A FOX News Stooged Event? -- The Iraqi "Go to Hell" Granny

[Miss Authoritiva]

By Grace Nearing of Scriptoids

Part 1: Who is Betty Dawisha really?

Betty Dawisha is the 77-year-old Iraqi (or Iraqi-American?) who was featured on FOX News. After voting in Detroit in the Iraq parliamentary elections, she boldly waved her purple-stained finger and said:

Anybody who doesn't appreciate what America has done, and President Bush, let them go to hell!

Of course, in the story's numerous reposting on various blogs — including Michelle Malkin's, the fact that Betty Dawisha was voting from the relative comfort and security of Detroit frequently got lost.

And nobody thought to ask: who is Betty Dawisha? I mean, does just anybody wander by and get videotaped saying wonderful pro-Bush, pro-war things on FOX News?

Now, in her own right, Betty Dawisha seems to be a very interesting person. But what I'm trying to determine is whether she is related in any way to Adeed Dawisha.

Mr. Dawisha is a professor of political science at the University of Miami, Ohio, and the author of several books on the Middle East, including US military and security policies in the region. He also has worked as a consultant with the US state and defense departments.

During the run up to the Iraq war, he had this to say:

Professor Dawisha believes military action is the only answer.
He says Saddam Hussein is a master of deceit, and diplomacy with him is a waste of time.

At this point, I do not know if Betty (Go to Hell) Dawisha and Adeed (Diplomacy is a waste of time) Dawisha are related. I'll keep googling and keep you posted.

But you can understand my suspicion, right?

Part 2: Who is Betty Dawisha really? — The Answer.

Continued at Scriptoids

[FreedomAngel82]

1. What I find really weird

is how Americans are voting in a foreign countries election. Does that mean German born Americans who now live here can vote in their elections? Or how about Canada's? They have elections not too far away I believe.

[tanyev]

2. Now we all know the Bush people would never drag out

politically connected people and display them as ordinary Joes for a staged media event. :sarcasm:

[jeff30997]

3. Well Betty...

You can put your brown finger back where it belongs.

[MnFats]

4. a plant...or perhaps the Iraqi version of Armstrong Williams?

something stinks, at any rate.

[bahrbearian]

5. I wonder if she uses her finger the way Chalabi uses his six gun?

Is that her trigger finger?

[shenmue]

6. Yeah, they just randomly...

found that person. :eyes:

Uh-huh.

:crazy:

[KansDem]

7. No doubt. Poppy Bush used the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador...

...to tearfully tell Americans about "Iraqi soldiers ripping babies from incubators" in Kuwait. Poppy used this story to drum up support for his war with Saddam.



How the public relations industry sold the Gulf War to the US, the mother of all clients
Hill and Knowlton produced dozens of video news releases (VNRs) at a cost of well over half a million dollars, but it was money well spent, resulting in tens of millions of dollars worth of "free" air time. The VNRs were shown by eager TV news directors around the world who rarely (if ever) identified Kuwait's public relations (PR) firm as the source of the footage and stories. TV stations and networks simply fed the carefully-crafted propaganda to unwitting viewers, who assumed they were watching "real" journalism. After the war Arthur Rowse asked Hill & Knowlton to show him some of the VNRs, but the PR company refused. Obviously the phony TV news reports had served their purpose and it would do H&K no good to help a reporter reveal the extent of deception. In Unreliable Sources, authors Martin Lee and Norman Solomon noted that "when a research team from the communications department of the University of Massachusetts surveyed public opinion and correlated it with knowledge of basic facts about U.S. policy in the region, they drew some sobering conclusions. The more television people watched, the fewer facts they knew; and the less people knew in terms of basic facts, the more likely they were to back the Bush administration.

<snip>
In fact, the most emotionally moving testimony on October 10 came from a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by her first name of Nayirah. According to the Caucus, Nayirah's full name was being kept confidential to prevent Iraqi reprisals against her family in occupied Kuwait. Sobbing, she described what she had seen with her own eyes in a hospital in Kuwait City. Her written testimony was passed out in a media kit prepared by Citizens for a Free Kuwait. "I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital," Nayirah said. "While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where . . . babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die."

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/incubatorlie

So, yes, this little girl lied and granny lied. FOXNews lies. It's all they know how to do. George W. Bush and his ilk can't win any other way.

And Granny, we don't have to go to Hell, with the likes of you and the Bushistas, we're already there...

[Fridays Child]

8. Here's an interesting twist...

This political contribution appears to be from another member of the Dawisha family--possibly an immediate family member of Adeed. She gave $250 to the Democrats in 2004, which seems to indicate that not all of the family members are Bush supporters.

[Miss Authoritiva]

9. This is the professor's wife.

Karen Dawisha, who also is a professor of political science at Miami University, is married to Adeed Dawisha. Her area of expertise is Russia/Soviet Union.

[JAbuchan08]

10. Why would someone in Detroit have a purple stained finger?

it seems unnecessary, except for propaganda reasons.

[XOKCowboy]

12. Detroit was one of a handfull of voting places..

in America for Iraqi expatriates.

[JAbuchan08]

20. I mean I can kind of understand why it would be necessary in Iraq

but having a small number of Iraqi ex-pats stain their fingers when they vote from America seems a bit ... like a propoganda effort.

[neuvocat]

13. Why do it anywhere?

Its not like any americans have to do that when they vote.

[XOKCowboy]

14. Oh I see what you mean..

I agree. It's totally propoganda. Makes a good sound bite on the evening news. Of course with the voter fraud in 2000 and 2004 a stained finger is something. We don't even get a paper trail.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

11. Is she Muslim?

and if she is... do Muslims believe in Hell?

serious inquiry... no flames please

[Miss Authoritiva]

16. Good question.

According to some unverified web references, Mrs. Dawisha may be Chaldean Catholic.

[Odin2005]

17. That would explain the lack of a headscarf.

And her non-arabic name.

[progdonkey]

15. maybe not exactly staged...

I'd bet that a Fox news crew was there for the day (send a few interns down with a camera guy, no biggie), and they asked people what they thought about the elections, knowing that at least someone that day would give a good pro-Bush soundbite. They may have gotten a hundred anti-Bush soundbites but just this one pro-Bush one, and so they of course went with this one.

So, while it may not be staged in the sense that they knew this particular lady would be there at this particular time with this particular opinion (or put her up to it from the beginning), they cast a wide net knowing they'd get at least one soundbite they could use.

[Miss Authoritiva]

18. That's a perfectly reasonable take...

That's a perfectly reasonable take on the event. But I would really like to see a group with clout -- some group like Media Matters -- see if they can get FOX News on the record saying that that is how it happened.

[progdonkey]

19. thanks, but that still leaves the issue...

of how Fox presented it. If they'd received 50 anti-Bush, but just one pro-Bush, but only present the pro-Bush one, with no mention that such a comment was in the distinct minority, it would be just as misleading and bad as if it had actually been fully staged (the primary difference being how much of a player in it Dawisha is: simple voter making her views--whatever they are--known to a camera crew, or virtual actress willingly playing a specific role to provide misleadingly good press for Bush and Fox).

Good work on bringing this to attention either way!

:toast: