The Guardian Pulls a "Dowd" - Falsely Attributes War for Oil Claim to Wolfowitz w/ Misquote

6 June 2003

[adam_az]

al-Guradian is a joke.

What can you say of a paper that employs Robert Fisk?

[Stultis]

Contact info for The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/gu_contacts/0,5816,180767,00.html

Letters to the editor
Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk

The Guardian's readers' editor
It is the policy of the Guardian to correct errors as soon as possible, and the paper has appointed a Readers' Editor as its independent internal ombudsman to deal with questions and complaints from readers. The Guardian also has an external Ombudsman to represent the interests of readers where the Readers' Editor is unable to resolve a problem to the satisfaction of all parties.

For more information contact the Readers' Editor:
Ian Mayes
The Guardian
119 Farringdon Road
London EC1R 3ER
reader@guardian.co.uk

[Dog]

Good catch!

[Stultis]

Good catch!

Credit actually goes to various freepers on the other thread.

[Dog]

But you put it all together.

[stop_fascism]

They've got no sense of smell?

Seriously though - there seems to be a full court press to destroy Wolfowitz. I hope it doesn't work, but I'm not confident.

[Spiff]

This is no vanity. This is a Free Republic scoop! It demonstrates precisely one of the whole reasons that Free Republic was invented and why we post and dissect articles from various media.

You rock!!! The Guardian gets discredited ala. NY Times.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

reported today by German newspapers Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt

This will now be accepted as fact by every German-speaking person in Europe. Protestations to the opposite will require tons of proof and still won't be believed. Such is how it is these days...

[ChadGore]

al-Guradian . . .lol . . I like that !

[kevkrom]

Forward this (do it yourself so you get the credit) to Fox News immediately!!!

[TomB]

Very nice job. Don't forget, the Dowd misquote was first caught on Free Republic too.

[Stultis]

For the German readers, al-Guardian's sources:

Der Tagesspiegel

Wolfowitz nennt Öl als Irak-Kriegsgrund US-Kongress soll untersuchen

Washington (Tsp/dpa). Der US-Kongress will klären, ob die Bush-Regierung die Gefahr durch irakische Massenvernichtungswaffen übertrieben hat. Der republikanische Senator John Warner sagte, die Glaubwürdigkeit von Präsident Bush, Außenminister Powell, Verteidigungsminister Rumsfeld und CIA-Direktor Tenet werde in Zweifel gezogen. Unterdessen erweiterte Vize-Verteidigungsminister Paul Wolfowitz sein Eingeständnis, dass Massenvernichtungswaffen nicht der eigentliche Kriegsgrund waren. Auf die Frage, warum man Nordkorea anders behandle als den Irak, sagte er in Singapur laut "Welt": "Der wichtigste Unterschied ist, dass wir wirtschaftlich einfach keine Wahl im Irak hatten. Das Land schwimmt auf einem Meer von Öl."

Die Welt

Im Fall Nordkorea setzt Wolfowitz auf die Anrainer

Auf die Frage, warum eine Atommacht wie Nordkorea anders behandelt würde als der Irak, wo kaum Massenvernichtungswaffen gefunden worden seien, antwortete der stellvertretende Verteidigungsminister wieder sehr offen: "Betrachten wir es einmal ganz simpel. Der wichtigste Unterschied zwischen Nordkorea und dem Irak ist der, dass wir wirtschaftlich einfach keine Wahl im Irak hatten. Das Land schwimmt auf einem Meer von Öl."

[optimistically_conservative]

Michael, important PING to you!

[Stultis]

Direct link to The Guardian story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,970331,00.html

[Dog]

Could you ping your list to this thread..

[xm177e2]

Fisk is at al-Independent, I think, not al-Guardian.

[kesg]

Excellent work.

[Dog]

Ping!

[rwfromkansas]

On another thread, someone posted the same exact phrase used in a original language paper; I think the guardian just picked up that quote and went with it.

However, we should write them for so sloppily translating "swimming" vs. "floating" is a big deal when it comes to the vital matter of accurate quoting! They were lazy.

And their interpretation of the quote is WILLFULLY dishonest.