Presidential advisor and spokesperson Kellyanne Conway was instantly caught making up a story she referred to as The Bowling Green Massacre, something which didn’t happen, but she slid other untruths into the same interview.
The best lies have some truth.
It’s been said that the most effective lies have some truth in them so it’s important to dissect a complicated lie to see what’s true and what’s blatantly false. Sometimes a person will lie about several things hoping that the less obvious lie will not be noticed up and people will hear just the part they want to hear.
Here’s what Kellyanne said: “I bet it's brand new information to people that President Obama had a six months ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalised, and were the masterminds behind the bowling green massacre because it didn’t get covered.”
That follows President trump’s statement three days ago when he tried to shift the blame for his ban on Muslims to President Obama, “My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months.”
Here are the partial truths (T) and lies (F for false) in those closely related statements.
> T - There was a President Obama and he did do something regarding refugees from Iraq,
> F - President Obama did not ban Iraqi refugees, what he did was tighten the vetting process.
> T - There is a city of Bowling Green, Kentucky
> F - There has never been a serious terrorist incident in Bowling Green.
> T - There were two Iraqi nationals arrested in Bowling Green on May 25, 2011.
> F - They never attacked anyone in Bowling Green and had no plans to attack any Americans in the US. At the time the Federal prosecutor said, "Neither person is charged with plotting any attacks on American soil.
"These charges relate to activities that occur when they were in Iraq, first of all. Secondly, they relate to conspiracy to aid Al Qaeda in Iraq."
> T - The Bowling Green Massacre didn’t get covered in the press.
> F - Blaming the press is exceedingly misleading because the reason no reporter or media outlet covered The Bowling Green Massacre is that it never happened.
The media is now covering the fact it didn’t happen.
> T - The men in Bowling Green were terrorists.
> F - They were hardly masterminds and they were radicalized before they came to the US - Obama’s FBI had them under surveillance and their plan was to buy weapons in the US and sneak them into Iraq.
Today Kellyanne explained it all away saying, “I meant to refer to the terrorists arrested in Bowling Green.” If so then it is false that the media didn’t report on it, it was reported widely.
Fact-checking President Trump’s claim, “My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months.”
> F - Obama did not ban visas for refugees from Iraq at all, ever, so Trump’s claim that his policy is “similar” is false.
Facts about the terrorists
After months under surveillance by the FBI. 30-year-old Waad Ramadan Alwan and 23-year-old Mohanad Shareef Hammadi were indicted on May 26 by a federal grand jury. Alwan was charged with “conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals abroad, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction against U.S. nationals abroad, distributing information on the manufacture and use of IEDs.” Hammadi was charged with “attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to al-Qaeda in Iraq … and export Stinger missiles.”
Why do reporters fixate on the lies?
Telling a string of lies at the beginning of a Presidential term sets the atmosphere for the next four years. If someone tells obvious lies, what can you trust when they talk about things which are difficult to check?
One of the main charges Candidate Trump made against Secretary Clinton was that she constantly lied, implying that a Trump Administration would be scrupulous about telling the truth.
> T - That’s true, both candidates told a number of lies during the campaign.
