Information War: The Power of Propaganda

I found this while looking through the Yahoo AP slide show on Iraq. It was simply the US Army Logo with this caption next to it:

US Army logo. A US military officer sounded "pretty mad and upset" that a group of soldiers had taken suspected Iraqi insurgents alive during a raid in which they had been told to kill all military-aged males, a court was told Tuesday.(US Army)

AFP page here

What this appears like and why this may actually have been put up on the slide show are possibly two different things. I've tried not to accuse the media of being out right propagandists for the enemy. I have taken them to task several times on inappropriate or inaccurate reporting, particularly regarding purpose of certain actions in military prisons that are represented as some sort of deviance or part of the whole "torture" debate as compared to the existense of the same treatment and activities in civilian prisons. It doesn't mean that I believe there is a conscious effort by the media to undermine our efforts.

However, even stupidity can be fatal and this is definitely a "stupid". It may or may not be that the AP could not get into the trials of these young men and, therefore, had no pictures to tell the story. Instead, they put this little quote up there with an image of the US Army logo. What it looks like and reads like is a broad brush indictment of the US Army:

they had been told to kill all military-aged males

There are many questions to be answered, but my first question is, "If there are no pictures to go with this quote and there is a written, full length story regarding this trial, why is this little blurb cut out and pasted with the US Army logo in the slide show picture section?"

Yes, there are plenty of questions to be asked regarding the trial and orders given, but, since the trials are closed, it is difficult to get all of the information necessary to make a judgement.

That is neither here nor there in regards to this picture and quote. This is straight out either the stupidest media faux pas since the fake "Koran in the toilette" story and the fake pictures of Israeli attacks on Lebanon or it is straight out propaganda attack against the United States Army implying that it routinely or as a matter of policy orders all "military aged males" to be killed.

My question to the AP: Are you that stupid or are you the enemy's propaganda machine?

Cross referenced at the Castle