250,000 in the Iraqi Resistance says filmmaker

Update to Story 03/23/05 19:00est

Here's what Camilla posted as a comment:

"Either this Manning guy has never been in Fallujah and he's a big fake, or he has been there but he is part of the Occupiers propaganda, or he has been there but is just ignorant and quite stupid. I read the whole article and there's sooo many things that are simply wrong. Not really a well done propaganda piece. So I doubt it is part of the Occupiers machinery, come to think about it. Look at Jihad Unspun, now that's some pretty well made propaganda done by them and it has fooled alot of people around the world thinking it's coming from "the other side" (including myself).Nice blog, "

Great comment. The story has been tickling my disinfo reflex since I read it first. Especially the part where Manning explains that he actually does not have the 25 hours of videotaped interviews after all. Because [get this!] :

After he’d returned to the US someone broke into his motel room and "Even though there was jewelry and more film equipment lying about, he said, none of it was touched.... The only thing missing, Manning said, was the big bowling-ball shaped bag containing his camera — and all his taped interviews."

It gets wierder:

The next day, Manning said, a mysterious man contacted them to arrange a meeting, claiming he had the stolen purse. Manning and Kalustian went to a spot near 6th and Mission as instructed, where they were met by a man who appeared to be a “full-on street bum,” Manning said. After returning the purse, the man pulled Manning to one side, opened his wallet, and flashed what Manning estimated was $5,000 worth of $100 bills. According to Manning, the “bum” winked at him and said, “Look in my eyes. I have the eyes of a former sniper. You thought you had the goods on George Bush, didn’t you? You’ve been sandbagged, boy.”

Manning said he has received more phone calls and mysterious emails from the man since returning to Santa Barbara, but holds out little hope of getting the missing tapes back.

This is about as credible as a GOP press release. I have some leads to follow. More on all this soon. Meanwhile, below are extracts from the full article.

End Update

Diving Into Falluja
To Hell and Back with Documentary-Maker Mark Manning

"Deep sea diver turned documentary filmmaker Mark Manning set out January 10 on a three-week journey that took him from sunny Santa Barbara to the burned-out remains of Falluja."

“I talked to a 17-year-old girl who saw her father and mother shot by Marines,” said Manning. “She was hiding under the bed with her brother when her parents’ bodies dropped on the ground in front of her them... Her parents’ brains were on the floor. The girl and her brother stayed under the bed for three days, until the Marines came back, and this time they found her and her brother. They shot her brother in the head and they shot her three times, in the chest and the legs. When she told me about it,” said Manning, “I had to look down. I felt I was personally responsible. And she did too.”

"Because of incidents like these, Manning said, the resistance has grown from about 5,000 to 250,000. “Everybody’s in the resistance. You don’t ask them directly; that wouldn’t be wise. But everybody’s in the resistance,” he said.

"By delivering medical supplies to Iraqi refugees, Manning said he was able to conduct dozens of interviews — videotaped clandestinely — amassing some 25 hours worth of tape. Manning was told grisly accounts of Iraqi mothers killed in front of their sons, brothers in front of sisters, all at the hands of American soldiers. He also heard allegations of wholesale rape of civilians, by both American and Iraqi troops. Manning said he heard numerous reports of the second siege of Falluja that described American forces deploying napalm, chemical weapons, phosphorous bombs, and “bunker-busting” shells laced with depleted uranium."

"Manning said that the United Nations observers never left the Green Zone during the elections, adding that observers were stationed at only five of Iraq’s 90-plus polling places. “Iraqis were told that if they wanted food rations, they had to vote,” he said. “And the food ration guys were at the polling places to make sure people voted.”