CNN has obtained “exclusive video” from the Islamic Army of Iraq “through intermediaries” of snipers shooting at Coalition soldiers. By “through intermediaries,” does CNN mean a keyboard, mouse and Internet connection? I’ve dragged down a number of them before, and I don’t know a member of the Islamic Army of Iraq nor someone who sympathises with their cause. In other words, I don’t know anyone at CNN.

These sniper videos have been produced for nearly three years, and they all use some of the same footage meaning they aren’t exactly news worthy. Here’s what’s most humorous about the CNN article and running the actual video on CNN’s web site:

From a distance, possibly hundreds of yards away, a sniper watches for his opportunity to strike as a fellow insurgent operates a camera to capture the video for propaganda purposes.

For propoganda purposes? No kidding. Why then is CNN streaming video of snipers shooting at Coalition soldiers when they know it’s Islamic Army of Iraq propoganda?

It’s clearly propoganda, to which CNN agrees, but I do believe we have the right to see what is going on inside Iraq. Why then are there no CNN front-page reports showing the blood-splattered streets holding children’s blood? Where are the beheaded bodies of Iraqi policemen or soldiers shown side-by-side the constant flood of recruits as Iraqis enlist to fight against the very terrorist group CNN provided a forum for?

There are no time-stamps on any of the clips spliced together by the Islamic Army of Iraq, and that’s by design. We are led to believe these attacks happened within a mere days of each other, but a perusal of the video hosted by CNN tells me that isn’t the case. At least one of those is over two years old. In two years that’s all the Islamic Army of Iraq could come up with? CNN though doesn’t bother telling you that, perhaps because they simply don’t know.

CNN could have easily turned the Islamic Army of Iraq propoganda against them, highlighting the fact snipers in Iraq have killed far more innocent Iraqi civilians than anyone else. During a Shia religious ceremony one month ago, insurgent snipers shot women as they traveled. Kids have been sniped at schools. People have been shot shopping. You don’t see those videos because the Islamic Army of Iraq doesn’t want to record their instances of mass murder but they do want to break our will to fight. And it’s tough seeing a U.S. soldier who could very well be your neighbor shot from afar. Apparently CNN didn’t feel the need to do so.

The Islamic Army of Iraq used to trot out a line regarding snipers that there was a sniper known as Juba who was responsible for well over 300 kills. They ran videos, and you’ll see clips of one of the longer Juba videos in the CNN footage, and said they all were shot by the same man. The problem is that it wasn’t the same man and some of the footage used in the very same video was the exact same footage before while the Islamic Army of Iraq tried to pass it off as two kills. We don’t even know if the soldier shot was killed.

There are many, many more videos showing more horrific scenes than the clip CNN is sharing.   Can we expect other terrorist groups in Iraq to start sending CNN footage of their propoganda videos now?  I expect so, and if CNN decides to run with those we’ll see the same IEDs over and over and over.  That’s what their propoganda is.  It’s a re-run of a successful strike because they know if one is repeated enough, people think that’s all that’s going on.

CNN though, doesn’t have the background to know any of this as evidenced by thinking you have to have an intermediary to find these videos that’s not plugged into a standard electricity wall jack.