Zarqawi and poison (tongues)

* im sure you've seen this:

" (Reuters) - The U.S. military on Monday denied an accusation that American and Iraq forces used toxic gas during an attack on the Iraqi town of Tal Afar in which up to 200 insurgents were killed.

The accusation was made in an audio-tape by a man believed to be al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The message was posted on a Web site on Sunday, the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington."

Of course, Zarqawi doesnt exist - so i couldnt work out what was going on. I'm still somewhat perplexed - but let me posit the following hypothesis:

1. 'Zark' claims that the americans are using poison gas
2. US denies it
3. zark might reiterate his statement more loudly, perhaps naming a specific poison
   
4. the americans will then prove that they didnt actually use any poisons in Tal Afar(with credible testing or some such)
5. the americans can then discount/discredit/dismiss all future claims that they ever used any poisons (think rathergate)

that's be pretty neat, right?

i'm reminded of this post i wrote last week about the US State Dept's hysterically funny new page called "How to Identify Misinformation" which attempts to conflate 'conspiracy theories' such as trading in human organs with the use of CBW:

"Another highly controversial issue is that of forbidden weapons, such as chemical or biological weapons. The United States is regularly, and falsely, accused of using these weapons."

it was an odd thing for State to publish, and odd timing. in that post, i wrote:

" The curious thing is that they are trying to paint DU/CBW with the joe vialls brush, and they are trying to do it now.

i love the smell of desperation in the morning"

it'll be interesting if we suddenly see the americans finally doing some enviro testing in tal afar (which they've never done in iraq) - and then they'll try to discount all those other silly conspiracy theories about evil americans using napalm and other poisons all over the country for the last 2.5 years.

and just to complete the farce, the reuters article i pointed to at the top of the post goes on to say:

""Anything the man (Zarqawi) says is probably not true. But for certain, the claim of poison gas is not true," a Pentagon official said.

A technical analysis of the message has not yet been completed. But a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said the government believes the Zarqawi tape is authentic.

"That is, based on the fact that there's no record of false Zarqawi tapes ever surfacing," the official said."

3 paragraphs of pure propaganda brilliance. the guys who make this stuff up must have lots of fun with their job. they must wonder if there really is no limit to the stuff they can get away with.