Playn

http://www.instapundit.com/archives/009650.php#009650

ModMachine

Thanks for the link. I've got a link for you too.
This one even has with "real people" sources.When it first broke, it didnt get much press either:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story...910113,00.html

A few hours and a simple internet search was all it took for U.N. inspectors to realize documents backing U.S. and British claims that Iraq had revived its nuclear program were crude fakes, a U.N. official said.

"Close scrutiny and cross-checking of the documents, the letterheads on them, the signatures on them, led us to conclude with quite absolute certainty that the documents were false," an IAEA official said.

"They were fabricated," said another IAEA official.

The fabrication was transparently obvious and quickly established, the sources added, suggesting that British intelligence was either easily hoodwinked or a knowing party to the deceit.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei informed the U.N. Security Council in early March that the Niger proof was fake and that three months with 218 inspections at 141 sites had produced "no evidence or plausible indication" Iraq had a nuclear program.

But last week Vice President Dick Cheney repeated the U.S. position and said that ElBaradei was wrong about Iraq.

"We know Hussein has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons," he said.

ModMachine

When you dont think anyone in the upper levels of military or the government is capable of making up stuff for their own benefit, here's something to ponder: "Fake documents 'embarrassing' for the US"
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/14/sprj.irq.documents/

JFM311

are you saying people were killed ( staged) for the benefit of government? --****ty way of thinking on a holiday that remembers the fallen men who are responsible for our freedom-those who were lost were for OUR freedom will be heros to me-JOHN

ModMachine

John, I'm not sure WHO you are talking to......? My posts never said Jessica's capture was staged or the rescue was not a real rescue. Go back and read my posts again.

What it SAID was that the helpful-lawyer part was blown totally out of whack because our own intelligence in the area already KNEW where she was anyway.The Iraqi soldiers had left the hosptial days before.

BUt the Iraqi-civillian-savior spin was something that was seriously needed at the time.And it worked.

As far as veterans go,in my immediate family i've got 6 family members who served us. God bless them. Collectively they've served battles from Somalia to Bastogne.But even they will tell you that the big bosses do lie when necessary.Its not shocking to anyone.

Thought for Memorial Day: Always remember that its the MEN and WOMEN who are on the front lines risking their lives to serve us. Not the government.

Playn

Is the government "capable" of making up stuff? ABSOLUTLY. Did they fake the documents? DOUBTFUL. Did they use the fake documents? YEP

Even the CNN article states that most "experts" discount that the US, Great Britain, or Israel were the ones responsible for faking the documents.

All governments have an agenda...but then again, so does the media outlets. Getting back to the documentory, I rate Mr Kampfner right up there with Peter Arnett, but that's just me.

Playn

And, BTW, on your thought for Memorial day, We certainly agree

JFM311

Mod read what i posted--it was directed towards the "not a hero to me" statement--that is a subjective statement-walk a mile in her shoes

Steve 1

CNN !!!! Now here is a News orginazition that is not capable of the Truth

Here is some copy to read.

Eason Jordan, chief news executive at CNN, published in the New York Times a truly rare article last Friday: an op-ed capable of genuinely shocking even world-weary cynics in a jaded world. He announced that, over the last dozen years:

"I made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN's Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard - awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff."

He went on to catalogue in horrid detail the abuses of Saddam's torture and murder machine. He wrote that Saddam's eldest son Uday "told me in 1995 that he intended to assassinate his two brothers-in-law who had defected and also ... King Hussein of Jordan." The CNN news executive tipped off the king, but not the brothers-in-law, who were subsequently murdered.

In one of his most revealing statements, Jordan wrote that: "I came to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed." He concluded by writing that "I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me ... At last, these stories can be told freely."

Where to begin? First, as the chief news executive of the only truly worldwide television news network, Jordan was literally the one man in the entire world in a position to "unbottle" those awful truths. Moreover, those awful truths were not only newsworthy, but would have been history-making - had they been reported.

One can only imagine the impact on the U.N. debate of last winter if CNN had headlined that several Iraqi officials had told CNN that "Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed."Instead, the world got CNN reports balanced carefully ? we know now, thanks to Jordan - between the truth and the requirements of Saddam's propaganda office.

So deeply had Mr. Jordan morally compromised himself and CNN that Uday the psychopath felt comfortable confiding his highest-visibility murder plans to Mr. Jordan. His secrets were safe with CNN. What a scoop they missed: "Son of Saddam Hussein plans to murder King of Jordan." Indeed, the entire Arab world might have turned on Saddam years ago if that story had been reported.

But, of course, if CNN had reported that story, it would not have been able to keep open its Baghdad bureau - and thus would have lost the profitable competitive advantage it maintained over rival news outlets.

For the last twelve years, CNN has provided the West with the dominant news image of Saddam's Iraq. It was the jewel in the crown of CNN's international reporting reputation. But, now we know, from the unwitting pen of CNN's morally obtuse chief news executive, that it was always a false image CNN was

Broadcasting. The hard news was kept secret. The propaganda flowed like wine. CNN was running a straight propaganda-for-profits deal with Saddam. Until CNN brings in honest news executives, no prudent viewer should trust CNN'scurrent and future reporting from other foreign capitals.

ModMachine

Unfortunately Steve1, this story is factual.Its even being investigated by the FBI as we speak.US blames the UK and the UK is blaming the US.

Good Lord, even Colin Powell himself doesnt even deny the report was bogus. It didnt even have the correct name for the Niger government, was written on expired stationery,and the presidential signature wasn't even close to matching.

A former CIA officer said the report getting past the CIA was "an embarrassment" and that if OUR CIA had created a forgery, they would have certainly done a much better job than that.

I dont doubt that either.