Haqqani Network Doctors LWJ Page for Propaganda on FOB Salerno Attack

Co-authored by Bill Ardolino

The full-length version of the Haqqani Network's propaganda videotape on the suicide assault on Forward Operating Base Salerno features a doctored image of a previous Long War Journal report on the attack. The Haqqani Network took the web page for our report, New details emerge about complex attack on FOB Salerno, written on June 10, and photoshopped in a headline from a similarly written Washington Post report that was published six days later, on June 16, as well as a Washington Post banner.

The LWJ web page is clearly identifiable, with its red tool bar below the banner; the donate, RSS feed, and advertisement sections in the left sidebar; and the photo and video sections in the right sidebar. Additionally, the LWJ article's photographs of the damaged DFAC and PX are on the page; The Washington Post article was not accompanied by any photographs. The two photographs from the June 10 LWJ report were also used elsewhere in the Haqqani Network videotape.

So why does the Haqqani Network feel the need to doctor a Long War Journal page and make it look like the Washington Post? Beats us. But it is interesting to see that the clumsy use of photoshop has been added to the group's list of media distortions, in addition to the routine inflation of casualty figures in its press releases.