There is a letter making the rounds on the internet, about a supposed Freedom of Information (FIOA) request from one Bennie Thompson (Chairman of the US House Committee on Homeland Security), to James P. Hogan, a “Chief DoD FOIA Policy” officer. Is it real, or is it fake?
Among other things, the letter claims that the Iranian missile strike on US Ain al-Assad base in Iraq on Jan 8, 2020 caused:
– 285 casualties (139 deaths plus 146 injuries)
– Extensive damage to 15 helicopters, including 1 Blackhawk, two cargo aircraft and 3 MQ-1 Predator drones
– Extensive damage to the Base Command Center, 3 hangars, 3 barracks, and 10 military tents.
– Relative damage to the Air Traffic Control Tower and the base’s runway.
The most extraordinary claim in this document is that the Iranian missiles caused “285 casualties, 139 deaths plus 146 injuries.” Really? This is major, especially since the US official announcement was one of zero casualties. However, by applying some basic common sense knowledge of how FOIA requests generally work, and how letters are drafted and formatted, you can quickly identify multiple anomalies in this document. In this case, it took us just 5 minutes of Google searching to discover this letter was a forgery.
In this short video recorded Wednesday evening, 21WIRE editor Patrick Henningsen conducts a basic forensic document analysis on a suspect US Department of Defense making the rounds online. Watch:
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