Press Releases

Disinformation Alert:  U.S. Forces did NOT use Mustard Gas in Fallujah

March 7, 2005

On March 5, 2005, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claimed that the Iraqi Health Ministry had compiled a report charging that U.S. forces used mustard gas and nerve gas in military operations in Fallujah, Iraq last fall.  These charges are false.

• The Iraqi Ministry of Health has denied that it ever compiled such a report.
• U.S. forces have never used such weapons in Fallujah or anywhere in Iraq.

The evolution of this false claim demonstrates how disinformation from obscure sources and misleading websites can quickly spread worldwide.

• The false "mustard gas" claim was first made on March 1 in Islammemo.cc, a pro-al Qaeda, Arabic-language website run by a Saudi computer company that has been under U.S. suspicion for supporting terrorist activities. 

• An Arab communist named Muhammad Abu Nasr, a member of the editorial board of the website "Free Arab Voice," translated the Islammemo.cc story into English and posted it as an "Iraqi Resistance Report."

• On March 2, the website Jihad Unspun posted an edited version of Muhammad Abu Nasr's report, which was then used as the basis for a March 3 story on aljazeera.com. 

• Aljazeera.com is NOT run by the well-known Qatari satellite television station Al Jazeera.  Instead, aljazeera.com is a phony, look-alike website, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which seeks to fool people into thinking it is run by the Qatari television station Al Jazeera. 

• Aljazeera.com did not source its account to Jihad Unspun, but a typographical error that first appeared in the Jihad Unspun story ("leads me to me believe") was repeated verbatim in the aljazeera.com story, making it clear that it had used the Jihad Unspun story as its source. 

• On March 4, the official Cuban news service Prensa Latina ran the "mustard gas" allegation, sourcing it to the "Qatari website" Al Jazeera.

• On March 5, Venezulean president Hugo Chavez repeated the false "mustard gas" charge, possibly based on the Prensa Latina account.

• That same day, the Associated Press reported President Chavez's remarks, ensuring them a worldwide audience.

• The false "mustard gas" allegation has appeared in media in Iran, China, Turkey, and other countries, and on hundreds of websites.

This sequence of events demonstrates how false charges can rocket from obscurity to worldwide attention within a matter of days.  The disinformation originated and was initially spread by Islammemo.cc, Muhammad Abu Nasr, and Jihad Unspun, which have a well-established track record of spreading false stories.  The phony, look-alike website aljazeera.com then used false pretenses to make it appear that these outrageous charges were being taken seriously by more mainstream media.