Russia Posts Video Game Screenshot As 'Irrefutable Proof' of US Helping IS (bbc.com) 132
Plus1Entropy shares a report from BBC, adding: "But when I asked Putin, he said they didn't do it": Russia's Ministry of Defense has posted what it called "irrefutable proof" of the U.S. aiding so-called Islamic State -- but one of the images was actually taken from a video game. The ministry claimed the image showed an IS convoy leaving a Syrian town last week aided by U.S. forces. Instead, it came from the smartphone game AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron. The ministry said an employee had mistakenly attached the photo. The Conflict Intelligence Team fact-checking group said the other four provided were also errors, taken from a June 2016 video which showed the Iraqi Air Force attacking IS in Iraq. The video game image seems to be taken from a promotional video on the game's website and YouTube channel, closely cropped to omit the game controls and on-screen information. In the corner of the image, however, a few letters of the developer's disclaimer can still be seen: "Development footage. This is a work in progress. All content subject to change."
Does this mean.. (Score:5, Funny)
we can't be friends?
Re:Does this mean.. (Score:5, Insightful)
we can't be friends?
America and Russia are moving closer in many ways. During the Cold War, Americans were sometimes baffled when the Russians would tell baldfaced lies directly into the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Back then, most Americans believed in objective truth, while that has never really been part of Russian culture, whether under the Czar, Communism, or Putinism. But now America is finally catching up on the malleability of facts.
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Well said, person. The term "narrative" is just another way of saying "blatant historical lies designed to agitate and motivate the mindless." As complacency and partisanship firmly sink into the great vacuum that is the American common consciousness, lies like these become the only way to manufacture consent. Facts are distasteful to the majority because they have staked their identity on falsehoods. Only more lies, and continually more extreme ones, will suffice to activate their self-defense instinct
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Howdy comrade! How's Siberia?
Re: Does this mean.. (Score:1)
Found the Russian shill
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Naw. I think this is one of our home-grown, Alex-Jones regurgitating, idiots. The actual russians lack the foam at the corners of their mouths.
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did you just conflate the words of two different people, or did you just strawman yourself? something's not parsing.
Maybe they should hack a dictionary.com ... (Score:5, Funny)
"irrefutable proof"
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Espionage Contractors are always lazy and greedy, doesn't matter which government they work for, more interested in profits that the truth, which is why they should never be used (they will lie, if those lies sell, no matter the consequences). It will be interesting to track down the individual who supplied that image to be included in the content distributed by the Russian government. Contractors will always tell the lie that generates the most profit they feel they can get away with, rather than the truth
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It is the same guys who came up with the Trump Dossier then. Same level of "Proof." They think western media is gullible (because it is) however it looks a lot more believable when coming through left wing media rather than from a Russian twitter feed.
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One guy. Christopher Steele. He has credibility. People take him seriously. He has produced solid results in the past and has a huge network of credible contacts.
You, on the other hand, don't have credibility, because you're the type of stupid cunt who believes Donald fucking Trump.
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they speak Russian, those are English words. I'm not surprised.
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Neither does a large portion of the US population these days.
In Soviet Russia ... (Score:4, Funny)
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When even McConnell and Ryan are signalling that they've had enough, you know something's rotten in the States of Trump.
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The drudge report is not a source you flaming idiot. It only links to other websites.
God help us from morons like you.
The Drudge Report uses enough editorial bias, selecting sources that are flaming wingnuts that they have no credibility. That is, if the Drudge Report links to it, it's highly likely to be shit. Sometimes they'll get it right, like a stopped clock is right twice a day.
VODKA (Score:5, Funny)
Makes you say many things.
ACs are lying, shilling trolls. (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Sad Vlad the Mad (Score:2)
-- Inigo Montoya
Well there are many similarities 'tween Sad Vlad the Mad and Vizzini
It won't be long now ... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Until we won't even be able to prove it's fake.
That has already become irrelevant. You don't need proof when you have #fakenews.
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This is the bigger problem. The stupid Russian fuckwits keep lapping up this bullshit and reelecting Putin.
I wouldn't mind but they're destabilising the rest of the world.
Unbelievable! (Score:1)
It looks like the Russians lie almost as much as the Americans.
You two keep making shit up, it's funny for the rest of us.
You guys are so gay, lol.
Thousand eyes (Score:2)
Darndest internet.
AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron (Score:5, Insightful)
Headquarters of AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron game:
"THANK YOU, GOD!"
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Indeed. An an indie game developer myself, I'm looking forward to the day my game's footage is used as irrefutable proof by a state official that a lone ship piloted by a plucky hero is bravely defending the earth against hoards of robotic alien invaders.
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Trickery (Score:2)
I cannot think a ministry can be so stupid to do that while being aware of the game source. It is obvious it will be quickly debunked.
That suggests someone tricked him. Is it a new method to get rid of a ministry?
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No, you idiot, it was an ad. It was just a paid placement by a marketing genius for AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron. Somebody deserves a raise over this!
dom
Virtually assured destruction. (Score:5, Funny)
I can't wait until the Russians see what kind of military hardware we have in other video games. They are going to be totally scared.
Would've been better with Yoda (Score:5, Funny)
The Russians are total amateurs. This [arstechnica.com] is how you do world-class incompetence.
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The other stuff that artist has done is awesome.
In case you haven't seen it, here's Darth Vader circa WWI:
http://edgeofarabia.com/artist... [edgeofarabia.com]
Re: Would've been better with Yoda (Score:2)
The US assisting ISIS has been a known matter (Score:1)
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Russian troll, no less. Russia has long been trying to paint all protestors/revolutionaries that took up arms against the Assad regime as members of IS. They get a two-for: protect their puppet dictator, and deflect criticism of him and them by painting the opposition as IS. Are there opposition fighters who are also members of IS? Of course, IS hates any non-Islamic-caliphate government. But that doesn't mean that a good portion of the resistance wasn't based on backlash to Assad's barbarism.
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Wow, you are deluded, where to begin? We have John McCain visiting the so called Free Syrian Army in 2013, John Kerry admitting on record that least a 1/5th of those we armed were "not good guys", you have laughable programs where the military spends millions of dollars training dozens of resistance fighters in the vague hope that they won't just take the weapons and run, you have the CIA rat line moving weapons in from Benghazi, Lybia (read Seymour Hersh's piece about it), you have intelligence on ISIS tar
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Breitbart is showing video footage from Wolfenstein 2 as proof that Antifa is violent.
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Breitbart is about as reliable as the weekly world news, only without the entertainment factor.
sure sure (Score:1)
As if you'd need pictures to proof that ISIS is the direct result of the US fucking up the near east for decades.
BBC has since owned up russian claims are correct. (Score:1)
The BBC has since admitted that its own investigation confirmed what the russians have long claimed: that is, ISIL combatants were evacuated from the besieged city of Raqqa under US/UK/kurdish protection and transported in trucks, with all their weapons to other syrian frontlines to continue fighting the Assad regime troops. Even the BBC calls this a dirty pact, as seen here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/raqqas_dirty_secret
Thus the issue of incorrect russian screenshots is no longer important a
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1 - the IS fighters were not 'evacuated'
2 - they were told not to take 'all their weapons'
3 - when you're about to capture a city and there's a chance to avoid further bloodshed, including civilian life, you do the decent fucking thing and negotiate.
This happens all the fucking time in war. Unless you have no care for civilian welfare, in which case you get Grozny. Hardly an example to which to aspire.
Thus the issue of incorrect russian screenshots is no longer important at all.
Sorry, not allowing that deflection. The Russians lie again. Pathetic lying shits, continually caught in th
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Does Putin get up each morning, phone his ministers and demand, "More lies! Today I want new lies!" ?
That's not really how Russia works -- it operates on the illusion of the decentralization of power. Instead, Putin wakes up in the morning and muses publicly "Boy, it sure would be nice if there were a lot more reports about the truth about the US helping IS, hint hint." Everyone else gets the message and runs with it, lest they get raided and brought up by Russian authorities on "anti-corruption" charges. Then when they're caught, Putin can say "I gave no such order to manufacture stories about IS. I only
Flashmob (Score:1)
Wasn't that the plan all along? (Score:4, Insightful)
#2. See who retweets and shares it.
#3. Update DB of extremely gullible people.
#4. Focus subsequent propaganda better.
#5. Profit!
The catch though... (Score:1)
It's virtually a problem! (Score:2)
This is the most fun we've had since Russia posted a photo of them planting a flag on an undersea Arctic oil field that was actually from a movie. Which was the most fun we've had since Russia posted a photo of a jet shooting down the commercial flight over the Ukraine taken from a satellite hundreds of miles up, with the jet's relative size over the ground indicating it was flying about 200 miles above the Earth.
No Amount of Proof Matters (Score:1)
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We can recognize Russian deflection.
Seriously, a still from a video game? Amateur hour, Ivan.
Re:Hard to find the truth (Score:5, Funny)
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Absolutly!
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Seriously? No one gets the above pun?
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Re:Hard to find the truth (Score:5, Insightful)
It's going to be really hard to find the truth about US foreign policy during the Obama administration. After all, the truth about the IS and Benghazi was likely in Hillary's emails. When will the Democrats finally allow a special prosecutor to be appointed to find out about the content of those emails and other crimes committed by Hillary?
I guess the 7 inquiries into Benghazi already completed by the Republicans were thwarted by Hillary's incredible Ninja training. Either that or you're just an asshole.
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Who attacked them?
What was the attackers' relationship with the US prior to the attack?
Who did Ambassador Stevens meet with just prior to the attack?
Why was this group not attacked?
These are real, pertinent questions that were never answered by the Obama administration or covered by the mainstream media - or for that matter, delved into deeply by the various Congressional investigations conducted by Republicans because many of them wer
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why was the US diplomatic/CIA annex attacked?
Because they were US buildings that the radicals could target easily.
Who attacked them?
Ansar al-Sharia
What was the attackers' relationship with the US prior to the attack?
Hostile.
Who did Ambassador Stevens meet with just prior to the attack?
A Turkish diplomat
Why was this group not attacked?
Turkey is an ally of the US, Ansar al-Sharia was attacked.
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