Staged Jubilation

This wide-angle photo by Reuters of the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in central Baghdad arouses suspicions that the "spontaneous jubilation" by the Iraqi masses shown on television around the world was a media event orchestrated by the Pentagon.

Rather than a spontaneous mass demonstration, the photo clearly shows that only a couple hundred Iraqis participated in the largely empty and heavily guarded Fardus Square. American tanks and troops surrounded the square and one armored vehicle "helped" the Iraqis pull down the statue.

In the upper part of the photo, it appears that normal traffic into the square has been blocked by American troops. Conveniently, this square is in close proximity to the Palestine Hotel, which houses journalists covering the war. The timing of the activities is also suspicious; the wrecking of the statue occurred during the morning shows on the American television networks.

It turns out that the jubilant crowd consisted mostly of the members of the Free Iraqi Force militia of Ahmad Chalabi's Iraq National Congress who had been ferried into Nasiriya a week earlier in US helicopters and then flown into Baghdad. The convenient arrival of the US Marines along with a crane was part of the show as well.

More pictures of " crowd" in the square: Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 Picture 4

Sources:

The above is from http://www.antiwar.com/orig/baghdad.html which credited http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2838.htm .