Many of you are probably familiar with the Where is Raed? blog, by Salaam Pax, the “Baghdad Blogger.” He’s the best-known one, but not the only one. Another is Baghdad Burning. And, fascinatingly, there is a another site, also called Baghdad Burning (note the one-letter difference in the URL), with an identical layout but a distinctly pro-American slant and a distinctly different blogroll. It’s propaganda. If it isn’t being put out by the U.S. government, it is being done by someone keeping a close eye on the play-by-play, with plenty of time to spare and information on hand. Interestingly, the copycat blog appears to predate the authentic one (blog entries can be back-dated). The copycat appears to have unthinkingly copied irrelevant bits of the original’s template, including a link to “squawkbox.tv”, a comment-hosting service. Neither site currently uses the service; the legit site doesn’t have the link on the current page; the copycat does.
Update: There’s a blog tracking the copycat blog.
I have been wondering how long it would be before someoneon the US right would start dishing out the pro Bush line. It is clear that they are not following in the footsteps of Salam Pax and the original Baghdad Burning.
Both Salam Pax and Baghdad Burning are/were writing from their own genuine experience of what was actually happening on the ground, outlining the real horrors of the invasion and the occupation. Both write/wrote with true feeling the usurper clearly does not.
However,we should all read the rubbish the usurper is writing to help us all better understand what the Iraqi people are suffering in the hands of the US and the British.
Pete