Free Republic

October 3, 2004 How the White House Embraced Disputed Iraqi Arms IntelligenceBy DAVID BARSTOW, WILLIAM J. BROAD and JEFF GERTH his article was reported by David Barstow, William J. Broad and Jeff Gerth, and was written by Mr. Barstow. In 2002, at a crucial juncture on the path to war, senior members of the Bush administration gave a series of speeches and interviews in which they asserted that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding his nuclear weapons program. In a speech to veterans that August, Vice President Dick Cheney said Mr. Hussein could have an atomic bomb "fairly soon." The next month,...

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has picked Brandon Williams, a former Navy officer and one-term member of Congress, to become the keeper of the nation’s arsenal of thousands of nuclear bombs and warheads. Trump’s selection is a shift from a tradition in which the people who served as administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration typically had deep technical roots or experience in the nation’s atomic complex. What’s unknown publicly is the extent of Williams’ experience in the knotty intricacies of how the weapons work and how they are kept reliable for decades without ever being ignited. Terry C. Wallace Jr.,...

Gingrich's opinion on electromagnetic pulse events is well-informed. The Times' is not.Writing in the New York Times, William J. Broad portrays GOP presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich as a loon for his view that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is one of the most dangerous threats we face as a nation: Newt Gingrich, the Republican presidential hopeful, wants you to know that as commander in chief he is ready to confront one of the most nightmarish of doomsday scenarios: a nuclear blast high above the United States that would instantly throw the nation into a dark age.In debates and speeches, interviews and...

"How the White House Used Disputed Arms Intelligence" NYT 10/3/04