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Sarin? What Sarin? (Safire)
new york times ^ | 5/19/04 | safire

Posted on 05/18/2004 8:38:18 PM PDT by knak

You probably missed the news because it didn't get much play, but a small, crude weapon of mass destruction may have been used by Saddam's terrorists in Iraq this week.

The apparent weapon was sarin gas, a highly toxic nerve agent that causes victims to choke to death. Developed by the Nazis, it has been used in the past by terrorists in Japan to kill a dozen subway riders and panic thousands, and by Saddam Hussein, who produced tons of it to kill Iraqi Kurds.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iraq; mediabias; safire; sarin; waronterror; wmd
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1 posted on 05/18/2004 8:38:19 PM PDT by knak
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To: knak

Okay, I forgot -- what's the official Freeper user name and password for the NYT?


2 posted on 05/18/2004 8:42:48 PM PDT by DallasMike
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To: knak

Ok, WMDs are around ....cant we get back to the prison abuse stuff?


3 posted on 05/18/2004 8:44:12 PM PDT by woofie ( 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.)
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To: knak

Good article. He has it exactly the way the media will handle this.


4 posted on 05/18/2004 8:45:05 PM PDT by texasflower (in the event of the rapture.......the Bush White House will be unmanned)
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To: knak

Safire wrote this? Wasn't he a "defeatist" a few weeks ago? If so, welcome back.


5 posted on 05/18/2004 8:45:50 PM PDT by Rokurota
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To: knak

Great article by safire. Sometimes he hits the nail on the head!


6 posted on 05/18/2004 8:48:53 PM PDT by pittsburgh gop guy
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To: knak

bttt


7 posted on 05/18/2004 8:50:02 PM PDT by mcenedo (lying liberal media - our most dangerous and powerful enemy)
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To: knak

bttt


8 posted on 05/18/2004 8:51:25 PM PDT by bitt
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To: knak
Hey, c'mon, with all this late-breaking news about the Abu Ghraib crisis, how can you expect the NYT to cover second-string stories like Serin?

There's only so much room on the front page, y'know...

9 posted on 05/18/2004 8:51:54 PM PDT by Starve The Beast (I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused)
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To: DallasMike

what a great idea! is there a freeper username and password for the nyt?


10 posted on 05/18/2004 8:52:22 PM PDT by spyone
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To: DallasMike

Ditto ... I'd love to read the article but I wouldn't give the New York Slimes my addy or allow a NYT slime-cookie.


11 posted on 05/18/2004 8:54:19 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: knak

read the whole article, it's great!


12 posted on 05/18/2004 8:54:24 PM PDT by gilliam
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To: MHGinTN

I can't remember if we're allowed to post full articles from NYT. Anybody know? If so I will.


13 posted on 05/18/2004 8:58:56 PM PDT by knak
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To: knak
Since I'm not signed up for the Slimes , I will add this. I listened to a full hour of NPR news cycle whilst driving home this evening and there was no/zero/zilch/nada damn reference to the sarin development.
14 posted on 05/18/2004 8:59:12 PM PDT by Morgan's Raider
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To: spyone
The noble course is to register for the various online pubs. They allow you to opt out of spam. Maybe you will get an email a day from the Jerusalem Post or something annoying like that. When open a thread, whether excerpted or not, click on the link and read the thing onsite.

Message: Respect intellectual property.

End of PSA.

Rock on, Bill Safire.

15 posted on 05/18/2004 8:59:18 PM PDT by NutCrackerBoy
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To: All
I think I can post it all, so here it is. Sorry!!!

ou probably missed the news because it didn't get much play, but a small, crude weapon of mass destruction may have been used by Saddam's terrorists in Iraq this week.

The apparent weapon was sarin gas, a highly toxic nerve agent that causes victims to choke to death. Developed by the Nazis, it has been used in the past by terrorists in Japan to kill a dozen subway riders and panic thousands, and by Saddam Hussein, who produced tons of it to kill Iraqi Kurds.

Rigged as an "improvised explosive device," or roadside bomb, the 155-millimeter howitzer shell was accidentally detonated by a U.S. ordnance team. Two men were treated for what an Army spokesman called "minor exposure" to the nerve gas.

You never saw such a rush to dismiss this as not news. U.N. weapons inspectors whose reputations rest on denial of Saddam's W.M.D. pooh-poohed the report. "It doesn't strike me as a big deal," said David Kay.

"Sarin Bomb Is Likely a Leftover From the 80's" was USA Today's Page 10 brushoff; maybe the terrorists didn't know their shell was loaded with sarin. Besides, say our lionized apostles of defeat, a poison-gas bomb does not a "stockpile" make. Even the Defense Department, on the defensive, strained not to appear alarmist, saying confirmation was needed for the field tests.

In this rush to misjudgment, we can see an example of the "Four Noes" that have become the defeatists' platform.

The first "no" is no stockpiles of W.M.D., used to justify the war, were found. With the qualifier "so far" left out, the absence of evidence is taken to be evidence of absence. In weeks or years to come — when the pendulum has swung, and it becomes newsworthy to show how cut-and-runners in 2004 were mistaken — logic suggests we will see a rash of articles and blockbuster books to that end.

These may well reveal the successful concealment of W.M.D., as well as prewar shipments thereof to Syria and plans for production and missile delivery, by Saddam's Special Republican Guard and fedayeen, as part of his planned guerrilla war — the grandmother of all battles. The present story line of "Saddam was stupid, fooled by his generals" would then be replaced by "Saddam was shrewder than we thought."

This will be especially true for bacteriological weapons, which are small and easier to hide. In a sovereign and free Iraq, when germ-warfare scientists are fearful of being tried as prewar criminals, their impetus will be to sing — and point to caches of anthrax and other mass killers.

Defeatism's second "no" is no connection was made between Saddam and Al Qaeda or any of its terrorist affiliates. This is asserted as revealed truth with great fervor, despite an extensive listing of communications and meetings between Iraqi officials and terrorists submitted to Congress months ago.

Most damning is the rise to terror's top rank of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who escaped Afghanistan to receive medical treatment in Baghdad. He joined Ansar al-Islam, a Qaeda offshoot whose presence in Iraq to murder Kurds at Saddam's behest was noted in this space in the weeks after 9/11. His activity in Iraq was cited by President Bush six months before our invasion. Osama's disciple Zarqawi is now thought to be the televised beheader of a captive American.

The third "no" is no human-rights high ground can be claimed by us regarding Saddam's torture chambers because we mistreated Iraqi prisoners. This equates sleep deprivation with life deprivation, illegal individual humiliation with official mass murder. We flagellate ourselves for mistreatment by a few of our guards, who will be punished; he delightedly oversaw the shoveling of 300,000 innocent Iraqis into unmarked graves. Iraqis know the difference.

The fourth "no" is no Arab nation is culturally ready for political freedom and our attempt to impose democracy in Iraq is arrogant Wilsonian idealism.

In coming years, this will be blasted by revisionist reportage as an ignoble ethnic-racist slur. Iraqis will gain the power, with our help, to put down the terrorists and find their own brand of political equilibrium.

Will today's defeatists then admit they were wrong? That's a fifth "no."

16 posted on 05/18/2004 9:03:22 PM PDT by knak
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To: knak
Yes. Here it is:

OP-ED COLUMNIST

Sarin? What Sarin?


Published: May 19, 2004

You probably missed the news because it didn't get much play, but a small, crude weapon of mass destruction may have been used by Saddam's terrorists in Iraq this week.

The apparent weapon was sarin gas, a highly toxic nerve agent that causes victims to choke to death. Developed by the Nazis, it has been used in the past by terrorists in Japan to kill a dozen subway riders and panic thousands, and by Saddam Hussein, who produced tons of it to kill Iraqi Kurds.

Advertisement

Rigged as an "improvised explosive device," or roadside bomb, the 155-millimeter howitzer shell was accidentally detonated by a U.S. ordnance team. Two men were treated for what an Army spokesman called "minor exposure" to the nerve gas.

You never saw such a rush to dismiss this as not news. U.N. weapons inspectors whose reputations rest on denial of Saddam's W.M.D. pooh-poohed the report. "It doesn't strike me as a big deal," said David Kay.

"Sarin Bomb Is Likely a Leftover From the 80's" was USA Today's Page 10 brushoff; maybe the terrorists didn't know their shell was loaded with sarin. Besides, say our lionized apostles of defeat, a poison-gas bomb does not a "stockpile" make. Even the Defense Department, on the defensive, strained not to appear alarmist, saying confirmation was needed for the field tests.

In this rush to misjudgment, we can see an example of the "Four Noes" that have become the defeatists' platform.

The first "no" is no stockpiles of W.M.D., used to justify the war, were found. With the qualifier "so far" left out, the absence of evidence is taken to be evidence of absence. In weeks or years to come — when the pendulum has swung, and it becomes newsworthy to show how cut-and-runners in 2004 were mistaken — logic suggests we will see a rash of articles and blockbuster books to that end.

These may well reveal the successful concealment of W.M.D., as well as prewar shipments thereof to Syria and plans for production and missile delivery, by Saddam's Special Republican Guard and fedayeen, as part of his planned guerrilla war — the grandmother of all battles. The present story line of "Saddam was stupid, fooled by his generals" would then be replaced by "Saddam was shrewder than we thought."

This will be especially true for bacteriological weapons, which are small and easier to hide. In a sovereign and free Iraq, when germ-warfare scientists are fearful of being tried as prewar criminals, their impetus will be to sing — and point to caches of anthrax and other mass killers.

Defeatism's second "no" is no connection was made between Saddam and Al Qaeda or any of its terrorist affiliates. This is asserted as revealed truth with great fervor, despite an extensive listing of communications and meetings between Iraqi officials and terrorists submitted to Congress months ago.

Most damning is the rise to terror's top rank of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who escaped Afghanistan to receive medical treatment in Baghdad. He joined Ansar al-Islam, a Qaeda offshoot whose presence in Iraq to murder Kurds at Saddam's behest was noted in this space in the weeks after 9/11. His activity in Iraq was cited by President Bush six months before our invasion. Osama's disciple Zarqawi is now thought to be the televised beheader of a captive American.

The third "no" is no human-rights high ground can be claimed by us regarding Saddam's torture chambers because we mistreated Iraqi prisoners. This equates sleep deprivation with life deprivation, illegal individual humiliation with official mass murder. We flagellate ourselves for mistreatment by a few of our guards, who will be punished; he delightedly oversaw the shoveling of 300,000 innocent Iraqis into unmarked graves. Iraqis know the difference.

The fourth "no" is no Arab nation is culturally ready for political freedom and our attempt to impose democracy in Iraq is arrogant Wilsonian idealism.

In coming years, this will be blasted by revisionist reportage as an ignoble ethnic-racist slur. Iraqis will gain the power, with our help, to put down the terrorists and find their own brand of political equilibrium.

Will today's defeatists then admit they were wrong? That's a fifth "no."

17 posted on 05/18/2004 9:03:34 PM PDT by conservative in nyc
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To: NutCrackerBoy

Yeah...you are right.


18 posted on 05/18/2004 9:04:44 PM PDT by spyone
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To: DallasMike

www.bugmenot.com


19 posted on 05/18/2004 9:07:19 PM PDT by WilDave
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To: knak

I am Glad that Safire- who has bad mouthed Bush lately- is happy about the two duds with Sarin we found.

I am sure this info should shut down the "anti american haters".

Just one small problem. It is called history.

If anything- Safire should repost all his articles from the same period of this speech:

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2003/17300.htm





20 posted on 05/18/2004 9:10:13 PM PDT by Burkeman1 ("I said the government can't help you. I didn't say it couldn't hurt you." Chief Wiggam)
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