From Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker, we hear the news that the “Saddam Tapes” which were scheduled to be unveiled at the Intelligence Summit this weekend will instead air tonight on ABC’s Nightline.
The tapes, which have been verified by the House Intelligence Committee, are said to contain conversations between Sadaam and his top aides well into the year 2000 talking about hiding WMD, attacking Washington, and other topics of interest. Drudge just broke the story and we have this that just popped up on the CNS News Service website:
(CNSNews.com) – Secret audiotapes of Saddam Hussein discussing ways to attack America with weapons of mass destruction will be the subject of an ABC “Nightline” program Wednesday night, a former federal prosecutor told Cybercast News Service.The tapes are being called the “smoking gun” of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. The New York Sun reported that the tapes have been authenticated and currently are being reviewed by the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The panel’s chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), declined to give the Sun details of the content or context of the recordings, saying only that they were provided to his committee by former federal prosecutor John Loftus.
Loftus has been tight-lipped about the tapes, telling the Sun only that he received them from a “former American military intelligence analyst.” However, on Wednesday he told Cybercast News Service, “Saddam’s tapes confirm he had active CW [chemical weapons] and BW [biological weapons] programs that were hidden from the UN.”
First of all, a word of caution is in order.
The Duelfer report made clear that interviews with dozens of Saddam loyalists revealed that his top aides routinely lied to the dictator about having WMD. However, this could be a cover story by the aides who could have worked one up prior to the invasion. Or, it could be the truth. It could very well be that Saddam was talking about WMD he didn’t have.
That said, the program should give us a fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of the most brutal dictators in history.
Another aspect of this story that should give us pause is that the tapes come to us via a man named John Loftus. Loftus is known as something of a gadfly in intelligence circles and his book about the Nazi connection to the Vatican and American intelligence has been criticized for sloppy research. That said, Loftus really has nothing to gain from trying to perpetrate a fraud and the House Intelligence Committee felt them important enough to verify and examine.
Will the tapes change any minds? Not very likely. They may cause a flurry of “I told you so’s” on the right and “it doesn’t matter’s” on the left. But beyond that, the MSM could be sitting on a 155mm binary nerve gas shell and still insist it needed more proof of Iraq WMD.
UPDATE
Hah!
Lori Byrd beats the rush so to speak and issues a statement proclaiming her belief that there were WMD in Iraq all along. She’s got the links to prove it, too!
UPDATE II
Mr. Lifson is on a roll today:
Slowly, very slowly, we are beginning to discover what happened to the WMDs of Saddam. The left and the antique media have made it an article of faith that there never were any WMDs, and that “Bush lied.†So deep is their investment in a political position premised on this conclusion that they will pay no attention to contrary evidence.Via Peter Glover’s website Wires from the bunker, we learn of an interview between Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti, a southern regional commander for Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen militia in the late 1980s and a personal friend of the dictator and Ryan Mauro of Worldthreats.com.
Only two weeks ago, General Sada, formerly Sadaam’s no 2 Air Force Commander, told the New York Sun that Sadaam’s WMD was moved to Syria just six weeks before the US-led invasion. Now Ali Ibrahim confirms this and explains the underlying strategy of Saddam.
Read the whole thing for a pretty plausible explanation. The important thing is, Mr. Ibrahim confirms what Mr. Sada said 3 weeks ago about WMD being flown out of the country to Syria.
So what does all this mean?
As I said in the post, this is not likely to change many minds about whether or not the Iraq war was worth it. And failing Syria coming out and admitting that Saddam shipped his WMD’s prior to the invasion to Damascus, it’s not likely that the “WMD to Syria” story will get much play in the MSM.
In the end, the more evidence that emerges that Bush wasn’t lying about WMD, the more the media and the Democrats will play down the story. A sad commentary on the times.
UPDATE III
Goldstein weighs in with his usual perspicacity:
What will be most interesting to watch is the amount of the coverage this receives. I suspect the next stage of legacy media denial will come in the form of, “because ‘intel agencies’ and other unnamed sources have expressed no clear consensus about what these tapes signify, we are simply being circumspect about our reporting.â€
Of course, had somebody suspected Dick Cheney of keeping a flask of whiskey in his hunting vest, that would be a different story entirely…*
Yep.
And Jeff also has a blurb from the Newsweek Disaster Tag Team of Isikoff and Hosenball who inform us that 1) this is old news. 2) it’s not really important. 3) intelligence professionals aren’t impressed.
I find that last assertion laughable. There is no group in the United States of America with more of a vested, vital interest in our not being able to find any Iraq WMD’s than our so-called intelligence professionals.
Entire careers are at stake here. To believe anything about Iraq WMD’s coming from that crew is loony.
UPDATE IV
I just heard excerpts of the tapes. Nothing conclusive. Nothing earth shattering. Saddam was a thug who wanted WMD. We knew that. Did he have any at the time we invaded? Yes. Massive stockpiles? Probably not. Enough that he would have moved them to Syria? Unknown.
Does it matter anymore in a political sense? Not to me. Taking out Saddam was the logical next step in the War on Terror.
Representative Hoekstra of the House Intelligence Committee reminds us there are still nearly two million pages of documents from this thug’s regime. If history is any experience, it’s best we get to reading that stuff.
The West German Goverment requested we return all the documents that fell into our hands at the end of World War II in 1953. How long before the new Iraq government does the same?
2:34 pm
WMD UPDATE: ABC’S NIGHTLINE WILL AIR TAPES OF SADDAM TALKING ABOUT HITTING DC WITH WMDS
SCROLL FOR UPDATES… h/t Drudge Report CNS News is reporting (via Crosswalk.com) that organizers of an Intelligence Summit have 12 hours of Saddam tapes that may just be the “smoking gun”. Apparently ABC’s plans to devote tonights Nightline to thes…
2:45 pm
Saddam Speaks on Nightline
Somehow I doubt it. Saddam talking about attacking America? Gee that would be too much like he had and got rid of WMD before the war, after getting a tip from Syria that we were coming – another fact the MSM glossed over/ OK, ignored.
2:50 pm
[...] Rightwinged.com / Suitably Flip / Republican Pride / Rightwing Nuthouse / protein wisdom / Garfield Ridge RightWinged.com linked with WMD UPDATE: ABC’S NIGHTLINE WILL AIR TAPES OF SADDAM TALKING ABOUT HITTING DC WITH WMDS
... 2 Responses to “The Gun is Still Smoking” [...]
2:55 pm
Tonight: Iraq’s WMD “Smoking Gun”
The way this administration systematically withholds and manipulates information is deeply troubling. It dates all the way back to the lies they told us to trick us into going to war to depose a regime which we know never had any weapons… of… um…..
3:06 pm
This couple with recent other admissions by top Saddam military officials should make it ‘case closed’ right?
3:08 pm
“Gee that would be too much like he had and got rid of WMD before the war, after getting a tip from Syria that we were coming – another fact the MSM glossed over/ OK, ignored.”
AMEN!
3:35 pm
I agree with you, Rick. The one entity I would avoid in determining the truth of these claims is our own Intelligence community. But maybe there may be some leverage in this story from other Intelligence sources, such as the British. I would be very interested in their take on this.
6:34 pm
Loftus is also the guy who claims to have unearthed the supposed “Bush-Nazi” connection, so it seems unlikely that he’s carrying water for the administration. This does indicate that the story should be approached with some caution.
7:27 pm
Cautious yes, believeable yes… I have no doubt that Saddam had inspirations to execute 9/11, just the lace of recources. Whether he helped instigate the process, who knows, but I certaintly would not put it to rest without some proof.
There is little doubt in my mind that if we had not taken him out, he would have eventually been responsible for such an attack.
To assume that our MSM would have ever assumed that is folly.
8:42 pm
Eventually the truth comes out. Wonder how the dim-wits now see their chances in 06-08, I’d think not too good when the American people finally figure out the ‘liars’ in this whole mess has been the dim-wits, and they were/are doing it strickly to con the people and try to win a few seats in congress. They could care less if millions of Americans are killed in the streets as long as they’re in office.
If I wasn’t smart enough to know I really couldn’t hit him and i’d have to pay the price for a new TV i’d have shot the nutty news crow Kalb several times tonight.
Maybe the time will come when we can do like the nutty Islamic and kill everyone we don’t like. The dim-wits wouldn’t last long.
Just remember what you see on Always Broadcasting Crap (ABC) will still be a half truth or less. No way they’re capable of reporting the whole truth at any time. Maybe enough will have to be released to read between the lines…
All of the media types have proven to be real idiots this week, they don’t know the difference in a 28Ga Shotgun and a 50 Cal. machine gun nor the difference between bird shot and 00 Buck shot. Privacy is their number one thing until it comes to a Republican Lawyer that gets shot, then the hell with privacy we want to flood his hospital room (even ICU) with camera’s and idiots. Need proof, just watch the clowns at the white house press briefings. Na, they would even flunk out of clown college.
11:32 pm
My thoughts exactly. I believe he had wmds and hid them or moved them, but it would be a disaster to overplay the significance of Sada or the tapes, because if they are debunked when better evidence surfaces, it will not be believed. Sada BTW left Iraq in 1991. I’d be very careful.
2:34 pm
How To Kill A Mockingbird
In absolute desperation and in a brave attempt to calm down the Arab street, the Australian SBS network delivers the diplomatic peace offering for the Muhammad cartoons. The scene is set the timing is perfect…”More cucumber sandwiches?” President P…
4:38 pm
Saddam warned us he would use Terror…thats old news to those of you who read my blog!
Should I say told you so? All of a sudden people are trumpeting the fact that Saddam threatened us with terrorist strikes years ago. Heck if you have read this blog you know that I told y’all about that 2 years ago in this post. Why would Saddam ......
11:32 am
[...] Rick Moran was skeptical pretty much from the start, and what we know of the tapes shows that his caution was well-founded; while there is interesting talk between Saddam and his aides, there is no smoking gun. More to the point, though, is the role played in all this by John Loftus, who has a bit of a reputation as a flake who is guilty of sloppiness at best and deliberate dishonest at worst. [...]
6:35 pm
But when were these tapes discovered? After the war in 2003?
9:26 pm
What a joke!
All I want to know is, howcome these tapes and documents are coming out NOW that Bush has a dismal approval rate?
Where’s Bin Laden? (I remember Bush saying he doesn’t spend much time on him anymore, but I digress)
Why did we let two Russian choppers airlift Bin Laden out of Tora Bora when we had him cornered?
Why did most of those special forces soldiers that were involved in the battle of Tora Bora and were not given a GO command from their superior when they did have Bin Laden in front of their eyes, went back home and either committed suicide or killed their spouses and then killed themselves mysteriously?
Why does this President make 9/11 look like it was something good that happened for him and he uses it even to get permission to go to the bathroom from Laura?
Why are others blamed for what happened to our country on 9/11, instead of blaming the people in office? I bet if Clinton was the president on 9/11, everyone would be asking for his head.
Did Saddam try to open up and OIL BOURSE (trade oil in Iraqi stock market and in Euros, instead of it being traded in NYSE AND IN DOLLARS
)????
Is Iran going to open up ITS OIL BOURSE (same as Saddam, do you see the same situation repeating here) by the end of March and we’re concerned with their WMD that they won’t be able to make for another 5-10 years?
These are the questions you should ask you blind sheep. I can never figure out how and when did the greatest and the smartest people in the world (PEOPLE OF THE USA) BECOME SO DUMB AND BLIND
Now, go back to fantasy land again and talk about wether Saddam had WMD and shipped it out to Syria or not
1:12 am
EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD READ THIS
!
http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2004/08/coincidence-theorists-guide-to-911.html
1:57 am
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