Actually, no nuclear material was shopped to ISIS.
The AP (10/5/15) published a thrilling account of how the FBI, in concert with Moldovan authorities, “disrupted” a smuggling ring that was supposedly trying to sell “nuclear material” to ISIS and other terror organizations over a five-year span. The primary developments in the story are almost a year old, but the resurfaced tale made news across the English-speaking world:
‘Annihilate America’: Inside a Secret, Frightening Scheme to Sell Nuclear Material to ISIS—Salon (10/7/15)
AP: Smugglers Busted Trying to Sell Nuclear Material to ISIS—CBS News (10/7/15)
FBI Foils Smugglers’ Plot to Sell Nuclear Material to ISIS—The Independent (10/7/15)
There was only one problem: At no point did the multiple iterations of the AP’s reporting indicate that anyone belonging to or connected to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (aka ISIL or Daesh) had any contact with the smugglers. Just one of several smuggling attempts discussed in AP’s reporting (Chicago Tribune, 10/6/15) involved an actual potential buyer–an otherwise unknown Sudanese doctor who four years ago “suggested that he was interested” in obtaining uranium. Otherwise, the “terrorists” involved in the cases were FBI and other law enforcement agents posing as terrorists. According to the AP and NBC’s Pete Williams (10/7/15):
However, the official emphasized that there was no known ISIS connection. An undercover informant, working with Moldovan police, claimed that he was an ISIS representative.
“But that was totally made up,” the official said.
This would not perturb the American press, who, once again eager to hype an ISIS threat, either A) heavily implied this “plot” was evidence of ISIS seeking a nuclear weapon or B) actually went a step further and falsely reported an ISIS nuclear effort.
First, the outlets that heavily implied ISIS was involved, but used the qualifiers “attempted,” “tried” or the abstract “plots” so as to not expressly lie:
Smugglers Tried to Sell Nuclear Material to ISIS
—NBC News (10/7/15)
Smugglers Try to Sell Nukes to ISIS
—Fox News (10/7/15)
FBI Has Foiled 4 Attempts by Gangs to Sell Nuclear Material to ISIS Through Russian Connections
—Daily Mail (10/7/15)
(Note that the Daily Mail managed to also work the threat du jour into the headline by means of the reference to “Russian connections”–a phrase so vague as to be virtually meaningless.)
Then there were the publications who said ISIS was involved (a falsehood):
AP Investigation Finds That Nuclear Smugglers Shopped Radioactive Material to ISIS and Other Terrorists
—Business Insider (10/6/15)
Nuclear Smugglers Shopped Radioactive Material to Islamic State, Other Terrorists: AP Report
—Chicago Tribune (10/6/15)
Again, there was nothing “shopped” to ISIS, because ISIS was never involved. While it’s accurate–if misleading–to say they “attempted” or had a “plot” to sell radioactive material to ISIS, it is factually incorrect to say anyone “shopped” something to people who weren’t in any way involved in the transaction. While it can be said that smugglers “seeking” ISIS is disturbing in and of itself, it’s untrue that this solicitation is evidence of an actual ISIS threat.
CBS’s claim
Fox News and CBS took it one step further, expressly saying the plot was evidence that ISIS was trying to buy a nuke. Fox’s Gretchen Carlson started off an interview with Rep. Mike Turner by asking, “Congressman, what are we supposed to make of this news that ISIS and other terrorist groups are trying to get their hands on dirty bombs?” CBS, meanwhile, led their broadcast by breathlessly revealing “new fears tonight that ISIS is ready to go nuclear.”
But neither of these statements are true. This sting does not support the claim that ISIS is “trying to buy a nuke,” because “there was no known ISIS connection.”
International Business Times’ Christopher Harress would take misinformation to whole new heights, inventing a Jason Bourne narrative out of whole cloth and, evidently, not bothering to read the AP story:
Members of the Islamic State group with links to Russian gangs were trying to get hold of nuclear material to build a radioactive dirty bomb before Moldovan police and FBI operatives stopped them, according to an investigation reported Wednesday by the Associated Press. The terror group, which is also known as ISIS, had been approached by gangs in Moldova that were specifically seeking a buyer from ISIS.
This is 100 percent false. There is no evidence the Islamic State group (linked to “Russian gangs” or otherwise) were trying to get a hold of radioactive material to build a dirty bomb.
What takes place, before our very eyes, is a kind of War on Terror transubstantiation. Representational terror plots become real ones, fake enemies become Russo-Jihadi crime syndicates, and an American public, once again, is presented with a cartoonish, wildly inflated threat profile that’s increasingly divorced from reality.
Adam Johnson is an associate editor at AlterNet and writes frequently for FAIR.org. You can follow him on Twitter @adamjohnsonnyc.
The US media is putting out the purest propaganda these days. I’m forty years old and I have never seen the big papers and the networks lying full bore as they’ve been recently (I put it since 2012 or so myself).
At least during the Bush era, there was certainly media lying, but there was also pushback. It seems that since the Obama administration came in and cleaned up dissent through a combination of carrot, stick, and charisma – we’re practically at authoritarian levels of media obeisance to the official line.
Just look at the UK. In the last months they’ve held inquires and put out an Iraq Report and a Libya Report. Both absolutely damning. And one on Syria would be equally damning if not more so.
It was so very quietly reported that in Syria, DoD-backed militia were fighting CIA-backed militia. It wasn’t reported much at all that US-backed group in Syria beheaded a ten year old boy on camera. You don’t hear a word about Yemen. The whole Snowden exposures have been swept under the rug and ignored – as well as the Wikileaks dumps. Most of the news is in fact the most blatant lies. It is impossible to tell most reporting apart from Security State spin.
If this was the ’70s or ’80s any one of the above scandals would have been big news and even cause for a Congressional Inquiry. In today’s United States, these just all get “ho hum” from the elite media and so the government is free to continue to engage in egregious and deadly policies.
But the pressure is building, everyone can feel it. The mindset of a country is not far from that of any single human. And like any human who goes around making themselves hated and denying the obvious for too long, the consequences will be massive.