BBC spoof web story raises questions about Hebdo videos
Phony BBC story on Charlie Hebdo massacres linked to broadcaster's online service goes viral in cyberattack
World Bulletin/News Desk
A story on a BBC-lookalike web page which raises questions about the authenticity of YouTube footage of the killing of a police officer by a gunman during the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris last week has gone viral on social media.
The web page leads with a story based on comments by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts - an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury under the Reagan Administration who helped co-found the "Reaganomics" economic strategy and an associate editor of the Wall Street Journal - republished from Press TV.
The spoof BBC page published on Monday led with the republication of a genuine story on remarks made by Roberts, who has voiced his concern that the brutal attacks carried out in France may be part of a "false flag" operation "designed to shore up France’s vassal status to Washington".
The article spread rapidly across the internet as people believed they were reading a genuine BBC story.
It contained genuine comments written by Roberts saying: "The suspects can be both guilty and patsies. Just remember all the terrorist plots created by the FBI that served to make the terrorism threat real to Americans."
'False flag operations'
Dr. Roberts argues in the link to a genuine story on Iranian website, Press TV, that U.S. agencies have planned "false flag operations" - missions carried out by intelligence agencies which deflect blame onto other nations, group or targets - in Europe to create hatred against Muslims and bring European countries under Washington’s sphere of influence and to support the "war on terror" launched during the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
Roberts, a noted economist and journalist, states in his personal columns that “the attack on Charlie Hebdo was an inside job and that people identified by NSA as hostile to the Western wars against Muslims are going to be framed for an inside job designed to pull France firmly back under Washington’s thumb.”
His article finishes with him declaring the U.S. "government tells Americans whatever story the government puts together and sits and laughs at the gullibility of the public".
'Blanks, not bullets'
The web link points to the existence of what it describes as "place markers" in the video of two gunmen killing a police officer - two dark lines at a right angle on the road where the gunmen's car is centered when the video begins, as well as a shoe positioned squarely in front of the car door from which the armed passenger exits.
The text suggests that a break in the footage which appears after the policeman is "apparently" shot in the head, shows after it restarts the passenger-side gunman returning to the vehicle, which then appears to be sited slightly behind its original position - with a second dark line at right-angles to the road direction showing up more clearly by the offside front wheel.
The gunman then picks up the shoe and carries it with him back into the car.
The text also quotes a "David Mayhew" saying: “If the video shows events as they actually occurred, then in my opinion it is most likely that the firearm shown is discharging blanks rather than conventional ammunition”, describing him as a "forensic and ballistics expert".
The fake article concludes: “Whilst numerous theories have sprung up concerning this and other details, the general consensus among not just skeptics, but some major news agencies, is that the entire event was a ‘False Flag’ attack perpetrated by the CIA and/or Mossad in a “psy-ops” exercise to rouse hatred against Islam and support for what has been so far, a failing campaign in Iraq, Syria and the Middle East”.
'U.S. a police state'
He has also opposed the "War on Drugs" and criticized Israel's policies, actions and brutal attacks carried out against Palestinians.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/world/152819/bbc-spoof-web-story-raises-questions-about-hebdo-videos