George Paine of Warblogging has picked up on the same phony WMD item I mentioned in an earlier post: Evidence of Terrorism and WMD Found in Iraq? 10/04/04.
Paine has additional information on the rightwing CNSNews.com service:
Cybercast News Service, meanwhile, is a news service of the Media Research Center. CNS was founded by eccentric millionaire L. Brent Bozell III who believed — and believes — that the mainstream media (MSM to those in the know) is fundamentally leftward biased.
Its parent organization is the conservative Media Research Council.
Paine discusses the hokiness and irresponsibility of Cybercast News Service's brand of "reporting" in this case:
Strangely while CNS says that it has 42 pages of documents it has refused to release any of the actual documents in high resolution format. In fact they have released only one of the 42 pages in any form at all. This page, the first in the stack, is provided in English translation. The "original" document is viewable only as a 150 x 225 pixel thumbnail.
CNS says that "Credentialed journalists and counter-terrorism experts seeking to view the 42 pages of Arabic documents or to challenge their authenticity may make arrangements to do so at CNSNews.com headquarters in Alexandria, Va."
This is strange coming from the "first mainstream media organization to investigate Rathergate". CNS News was the first non-blog Web site to jump on the allegations that the purported National Guard memorandums trumpeted on 60 Minutes II were forged. That CNS story build on the work of the blogosphere, which first called the documents into question after viewing high-quality PDF versions made available by CBS News.
To return to the Steve Earle song quoted in my previous post on this:
It's called Snake Oil y'all
It's been around for a long, long time
The arrogant Rummy stepped on the talking points of the day, then retracted and issued the day's party line: Rumsfeld: No Link Between Saddam, al-Qaida by Richard Pyle AP 10/05/04.
Asked to describe the connection between the Iraqi leader and the al-Qaida terror network at an appearance Monday at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Pentagon chief first refused to answer, then said: "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."
Several hours after his appearance, Rumsfeld issued a statement from the Pentagon saying his comment "regrettably was misunderstood" by some. He said he has said since September 2002 that there were ties between Osama bin Laden's terror group and Iraq.
"This assessment was based upon points provided to me by then-CIA Director George Tenet to describe the CIA's understanding of the al-Qaida relationship," he said. This included "solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al-Qaida members, including some that have been in Baghdad," he said.
Those "mixed messages" (aka flip-flops) can get pretty confusing, guys.
Meanwhile, Knight-Ridder is on the story, too: CIA review finds no evidence Saddam had ties to Islamic terrorists by Warren Strobel, Jonathan Landay and John Walcott 10/04/04.
A new CIA assessment undercuts the White House's claim that Saddam Hussein maintained ties to al-Qaida, saying there's no conclusive evidence that the regime harbored Osama bin Laden associate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The CIA review, which U.S. officials said Monday was requested some months ago by Vice President Dick Cheney, is the latest assessment that calls into question one of President Bush's key justifications for last year's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The new assessment follows the independent Sept. 11 commission's finding that there was no "collaborative relationship" between the former Iraqi regime and bin Laden's terrorist network.
But, heck, Bush and Rummy and Dark Lord Cheney haven't let lack of evidence getin the way of making claims about Saddam's Iraq before. Why would we expect anything different now?
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