PROPAGANDA WATCH

NY Times: SADDAM DID 9/11 -- THE BIG LIE TACTIC WORKS AGAIN
Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels observed that "the bigger
the lie, the more people will believe it." The Big Lie technique
has worked well in Bush's war on Iraq. The New York Times reports
that "organizers of the antiwar movement lament how well the
administration argued that there was a link between Al Qaeda and
Iraq, playing on Americans' residual anger and fear after the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. About half the American public,
according to several polls, believed that Saddam Hussein was
personally involved in planning the attacks -- an argument the
administration did not make." On the contrary, officials including
Powell, Cheney and Bush, in tandem with Fox and other pro-war
media, repeatedly linked Iraq to the 9/11 attacks, although there
still exists no credible evidence for it. This is the essence of
the Big Lie technique, when authorities repeat an outrageous
falsehood until it is widely believed. Opinion polls and interviews
with US troops show the effectiveness of the Big Lie.
SOURCE: New York Times, April 20, 2003