This article was posted on the Alt.Folklore.Urban forum.

Please read this, while it may be from the 'enemy', it would not do to dismiss this out of hand. At the very least contact the student and university named and ask them to confirm/deny what has been published with their name on it.

If you do not, then you will be showing that you are just as blinkered as the 'mainstream media', but in the opposite direction.


+!+!+Begin Statement+!+!+

FIRST RESPONSE FROM MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM:

It is an outrageous lie.
I would hope the following is circulated as widely as the original
piece of disinformation.
Mike Hanna
CNN Jerusalem
CNN did no such thing. The allegation is false. The source of the
allegation has withdrawn it and apologized. See below.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT
17/09/01
UNICAMP would like to announce that has no knowledge of a videotape
from 1991, whose images supposedly aired on CNN showing Palestinians
celebrating the terrorist attacks in the U.S. The tape was supposedly
from 1991, and there were rumors that the images were passed off as
current.
This information was later denied, as soon as it proved false, by
Márcio A. V. Carvalho, a student at UNICAMP. He approached the
administration today, 17.09.2001, to clarify the following:
· the information he got, verbally, was that a professor from another
institution (not from UNICAMP) had the tape;
· he sent the information to a discussion group email list;
· many people from this list were interested in the subject and
requested more details;
· he again contacted the person who first gave him the information and
the person denied having the tape;
· the student immediately sent out a note clarifying what happened to
the people from his email list.
The original message, however, was distributed all over the world,
often with many distortions, including a falsified by-line article
from the student. He affirms that a hacker attacked his domain.
Several E-mails have been sent on his behalf and those dating from
15.09.2001 should be ignored.
Among the distortions is the fact that UNICAMP would be analyzing the
tape, which is absolutely false. The administration considers this
alert definitive and will be careful to avoid new rumors.
- END -

SECOND RESPONSE FROM CNN PUBLIC INFORMATION:

CNN rejects as baseless and ridiculous an allegation being circulated
by e-mail and the internet claiming that CNN televised 10-year-old
videotape to illustrate Palestinians celebrating in the wake of the
horrific September 11 tragedies in the United States.
CNN applauds the Universidad Estatal de Campinas - Brasil (UNICAMP),
one of whose students was the author of the original email, for
setting the record straight through its statement of September 17.
The videotape in question was shot in East Jerusalem by a Reuters TV
camera crew on September 11. Reuters TV can provide confirmation.


OFFICIAL STATEMENT
17/09/01
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