Saddam Tapes: What They Don't Prove (NBC's Trick?)

Newsweek ^ | Feb. 20, 2006 | Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff

[excludethis]

Government investigators are trying to determine how 12 hours of tape recordings of Saddam Hussein and his aides, acquired by U.S. personnel in Iraq, got into the hands of the organizers of a private "intelligence summit" to be held in D.C. next weekend. John Loftus, a former government prosecutor and self-described whistle-blower, claims the tapes "will be able to provide a few definitive answers to some very important—and controversial—weapons-of-mass-destruction questions." At one point Saddam muses how vulnerable D.C. would be to a "biological" attack, but adds that Iraq wouldn't do it. House Intelligence Committee chairman Pete Hoekstra is reviewing transcripts to determine if U.S. officials missed WMD evidence after the war. But intel agencies are skeptical. The tapes were taken without permission from an FBI-run translation center, officials say, and are years old. Two government officials, requesting anonymity because of the sensitive subject, say the tapes in no way prove that WMD stockpiles or programs existed at the time of the U.S. invasion or were moved to another country before U.S. troops arrived.

[Wasanother]

The MSM is scared now. They are trying to disprove an issue before all the facts come out and may never come out if they can help it.

[Tarpon]

Does saying the Quran was flushed make it so?

[Ben Mugged]

Two government officials, requesting anonymity because of the sensitive subject, say the tapes in no way prove that WMD stockpiles or programs existed at the time of the U.S. invasion or were moved to another country before U.S. troops arrived.

Must be true since they are anomymous.

[God luvs America]

I could see the tapes not proving stockpiles of WMD...but if Hussien is musing about a "biological attack on DC" and the lame-stream media dismiss it then they are bigger sc^m then first thought for a number of reasons...

[Williams]

This article is incredible. It's a rushed into print quick and dirty to tell people to disregard these tapes - Sadaam Hussein's own words. They do nothing to analyze the tapes, and they start off wanting to prosecute whoever released the tapes.

It should send a chill down every American to hear Sadaam Hussein discussing America's vulnerability to a chemical attack.

[jimbo123]

By Michael Isikoff...

[Stultis]

Nice try, PMSNBC. But wouldn't holding your hands over your ears and shouting "LA, LA, LA, LA, LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU" work better?

[italianquaker]

crack reporter dan rather says what did saddam know and when did he know it sarcasm

[freeperfromnj]

Whether we find the WMD or not, the bottom line is what W always says: He was a "gathering threat" and these tapes prove that.

[The South Texan]

"Two former Intel officials."

Plame and Richard Clark?

[MikeA]

Amazing isn't it? Newsweek rushes to Saddam's defense, but can't in any way bring itself to defend our own nation's Vice President against an ugly media-lead onslaught and feeding frenzy over an event utterly irrelevent to the governance of the nation.

Isn't there just one journalist out there with an ounce of decency who could possibly employ their endless talents of mitigating and justifying anything negative about Saddam to perhaps say "Maybe the Vice President thought it best not to create a media frenzy at the hospital right away and felt it best to give the hospital time to prepare for a media on-rush before revealing the story." Of course that would require the ability to be as fair to the Bush administration as they are to Saddam Hussein.

Once again we say how the left wing in America sees America's adversaries as people worthy of being defended, while America's own leaders are the real fiends in the world.

[OldFriend]

Creative editing on the way.

[Dr Snide]

Biological attack on Washington D.C.? You mean like an Anthrax attack or something? We all know that would never happen.

[Billthedrill]

Oh, brother. "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

So do we even get to hear the tapes before these guys tell us to dismiss them?

[Shermy]

"Two government officials, requesting anonymity"

Lemme guess...Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame.

[jveritas]

So it is OK for the liberal media to leak the NSA terrorist surveillance program out and hurt the national security but it is not OK to get out the tapes of Saddam talking abut WMD and the potential of attacking the United States! It is horrifying how despicable and hateful the liberal media is.

[Enchante]

"....and are years old"

It is lovely little touches like this that reveal the insidious, depraved bias of so much of the MSM. The insinuation is that somehow details on Saddam's discussions with advisors in the late 1990s are now irrelevant. That is IDIOTIC. Certainly any such discussions since the 1991 Gulf War are highly relevant to evaluating the state of Saddam's intentions, beliefs, goals, and expected acquisitions in the WMD area, etc.

Isikoff and his fellow MSM scumbags have far too much invested in the "Bush lied, people died" agenda to allow the real facts to reach the public. Watch for maximum spin and disinformation to continue in the MSM for as long as they think they can still get away with it.

[theDentist]

Does saying the Quran was flushed make it so?

It does in my house. I ran out of TP.....

[bill1952]

But they may be right.

I did hear that the tapes have Saddam and his aides in meetings with Sadamm calmly saying that Iraq would not do any of these things and that he did not want to challange the US.

The leftists would use that to say that Bush knew that Saddam was no threat but invaded anyway.

However, that is just what I heard, and it may not be exactly like that. We will soon see.