The Right Coast

June 18, 2004
 
Oh, that Iraqi terrorist connection
By Tom Smith

The interesting question is how the media will handle the latest revelation that Iraq was planning terrorist strikes against the US.

They can say, "we were talking about Iraq - Al Qaeda links, not state sponsored terrorism by Iraq!"

Or, "why did the Bush administration keep this information secret?"

But these and other responses I can think of don't sound very effective. So I think it will just get the non-fact fact treatment. After a while, it will just be conveniently forgotten, just like all the puzzling clues that a bunch of WMD parts got moved out of Iraq are ignored.

You have to admit, though, it is a hoot. The 9/11 commission does its amateur hour investigation, announces the links between Iraq and terrorism against the US are unproven (Bush lied!) and then Putin of all people says, "Of course, there were those attacks Iraq was planning that we told you about . . ." Oh dear! Isn't Putin on the bandwagon! Who's side is he on anyway?

If the press were capable of being embarrassed, they would be embarrassed. Al-Reuters does its best, but all it come up with is some State Department types complaining no one told them about this intelligence, combined with a deceptive headline. Can you believe the headline? Imagine, the CIA not telling State about some juicy intel from the Russians! Shocking. Hard to credit! But maybe the CIA didn't want the Russian source to end up in a wood chipper. Or even worse, the dreaded underwear on the head treatment.