Press Releases

Fictitous Report on Alleged US use of Chemical Weapons

March 8, 2005, Ankara

March 8, 2005, Ankara -- A columnist in the Turkish daily “Yeni Safak” reported on March 3 that an official from the Iraqi Ministry of Health had claimed in a report that US forces used chemical weapons, mustard gas, and nerve gas in military operations in Fallujah. This claim was subsequently repeated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose comments were carried on March 6 in the same newspaper. In fact, the alleged report does not exist, and US forces have never used such weapons in Fallujah or anywhere in Iraq. This claim is a clear example of disinformation.

The original source of the report that eventually appeared in “Yeni Safak” was Islammemo.cc, a pro-Al-Qaeda website. The report was later picked up by Jihad Unspun, another jihadist website well known for spreading disinformation. The false claim later appeared on the official Cuban news service Prensa Latina. The story has appeared in newspapers in Turkey, Iran, and China.

This sequence of events demonstrates how false charges can rocket from obscurity to worldwide attention within a matter of days. It also points to the need for newspapers to check facts and sources more thoroughly before publishing such claims.