Francois — All Spin All The Time
Topic(s): US Analysis | Comments Off on Francois — All Spin All The TimeAll Spin All The Time
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8311
New York-based Russ Baker is an award-winning journalist who covers
politics and media.
Viva Nihilism! It must be great working in the Bush White House. Zero
accountability. It’s All Spin, All the Time. Nothing matters but
politics, hence no unfounded claim requires correction or apology.
Unless, of course, they are pushed to the end of the plank, as they were
recently with the tale about Niger and nuclear materials.
Take those elusive Weapons of Mass Destruction. Despite the failure of
the concentrated might of the U.S. military-intelligence complex to find
anything that might qualify in the remotest possible way, the
administration labels critics “revisionist historians” and imperturbedly
moves on. The initial assertions and touted “discoveries” usually get
more attention than does the sound of a balloon deflating. That’s why
polls find a sizable chunk of the American public still under the
impression that WMD have been found.
Whatever Saddam’s interest in WMD, the administration didn’t know what
he had and didn’t have solid evidence to make the claims it did — much
less to launch a war over them. For those amateur “revisionist
historians” out there, here is a partial, unscientific reconstruction of
the claims that fizzled.
***
THE CLAIM:
“Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bombmaking and poisons and deadly
gases… [which] could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without
leaving any fingerprints.” – President Bush, Oct. 7, 2002.
THE FACTS:
The alleged Al Qaeda training camp, which Colin Powell described to the
United Nations in February, is later revealed to be outside Iraq’s
control and patrolled by Allied warplanes. By late June, Michael
Chandler, the head of the U.N. team monitoring global efforts to counter
Al Qaeda tells Agence France Press : “We have never had information
presented to us — even though we’ve asked questions — which would
indicate that there is a direct link.”
THE SPIN:
State Dept. spokesman Richard Boucher responds: “Secretary Powell
provided clear and convincing evidence of the links between Iraq and Al
Qaeda.”
***
THE CLAIM:
“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought
significant quantities of uranium from Africa,” Bush declares in the
State of the Union address.
THE FACTS:
In March, Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), tells the U.N. Security Council that the
documents substantiating the claim of alleged Iraqi efforts to buy
uranium in Niger were fakes (and bad ones at that) and that “these
specific allegations are unfounded.” The unnamed ex-ambassador whom the
CIA sent to check out the story tells The New Republic : “They knew the
Niger story was a flat-out lie.”
THE SPIN:
Pass the buck, finally ‘fessing up in a White House statement delivered
on July 7 that Bush should not have used the uranium allegations in his
address.
***
THE CLAIM:
U.S. officials present evidence suggesting that Iraq tried to buy
aluminum tubes for use in centrifuges for the uranium enrichment
process.
THE FACTS:
IAEA’s ElBaradei later reports that extensive investigation “failed to
uncover any evidence” that Iraq intended to use the tubes for any
project other than the reverse engineering of rockets.
THE SPIN:
Powell releases a contradictory interpretation of the tubes, then the
matter disappears.
*** THE CLAIM:
In early April, the Pentagon “confirms” discovery of a biological and
chemical weapons storage site near the town of Hindiyah, complete with
suspected sarin and tabun nerve agents.
THE FACTS:
Fourteen barrels of liquids are reassessed to be pesticide.
THE SPIN:
Silence.
*** THE CLAIM:
In early April, a white powder found at a site near Najaf is described
as possible chemical agents, and presented as a likely “smoking gun.”
THE FACTS:
The powder is an explosive.
THE SPIN:
Silence.
***
THE CLAIM:
“Biological laboratories described by our Secretary of State to the
whole world that were not supposed to be there, that are a direct
violation of the U.N. resolutions, have been discovered,” Bush tells
reporters, on May 29, referring to trailers the administration says are
mobile labs.
THE FACTS:
For weeks, numerous independent experts express serious doubts about the
trailers’ purposes; a classified State Department intelligence memo
cited by The New York Times also cautions about premature conclusions.
THE SPIN:
“The experts have spoken and the judgment of the experts is very clear
on this matter,” says Fleischer. Colin Powell splits hairs in backing
the White House: State experts “weren’t saying it was not a mobile lab,
they just were not quite up in that curve of confidence that the rest of
the intelligence community was at…”
***
THE CLAIM:
“We believe [Saddam] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.” –
Vice President Cheney, March 16, 2003 on Meet the Press .
THE FACTS:
After the fighting, an Iraqi nuclear scientist cuts a deal for refuge
with the United States. Buried in his garden are documents and parts of
a gas centrifuge, which could be used to enrich uranium for bombmaking.
But the process of enriching uranium would require hundreds or thousands
of precisely machined centrifuges, working together perfectly.
THE SPIN:
The administration declares this evidence that Bush and Cheney were
correct in saying that Saddam had never given up /hope/ [italics added]
of building nuclear weapons. From “possession” to “hope” in one easy
spin.
***
THE CLAIM:
In his State of the Union address, Bush claimed Iraq had the capacity to
produce 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 25,000 liters of anthrax and
500 tons of sarin, mustard gas and VX nerve agent. He said Iraq also had
30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical weapons, plus several
mobile biological weapons laboratories and an active nuclear weapons
development program.
THE FACTS:
Despite coalition troops combing the country, and vast reward monies
offered, none of this arsenal has been uncovered.
THE SPIN:
The administration “remains confident” that something substantial will
be found.
Published: Jul 09 2003