A heated exchange occurred between an Associated Press reporter and State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Thursday over unsubstantiated assertions that Russia was planning to stage a “false flag” incident in Ukraine or Russia.
During a briefing providing updates on the escalating tensions in Ukraine, Price referenced a report by intelligence officials last month that suggested Russia was trying to create a pretext for an invasion in Ukraine. Price said US intelligence suggested Russia was planning a “false flag” propaganda effort through the release of a “very graphic” fake video, but failed to provide evidence backing up his claims.
The alleged false flag incident would involve using corpses, footage of blown-up buildings, fake Ukrainian military hardware, Turkish-made drones and actors playing the part of Russian-speaking mourners, The Guardian reported.
US officials said the video would show Turkish-made Bayraktar drones taking part in the fabricated attack as a way of implicating NATO, and that the effort had the support of the Kremlin. By going public with the details, the US said it hoped to stall plans for an invasion, or stop the Russians from going forward with the false flag incident.
Associated Press reporter Matt Lee asked Ned Price: Where’s the evidence?
In the tense confrontation, Price repeated the State Department’s assertions that Russia was planning to conduct a false flag operation in eastern Ukraine.
“What is the evidence that the plan — I mean, this is like crisis actors, really?” Lee asked. “This is like Alex Jones territory that you’re getting into now. What evidence do you have that there is some propaganda film in the making?”
Price insisted his comments were “derived from information known to the U.S. government,” again prompting the reporter to press him for evidence.
“I would like some proof that the Russians are doing this,” Lee said.
The back-and-forth lasted for more than five minutes, ending with Price insinuating that the reporter was a Russian propagandist.
“If you doubt the credibility of the U.S. government, of the British government, of other governments and want to, you know, find solace in information that the Russians are putting out, that is for you to do,” Price said.
Lee would, of course, be well within his rights to doubt the veracity of information from a government that led much of the world into a disastrous war in the Middle East following falsified claims of the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as a pretext for invasion in 2003.
This is wild.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 3, 2022
The State Department's spokesman can't comprehend why the Associated Press feels the need to distinguish between a claim and a fact, and becomes visibly offended—and then angered—by the suggestion that his claims may require evidence to be accepted as credible. https://t.co/O9ALBHMCSE
Earlier in the day, the White House announced that a top ISIS leader had been killed in what seemed initially like a successful effort by US forces. However, when pressed by the media, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitted that the operation left 13 civilians dead, including six children and four women.
President Joe Biden said that the target of the operation, ISIS chief Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, blew himself up with a suicide bomb that killed him, his wife, and his children. However, he was not able to substantiate evidence of the suicide bomb.
Just as Lee confronted with Ned Price, so too did NPR White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe, who asked Psaki to present evidence of the White House’s claims that a suicide vest was responsible for the deaths of the civilians.
The transcript went as follows:
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