Smoking Guns Have Long Political History ( Bang, you're politically dead)

AP VIA ABC NEWS ^ | 1/25/2003 | AP

[TLBSHOW]

Smoking Guns Have Long Political History

Smoking Guns: in Search of the Clincher, From Sherlock Holmes to Watergate to Iraq

WASHINGTON Jan. 25 — In times of intrigue, it's always sought and rarely found. Discovery of the "smoking gun" in the American experience means, Bang, you're politically dead.

Now, the search is on for a smoking gun in Iraq the piece of gotcha evidence proving that country has weapons of mass destruction.

As the United States teeters on launching a war against Iraq, its allies and the public see the smoking gun as critical in giving it a solid basis to attack Saddam Hussein.

Smoking guns have triggered some of the most astonishing revelations in political scandals, international probes and corporate greed.

One of the first to popularize the saying in the Watergate crisis was Barber Conable, then a congressman and Nixon loyalist who felt betrayed when the infamous smoking gun tape came out. "I heard it a lot, and used it at a critical moment," he says now. "I was so angry, I didn't know what I was saying."

"I had been a strong leader of the Republican leadership, thinking Nixon was too smart to do this stupid thing," said Conable, now 80 and living in Alexander, N.Y.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known smoking firearm was mentioned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in "Sherlock Holmes" in 1894.

It was written: "The chaplain stood with a smoking pistol in his hand."

But 'smoking pistol' crossed over the Atlantic and Americans seized on it during Watergate, preferring the less British 'gun' to 'pistol.'

During Watergate, investigators were looking for the culprit in a White House cover up of administration involvement in a burglary at the offices of the Democratic National Committee in 1972.

Jim Neal, a trial lawyer in the special prosecutor's office at the time, said he first remembers 'smoking gun' used during Watergate by special prosecutor Leon Jaworski

Neal said Jaworski phoned him when he was in Tennessee, and said "Jim, come back to Washington. We've found the smoking gun."

The smoking gun was the taped conversation on June 23, 1972, six days after the Watergate break-in, in which Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, had agreed to order the FBI "not to go any further into this case."

This contradicted previous Nixon statements. He had said he did not know of White House involvement in the Watergate cover up until White House counsel John Dean told him of it on March 21, 1973.

"In our conversation we referred to the smoking gun because that was the big bombshell," said Neal, who now practices law in Nashville, Tenn.

The late U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica, who presided at many of the Watergate trials, wrote in his memoirs:

"Here was the 'smoking pistol' the investigators had been looking for the direct, undeniable evidence that from the very beginning Nixon had been in on, had approved, had condoned and supported the attempt to bury the Watergate mess out of sight of the prosecutors, the courts, the Congress and the public."

Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974, four days after release of the tapes.

More recently, the memo written by Lt. Col. Oliver North in the Iran-Contra affair, the DNA evidence tying former President Clinton to White House intern Monica Lewinsky and the letter written by an Enron whistle-blower were considered 'smoking guns' in their times.

None had the finality of the tapes that drove Nixon from office.

"If they found chemical warheads (in Iraq), it could be a smoking gun. But so far, there has never been anything like Watergate wiretapping of reporters, perjury," Neal said. "In investigations since then, there haven't been any clear criminal events."

In his political dictionary, William Safire defines 'smoking gun' as 'incontrovertible evidence: the proof of guilt that precipitates resignations.'

But in today's international landscape, its outcome could be war.

"In the case of Iraq, the task is to connect the dots before there's a smoking gun," said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "If there's a smoking gun, and it involves weapons of mass destruction, it is a lot of people dead, not 3,000, but multiples of that."

Linguist Robin Lakoff, who specializes in the politics of language, says the phrase is perfectly suitable to today's search for weapons.

"When talking about weapons, it links the literal and metaphorical," Lakoff said. "In looking for a smoking gun of mass destruction, it's particularly good at this moment people looking for weapons and guns, whereas in the Watergate case there wasn't a gun."

[meenie]

The "smoking gun"is a misnomer at the present time. The "smoking gun" has already fired the shot. We are just looking for the gun.

[mrsmith]

No mention of a blue, semen-stained dress.

Must be a Pete Yost_{TM DNC} edited DNC fax AP article.

[zarf]

The entire article is based upon a misreading of the UN resolution.

Classic liberal media rambling and spin.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

....the DNA evidence tying former President Clinton to White House intern Monica Lewinsky.....

You must have skipped over this.

[TLBSHOW]

That is what FReepers are for, slamming the liberal bias media stories to shredds.

[mrsmith]

I hate when that happens!

(thanks)

[TLBSHOW]

Like what happened to Time Magazine this week. End result was here.Time Retracts Anti-Bush Racial Smear

[MeekOneGOP]

Now, the search is on for a smoking gun in Iraq the piece of gotcha evidence proving that country has weapons of mass destruction.

As the United States teeters on launching a war against Iraq, its allies and the public see the smoking gun as critical in giving it a solid basis to attack Saddam Hussein.

I think with Iraq, it's a GAME. They play the Shell Game in hiding their WMD...

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But once we get into Iraq, we will uncover the shell which hides the 'pea' - the WMD...

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Bang !...there's your smoking gun !...

[TLBSHOW]

Bttt