[lit-ideas] Bird Flu, SCOTUS, Covers LIbby

  • From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:15:15 -0500

Huffington mentions bird flu hooplah as part of the administration's strategic misdirection. -EY

extract of:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/chris-matthews-and-the-po_b_10039.html

Sunday Sept. 8, 2002 was a red letter day in the White House Iraq Group’s efforts to market the war. That was the day the administration’s war salesmen scored one of their biggest propaganda coups.

That morning, the New York Times ran a front page story co-written by Judy Miller about how Saddam was trying to get a hold of aluminum tubes to be used in building nuclear weapons.
Perfectly timed to coincide with this planted (and bogus) info, the administration blanketed the Sunday shows with its big guns -- who all used the New York Times’ credibility to bolster their case against Saddam and scare the American people.


Dick Cheney did Meet the Press, citing the Times story as evidence that Saddam was “actively and aggressively seeking to acquire nuclear weapons”. Condi Rice went on Wolf Blitzer and warned that the "smoking gun” in Iraq could turn out to be “a mushroom cloud”. Colin Powell on Fox News Sunday, Don Rumsfeld on Face the Nation, and Richard Meyers on This Week all made similar points, raising the specter of a nuked up Saddam. A month later, the House and Senate hastily authorized the administration to go to war.

Of course, the Plamegate investigation has revealed the political alchemy of turning crap into gold via a deadly game of neocon telephone tag. Cheney to Libby to Chalabi to Miller back to Libby for confirmation by “a senior administration official” (or is it “former Hill staffer”?)… then right to the front pages of the Times, which Cheney and Rice and Powell and Meyers and Rummy can wave around as “proof”.

<snip>

Over the last two weeks, Hardball’s Chris Matthews has been relentless in repeatedly bringing the significance of Sept. 8, 2002 -- and its larger implications -- home to his audience.

It’s been crusading journalism at its best. Making a crucial point by repeating the story -- and the facts -- again and again and again.

The GOP message machine would have us believe that the Libby indictment has nothing to do with the selling of the war -- and that the American people aren’t really interested in re-examining the run-up to the war. “The American people,” Ken Mehlman told Matthews last night in response to Harry Reid’s efforts, “want their leaders to respond to this war on terror with seriousness, not political stunts.” You mean like announcing the new Supreme Court nominee the Monday after the VP’s chief of staff is indicted, Ken? Or heralding a $7 billion plan to battle bird flu the day after that?

<snip>

So there was Matthews last night, laying it out for his viewers:

MATTHEWS: One of the things we learned in this long investigation regarding the CIA leak was the way in which the Vice President’s office, Scooter Libby, in particular, was able to use the press. He leaked to the New York Times the story that there were aluminum tubes; there was, in fact, a case for a nuclear weapons program by Saddam Hussein.

And then the three major figures in the administration, the Vice President, Secretaries of State and Defense, went on Sunday television, all pointed to that story that had been planted there by Scooter Libby.

------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts:

  • » [lit-ideas] Bird Flu, SCOTUS, Covers LIbby