[lit-ideas] On who lied about WMDs?
- From: "Lawrence Helm"<lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:26:21 +0000
The only complaint I have thus far against Norman Podhoretz is that in his book
World War IV, The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, he doesn't provide
footnotes. For example, in his chapter, on page 158, "The Radicalization of
the Democrats," he has the following"
"Even more telling would be the belated admission by Senator John Edwards, who
as John Kerry's running mate in 2004 had silently acquiesced in the excuse that
Bush's lies about weapons of mass destruction had misled him and others, that
the lie was on the other foot:
'I was convinced that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons and was doing
everything in his power to get nuclear weapons. . . . I didn't rely on George
Bush for that. And I personally think there's some dishonesty in suggesting
that members of the United States Senate relied on George Bush for that
information, because I don't think it's true. It's great politics. But it's
not the truth. . . . I've just heard people way, "Well, you know, George Bush
. . . misled us." . . . I was there, it's not what happened. . . . I was on
the Intelligence Committee, so I got direct information from the intelligence
community. And then I had a series of meetings with former Clinton
administration people. And they were all saying the same thing. Everything I
was hearing in the Intelligence Committee was the same thing I was hearing from
these guys. And there was nary a dissenting voice.'"
I sought the source for this quote and found:
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=GAILEY-01-15-07 in
which the following words appear: "In an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg in
the latest issue of The New Yorker, Edwards said: "I was convinced that Saddam
had chemical and biological weapons and was doing everything in his power to
get nuclear weapons. There was some disparity in the information I had about
how far along he was in that process. I didn't rely on George Bush for that.
And I personally think there's some dishonesty in suggesting that members of
the United States Senate relied on George Bush for that information, because I
don't think it's true. It's great politics. But it's not the truth."
Edwards refused to single out anyone, but Goldberg wrote that he appeared to be
referring to John Kerry, who chose Edwards as his 2004 presidential running
mate. Like Nelson, Kerry claims he was misled and "given evidence that was not
true."
"I was on the intelligence committee," Edwards went on, "so I got direct
information from the intelligence community. And then I had a series of
meetings with former Clinton administration people. And they were all saying
the same thing. Everything I was hearing in the intelligence committee was the
same thing I was hearing from these guys. And there was nary a dissenting
voice."
I subsequently found Jeffrey Goldberg's article:
http://www.jeffreygoldberg.net/articles/tny/letter_from_washington_the_sta.php
It is interesting. I was struck especially by how closely Hillary Clinton's
position seemed to the Neocons on the exportation of Democracy.
Lawrence
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