Pacific Views

Nothing suspicious here. Oh no.

Earlier this week, an Iraqi woman showed up at Cindy Sheehan's protest camp in Crawford, Texas to support the US presence in Iraq. This same woman, May Hassan Lamotte, later appeared on the MSNBC program 'Hardball' to express these views. [Crooks and Liars has the entire CNBC interview with Lamotte here.]

Who exactly is this woman, and why was she in Crawford?

From the press coverage, it would be hard to tell much. For example, here's an excerpt from an article about Sheehan's peace campe that appeared in several California newspapers:

One of the attendees, an Iraqi woman who recently moved to the United States, drove with her husband from Washington, D.C., to thank Sheehan for her sacrifice. But the woman, May Hasan Lamotte, 37, did not agree with Sheehan's call to pull the troops out of Iraq.

"I came after reading about Miss Cindy. They think their children are dead for nothing, and I am one who got freedom," Lamotte said. "I am grateful for her son and American soldiers. Everybody thinks (Casey) died for nothing. He gave his life as many other brave soldiers have to give me and my country freedom," she said.

Sounds like Lamotte and her husband just got so fired up about Sheehan's activities that they had to drive halfway across the country to oppose them. But who is the husband? The article didn't say.

The MSNBC interview gave a bit more information, identifying the husband as a 'journalist.' But his affiliation wasn't mentioned.

The rather important piece of information that the article and the interview didn't include is the fact that Lamotte's journalist husband is Greg Lamotte, who currently works for the Voice of America, a propaganda arm of the US goverment. VOA is forbidden by law from directly broadcasting to the US people — a restriction intended to keep the federal government from having a domestic broadcast outlet. Isn't it just a little suspicious that an employee of a government broadcaster and his wife decide to take a trip to Texas to oppose Cindy Sheehan, and that the wife just happens to get interviewed on 'Hardball'?

Let's make it clear: We're not saying that May Hassan Lamotte didn't have the right to go to Texas to oppose Cindy Sheehan, and that she didn't have the right to go on national television to make that opposition known. What we are saying is that MSNBC and the print media who covered Lamotte's comments had the responsibility to tell readers/viewers about who Lamotte's husband was. And we'd suggest that the print and electronic journalists who reported on her comments should have looked into why Lamotte and her husband 'just decided' to drive on down to Texas to oppose Sheehan's activities.

Personally, this story reminds us a lot of those reports before the first Gulf War about how the Iraqi occupiers of Kuwait were killing babies in hospital incubators. The grieving woman who appeared on television to make those charges turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US.

Via The Sideshow, Daily Kos, and Crooks and Liars.

Posted by Magpie at August 17, 2005 09:02 AM | Iraq | TrackBack(2) | Technorati links |