The Heritage Foundation's dishonest "survey" (2/27)

By Brendan Nyhan

In a fundraising pitch from the Heritage Foundation billed as a "Tax Increase Impact Survey," the conservative think tank makes a series of hyperbolic and outright dishonest claims about "pending tax increases on families, businesses and senior citizens," once again putting public relations concerns before accuracy. (Read the whole column.)

2/27/2003 03:37:50 PM EST |

The myth that won't die (2/27)

By Brendan Nyhan

Since it was first created by syndicated columnist Robert Scheer, the myth that the Bush administration "gave" $43 million to Afghanistan's Taliban regime in 2001 has circled the globe and circulated throughout the mainstream media in the US. Even after myriad attempts to correct the record, this pervasive bit of disinformation refuses to die.

As we have noted many times, President Bush granted $43 million in food aid and food security programs to relieve an impending famine in Afghanistan in May 2001, continuing an aid program initiated by President Clinton. The programs were administered directly by the United Nations and NGOs, bypassing the regime.

Scheer's June 2001 column, however, claimed that this constituted a "gift of $43 million" to the Taliban while never once mentioning the famine in the country or that the "gift" was food aid that bypassed the regime. Scheer's distortion has set off a series of echoes that shows no signs of fading.

As Dan Kennedy points out, the most recent issue of The New Republic contains an article by Samantha Powers repeating the error (link requires subscription). "We can go to war against the Taliban," she writes, "never acknowledging our previous aid to the regime--we offered a grant of $43 million as late as May 2001--for its help quashing opium production." In fact, while Secretary of State Colin Powell did link the granting of the aid to the Taliban's previous crackdown on opium production in part, saying that the US was concerned about farmers hurt by the ban and that the US "welcome[d]" the decision, it was simply not a "grant" to the regime.

Similarly, Fox News Channel's Alan Colmes, co-host of "Hannity and Colmes," said this on February 11: "By the way, in terms of Afghanistan, we supported the Mujahadeen. George Bush gave $ 43 million to the Taliban in April of 200[1]. And if it were the other way around and a Democratic president had done that, you would go crazy." (Colmes also repeated the myth on May 16 and June 3 of last year.)

And finally, in early January 2003, Cathy Young claimed in the Boston Globe that "[t]he Taliban also profited from our war on drugs, receiving $ 43 million from the US government in 2001 for the purpose of eradicating Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppy fields." This is obviously untrue; the aid came after the crackdown, and was not "for the purpose" of eradication.

Whatever one's opinion of President Bush's policy toward Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks, pundits owe their readers some context. These allegations, as written, are simple misinformation.

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Related links:
-Scheer responds but doesn't rebut (Ben Fritz, 10/10/01)
-Scheer deception: The lies and jargon of Robert Scheer (Ben Fritz, 10/8/01)
-The Taliban aid trope re-emerges (Brendan Nyhan, 9/17/01)
-Scheer propaganda (Brendan Nyhan, 6/12/01)

2/27/2003 02:32:27 PM EST |

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