Posted on 09/22/2004 2:19:29 PM PDT by NewMediaFan
Sept. 22 - In its rush to air its now discredited story about President George W. Bush’s National Guard service, CBS bumped another sensitive piece slated for the same “60 Minutes” broadcast: a half-hour segment about how the U.S. government was snookered by forged documents purporting to show Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium from Niger.
The journalistic juggling at CBS provides an ironic counterpoint to the furor over apparently bogus documents involving Bush’s National Guard service. One unexpected consequence of the network’s decision was to wipe out a chance—at least for the moment—for greater public scrutiny of a more consequential forgery that played a role in building the Bush administration’s case to invade Iraq.
A team of “60 Minutes” correspondents and consulting reporters spent more than six months investigating the Niger uranium documents fraud, CBS sources tell NEWSWEEK. The group landed the first ever on-camera interview with Elisabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who first obtained the phony documents, as well as her elusive source, Rocco Martino, a mysterious Roman businessman with longstanding ties to European intelligence agencies.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
As it turns out, those documents had little impact on the Niger matter. But I'm glad CBS went for the home run on the TANG matter and struck out.
Only one problem.
The 'forged' niger documents wasn't the ONLY source that was used!
But why let a little thing like FACTS get in the way!
60 Minutes with more incriminating documents? Ya, that'll fly.
LOL! Can't have the pot calling the kettle black, now can we? They'll just have to find some other way to smear George Bush. Boo hoo.
Actually, running the TANG documents is going to make SeeBS look even more 'underhanded' if they try to sell NIGERGATE.
We're dealing with Newsweek's Michael Isikoff here, a veteran of liberal bias and selective reporting.
You mean we might have invaded Iraq over FORGED documents? Now what kind of idiots are George Bush and the Neocons to be fooled by FORGED documents?
"CBS sources tell NEWSWEEK"
The blind leading the blind, or liars lying to liars.
Note the anonymous CBS "sources".
< /sarcasm>
So, for CBS, this was a case of "forged if you do, and forged if you don't!"
That was sarcasm! Right?
"Right?"
Right - sometimes I forget the typed word doesn't carry the same inflection as the spoken ones.
No mention of the possibility that the reason Martino has not been interviewed by the FBI is that the Italians have an ongoing investigation of the their own to conclude.
No mention of the lies of Joe Wilson, as mentioned in the report of the 9/11 Commission, and the special counsel's ongoing investigation into who leaked his wife's identity, and the subpoenas issued to various MSM personalities, including the New York Times.
Good job, guys -- coverage of yet another forged document story worthy of CBS and the DNC.
For crying out loud! These are not the docs the US relied on. They spotted them as forgeries as soon as they saw them. In fact, they were forged under the direction of French intel hoping to embarass the US.
Bush relied on other info from British Intel and every one who saw that information, including Tony Blair's opponents, agrees that it was compelling.
It's time for Newsweek to actually start READING the news. They are so last year.
Both designed to harm the president and HIDE the truth.
That's ok.
I shouldn't have even needed to ask, but after spending half a day wrestling with tree limb, I'm a little tired, and adle minded!
:>
Too rich!! FOTFLMTO
Right. Mikie does not note that there was other evidence to support the claim and he poo poos the french angle which seemed more credible to me based on the accounts I have read in the Euro press here on FR.
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