Wikileaks Document Dump Brings Out Fake Document Dumps
Pakistani news reports based on bogus “Wikileaks” documents claim all sorts of nastiness by India
Two leading Pakistani papers admitted today they had been hoaxed by a fake account of the WikiLeaks cables that portrayed Indian generals as vain, “geeky” and engaged in a “genocide” against Muslims in Kashmir.While the news agencies eventually retracted the reports, expect more stories along this vein as nations, political groups, and other entities use the Wikileaks as a way to settle grudges or further their political ambitions.The News admitted the story “was dubious and may have been planted”. The left-leaning Express Tribune, which is published in co-operation with the International Herald Tribune, offered “profuse” apologies to readers.
The bogus story – a laundry list of Pakistani nationalist accusations against archrival India – may be the first use of the WikiLeaks revelations for propaganda purposes, and underscores the depth of hostility between hardliners in the two countries.
According to the reports, American diplomats issued withering portrayals of top Indian generals, calling one “self-obsessed, petulant and idiosyncratic”.
There were also accounts of covert Indian intelligence funding for Islamist militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt, and for Hindu extremists inside India.
The fake files also carried accounts of US officials heaping praise on Pakistan’s top generals and exonerating the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency of any involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
It also shows how the documents (or fake documents) could lead to further deterioration in relations between countries. India and Pakistan is just one flashpoint that could get nasty in a hurry, and bogus stories could further inflame passions and lead to rioting and other violence.
(fixed and extended the links - originally to slate.com (which doesn’t hard link to stories in their slatest section)).