It’s not surprising in an informational vacuum like the one we faced during Gulf War II there was a great online search for alternative “authentic” information sources, but I don’t know why people seem so inclined to believe in sources like the “Baghdad weblogger” Dear_Raed or the “reports from Russian intelligence” that I kept hearing about. Before the media storm about these sources I could just about believe that they might have been authentic, but I find it hard to believe that the Russians or Iraqis would have stood by and failed to try either to stifle or capitalise on these “unofficial” information sources for their own ends.
If they are really who they claim to be why has nobody been able so far to verify this conclusively? It all seems a bit too neat to me. But I suppose now the war’s over people will quickly lose interest in who really did create those websites and why.
If anyone runs across conclusive evidence that both these sites are either authentic or hoaxes, please drop me a line.
