is “gullible.” They probably bought the doll and created the whole story… Let’s not forget the way they “reported” President Bush’s announcement to a Republican audience of Bill Clinton’s heart attack. (They said there was booing; then they corrected that story to tone it down; then they were forced to correct it again, because too many witnesses said they were STILL lying).

Feb 2, 2005 - 1:11 am 14. 1630r:

“Our guys planted this” was my first reaction. I mean, how many of those dolls were sold? How long would it be before someone said, “I know that guy and he’s got articulated legs”?

Ridiculing the Jihadis comes swiftly after their moral defeat at the polls? Too sweet.

But it is funny. :)

Team America – Fuck Yeah!

Feb 2, 2005 - 3:05 am 15. Keith_Indy:

It could just be some sick version of a wartime diorama.

I’ve got a friend that builds these things, although he’s never done a hostage before. He’s more into the WWII armored vehicles. Of course, his dioramas are better quality than this “hostage” scene.

Feb 2, 2005 - 6:23 am 16. David C:

The open question, I think, is whether the jihadi site that put up the picture in the first place knew where it came from. I.e., is it really a “terrorist web site” run by people with actual connections, or just a bunch of wannabes that the terrorists send stuff to more or less anonymously?

I’m suspecting it’s the latter, and that this makes it easier for them to be exploited unwittingly. I do suspect this was a psyop on the bad guys of some sort, whether official or just a random prankster. But either way, bravo!

CNN’s piece, btw, seems to indicate that this specific doll is one made especially for sale at Army and Air Force exchanges. Which might lend support to the idea that the story was planted by our own military guys. (I.e., you’re a psyops guy who comes up with this idea to make the bad guys look ridiculous, and you go to the nearest PX to find a plausible doll to use for it.)

Feb 2, 2005 - 7:36 am 17. Critical Matt:

It looks like a contractor was kidnappped also.

You can find the photo of this dastardly deed here – http://www.lapeerliving.blogspot.com

Feb 2, 2005 - 9:29 am 18. Dignan:

I have some breaking news on this story…

http://lawnrangers.blogspot.com/2005/02/breaking-news-on-kidnapped-soldier.html

Feb 2, 2005 - 10:42 am

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Roger L Simon

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