Posted on 05/10/2006 3:00:32 AM PDT by 13Sisters76
Media mum on new evidence of Saddam's terror ties By Joel Mowbray
May 10, 2006
Ask even news-savvy Americans what they know about Saddam’s plans to deploy suicide bombers against the West, and the most common response will be blank stares. Ditto for asking about how Saddam’s thugs trained thousands of terrorists from around the Arab world, right up through 2002.
Both stunning revelations surfaced recently, one in Congressional testimony last month and the other in the current issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. The Pentagon has known about these items on Saddam’s terrorist agenda since the end of 2003, which is when it received the after-action analysis report it had commissioned. (It served as the basis for the testimony and the magazine article.)
Now declassified, the book-length report analyzed thousands of Iraqi documents and interviews with over 100 officials of Saddam’s regime to piece together what was going on in the tyranny’s final days. Much of it is darkly humorous, such as the lengths to which minions would go to deceive Saddam or how the despot actually appeared to believe the ridiculous propaganda spewed by Baghdad Bob.
To the extent the report or its summaries were covered by the mainstream media, attention mostly was focused on the finding that Saddam apparently behaved himself in late 2002 and early 2003 in a vain attempt to stave off the invasion. Yet entirely ignored by the supposedly objective news outlets were the rather newsworthy items indicating that, in fact, Saddam was interested in exporting terror.
According to a Nexis search, only four news outlets have even mentioned “Blessed July,” which was, in the words of the Foreign Affairs article, “a regime-directed wave of ‘martyrdom’ operations against targets in the West.” All nine articles were editorials or opinion pieces. The New York Times essentially avoided covering the report or the magazine summary of it, as the paper instead excerpted a book co-authored by one of its reporters that relied heavily on the report. Even the Associated Press declined to print a quick mention that preparations for “Blessed July,” again quoting from the magazine article, “were well under way at the time of the coalition invasion.”
The Washington Post, however, did cover the release of the Foreign Affairs article, but with this headline: “U.S. Said To Misread Hussein On Arms.” The not-so-subtle implication of the rather brief story was that Saddam didn’t pose as big a threat as we thought. In the weeks following the Post article, the full report was released and its authors appeared before Congress. Neither event triggered additional coverage.
Even if Post reporters missed the section in the 230-page report on terror training camps operated by the Fedayeen Saddam, the militia of soldiers most loyal to the ruthless ruler, that issue was raised again in Congressional hearings last month. The camps, which were started in 1994, trained some 7,200 Iraqis in the art of terrorism in the first year alone. “Beginning in 1998,” according to the full report, “these camps began hosting ‘Arab volunteers from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, ‘the Gulf,’ and Syria.’”
So in the late 1990’s and beyond, during which time conventional wisdom tells us that Saddam was “contained,” Iraq was training thousands of terrorists from across the Arab world. Saddam was not slowing down. “The training activity of the groups were increasing both internal and apparently external. It was increasing over time,” testified Lt. Col. Kevin Woods (retired), the report’s chief author.
Many Democrats, leading leftists, and even ostensibly objective members of the Fourth Estate scoff at Bush’s contention that the war in Iraq was a necessary component of the war on terror. Yet when fairly compelling proof emerges that Saddam was actively involved in both training terrorists and planning attacks, the collective response was silence.
Most baffling, though, is that the White House has been equally silent.
Had President Bush made even one mention of “Blessed July,” Saddam’s plans for a “wave of ‘martyrdom’ operations” would have dominated cable newscasts and newspaper headlines for at least a day. Maybe not dominated, but it would have garnered at least some attention.
Had the White House press office decided that the mainstream media couldn’t be trusted to disseminate the information accurately, it could have at least highlighted Saddam’s terror training camps for friendly columnists, talk hosts, and bloggers. It didn’t.
The White House doesn’t believe in re-fighting the decision to go to war, which is painfully logical. But politics isn’t logical. Neither are Bush’s political enemies. If the President wants people to trust that he made the right call by toppling Saddam, he needs to reiterate everyday what we know: Saddam was a threat who could no longer be tolerated.
“Blessed July” and Saddam’s terror training camps would be as good a place as any to start.
Joel Mowbray is the author of Dangerous Diplomacy.
Copyright © 2006 Townhall.com
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Find this story at: http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/joelmowbray/2006/05/10/196845.html
Baffling indeed.
Bush needs to make a primetime speech showing the facts.
Why?
Why, doesn't this administration stand up for itself?
Oh please! It's not baffling, it's smart! If you people don't understand how the DBM operates now you never will...
Maybe there is still some cleaning up to do! - and - you know how the drive-by-media handles anything positive referring to President Bush.
Drible --- and the releasing of Saddam's papers to be translated was a (big) drible.
I just have to say - I trust President Bush and the grown-ups around him and will be patient.
And how.
Let's face it. Bush has done what he has said he was going to to, for the reasons he has said he was going to do it. But what he has failed to realize from the onset is that it is a two-front war.
There is the real war, the war against the terrorists and their sponsors in which he has been kicking righteous ass, AND, there is the war of American public perception, which because of leftist media domination, he has been sucking hind tit.
Adding Snow to the team might help. More must be done.
Look Watson, If this was say a Clinton administration fighting this war, where would this news be? And how would the DBM report it? Bush knows he's fighting two wars, an external war on terror and an internal war against the leftist, anti-war, stupid kook left. Why waste energy fighting the internal war when your allies can do it for you like FR, Rush, Grassroots, and some responsible fair alternative news outlets?
You people have to remember the Drive By Media is against Bush so WHATEVER he says or points to as evidence that Saddam was fully engaged as part of the WOT they are going to do there best to twist, contort, lampoon, or downright ignor.
Perfect example is Joe Wilson's lies and finding out Bush was actually right about yellowcake, (He got creamed on this by the DBM) have you seen this reported yet by any Major Media outlets?
Look Watson, If this was say a Clinton administration fighting this war, where would this news be? And how would the DBM report it? Bush knows he's fighting two wars, an external war on terror and an internal war against the leftist, anti-war, stupid kook left. Why waste energy fighting the internal war when your allies can do it for you like FR, Rush, Grassroots, and some responsible fair alternative news outlets?
You people have to remember the Drive By Media is against Bush so WHATEVER he says or points to as evidence that Saddam was fully engaged as part of the WOT they are going to do there best to twist, contort, lampoon, or downright ignor.
Perfect example is Joe Wilson's lies and finding out Bush was actually right about yellowcake, (He got creamed on this by the DBM) have you seen this reported yet by any Major Media outlets?
"There is the real war, the war against the terrorists and their sponsors in which he has been kicking righteous ass, AND, there is the war of American public perception, which because of leftist media domination, he has been sucking hind tit."
Konnichi wa, Ronin-san.
I guess you would have to ask the people of Vietnam which war is more (or equally) important.
Meanwhile the battle to keep the U.S. the U.S., is seemingly being lost. It appears that we will be a bi-lingual, bi-cultural governmental entity.
I do not even wish to discuss the effort to bring to justice, Clinton and his merry band of connivers and cutthroats. We lost that one very early on. But our compassion has resulted in the leberals giving us their grudging respect and returning our largese. Or not.
A.....
"Until we get that dialed in, we are fighting with one hand tied behind our backs because the liberals will do ANYTHING, tell any lie, use any tool -- even Saddam himself -- if they think it will give them an advantage in the race for power."
............BUMP
I agree with this.
I have said it for years- the greatest danger we face in this country is NOT foreign. It is local and it is leftist ( I will NEVER call them "liberals"). These people are more dangerous to all of us than ANY foreign terrorist will ever be. If there is any doubt, you only have to look at what they have done to the education system, the black population, the economy and the South Vietnamese...
Still doubt it? Look at the Kennedys, the Clintons and Hollywood.
All is not lost and can never be until we- WE- abrogate our responsibilities as the true government. So far, it seems that the right's displeasure with GW is, somehow, going to translate into good news for them. It's up to us to show them otherwise.
As it is, I vote for reps while holding my nose. But I swear- I would NEVER vote for a dem- even with a cocked gun to my head.
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