Clift Suggests Sons Killed to Silence Them on Lack of WMD

MediaResearchCenter ^ | Monday July 28, 2003 | BrentBaker

[fight_truth_decay]

Uday and Qusay killed to keep them silent on lack of WMD? Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift suggested on the McLaughlin Group over the weekend that the in killing Uday and Qusay Hussein, “two intelligence assets who could potentially lead us to the weapons of mass destruction,” the Bush administration “surrendered a major opportunity to uncover” those weapons “unless,” she added nefariously, “they don’t believe those weapons are there.”

Later, she equated President Bush’s State of the Union line about Iraq “seeking” uranium in Africa with the tape erasure in the Nixon White House: “The 16 words are taking on the aura of the 18-minute gap under a former President.”

On the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s sons, Clift argued: “The way they went sent another message. You don’t send in a TOW missile if you want to capture them alive. And these are two intelligence assets who could potentially lead us to the weapons of mass destruction. And the fact that the administration really made very little attempt to take them alive -- they wanted to spare themselves the headache of a trial -- but they also surrendered a major opportunity to uncover the real reason we went to war -- unless they don’t believe those weapons are there.”

In her weekly MSNBC.com column on Friday, Clift offered a less accusatory version of the same theme, arguing that finding the weapons of mass destruction “would be such a huge win for the administration that you would think they would have gone to greater lengths to take Uday and Qusay alive.”

An excerpt from Clift’s July 25 column on MSNBC.com:

....The war in Iraq was fought to disarm Saddam, but the way the commanders on the ground went in after Uday and Qusay shows the administration is not serious about finding weapons of mass destruction. These were the two best intelligence assets, short of Saddam, that the administration could capture. U.S. troops offered them a chance to surrender, and then called in a barrage from helicopter gunships. By killing the brothers, the administration saved itself the headache of a trial but lost the opportunity to prove a link with Al Qaeda or solve the mystery of the missing WMD.

I don’t necessarily quarrel with the decision. Bringing peace and a new order to Iraq would be harder with Saddam’s sons alive. But if the Bush administration really were looking for WMD, these two men were key. It increasingly looks as though the WMD have disappeared. They may be scattered and already in the hands of terrorists. Saddam could have destroyed them before the war, or years earlier, and simply was bluffing to menace his neighbors. Or they could be buried somewhere. Finding them would be such a huge win for the administration that you would think they would have gone to greater lengths to take Uday and Qusay alive....

END of Excerpt

For Clift’s piece in full: www.msnbc.com

[Delphinium]

Just another leftist traitor.

[epluribus_2]

Eleanor - anyone who either helped in 9/11 OR expressed sympathy for it is going to be waxed eventually. This is the real Bush doctrine. Whine away while you can still get airtime but the people seem to like that approach.

[Wright is right!]

db, let's ALSO remember that the unit commander and his men DIDN'T KNOW that Quoozie and Queasy were in there, only that 2 high-up 'individuals of interest' were shooting at them. That kills off Clift's "arguement" right there.

Michael

[Rummyfan]

Eleanor Clift :: delusional Leftie

[thulldud]

“The 16 words are taking on the aura of the 18-minute gap under a former President.”

She should talk to Maureen Dowd about the "gap" that was introduced into the beginning of the quote. That has an aura all its own....

[nightdriver]

"If memory serves, clift is a shill for the clintonistas."

She certainly is.

I'd dearly love to stick my head in her office there at Newsweak and holler "WILLIAM JEFRFERSON BLYTHE CLINTON," just to watch her pee her pants with excitement.

[Liberal Classic]

<McLaughlin> WRONG! </McLaughlin >

[Sloopy]

Well said.

[mgc1122]

I totally agree but have to add people like Clift don't really care about suffering, misery and death. They, like all hard core anti American socialists, care only for the political agenda ... a few casualties along the way are not only expected, but in some cases, appreciated.

[sheik yerbouty]

Eleanor Clift is a shrill commie POS. Nothing new there.

[laweeks]

I swear this woman must have had an affair with either one or both of the Clintons. How else do you explain her total defense of those monsters and her continuing fantasy trip through reality.

[Semper Paratus]

Is it just me or do most of the partisan 'rats look like their losing their minds?

[Cronos]

Ha, Ha HAAA! Now that's one of the best jokes I've heard so far. Perhaps Bush also wanted to stop them from revealing that he's really a Dalek and planning for the Invasion of earth by the Dalek empire (hey, I've just been overdosing on DR. Who novels, so there!). Sheesh, the 'rats are loony. How many months before we re-elect Bush and show these nutters how wrong they've been?

[paws_and_whiskers]

Clift Suggests Sons Killed to Silence Them on Lack of WMD

Okay, where was the ugly woman alert on this?

[GraniteStateConservative]

The commander on the ground made the call to use the methods they used. The commander nor the rest knew who were inside, either. Clift is an idiot.

[Lijahsbubbe]

If she just SHARED her drugs...............

I think this is just residual effect from the sixties.

[blackdog]

I don't suppose that being a reporter thingy might cause Clift to write a piece using those fact thingies which a reporter discovers and collects during her interview thingy with those witness and participant thingy's?

Listening to Clift is like listening to the ridiculous rants of the full time village idiots at our local diner during the morning hours. Of course they don't get paid for their opinions. They do swear them to be fact though just like Clift.

[MEG33]

Well said!

[Liberal Classic]

So Bush is actually Davros? This explains a lot!

[blackdog]

If Clift's allegations are true, expect the Marines and Rangers to TOW missile and kill all the people at the DNC convention. Their knowlege of the non-existance of WMD's puts them in major peril.