“We are urging broadcasters to avoid using the familiar B-roll that we’ve all seen before, file footage of ISIL convoys operating in broad daylight, moving in large formations with guns out, looking to wreak havoc. It’s inaccurate — that’s no longer how ISIL moves…” “A more accurate image, said Col. Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, would be ‘one Toyota speeding down the road by itself at night with its headlights off.'”
Either the Obama administration is woefully ignorant of the facts on the ground, or it’s lying brazenly to the American people and the world, knowing that most people are too busy or indifferent to notice. Either way, it’s unconscionable. “Stop using ISIL footage, Obama administration asks networks,” by Michael Crowley and Hadas Gold, Politico, May 13, 2015:
Frustrated that coverage of the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant isn’t reflecting reality on the ground, senior Obama administration officials are urging television networks to update their footage of the radical militant group.
Senior State Department and Pentagon officials have begun contacting television network reporters to ask them to stop using “B-roll” — stock footage that appears on screen while reporters and commentators talk — showing ISIL at the peak of its strength last summer.
“We are urging broadcasters to avoid using the familiar B-roll that we’ve all seen before, file footage of ISIL convoys operating in broad daylight, moving in large formations with guns out, looking to wreak havoc,” said Emily Horne, spokeswoman for retired Gen. John Allen, the State Department’s special envoy leading the international coalition against ISIL.
“It’s inaccurate — that’s no longer how ISIL moves,” Horne said. “A lot of that footage is from last summer before we began tactical strikes.”…
A more accurate image, said Col. Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, would be “one Toyota speeding down the road by itself at night with its headlights off.”
Is that so? Here are some photos from the Islamic State’s celebration of the fall of Ramadi: