Roger L. Simon

October 26th, 2004 9:14 am

Et tu, CBS…

… but, of course. No surprise there as we learn that Sixty Minutes - that upscale version of the National Enquirer (apologies to the Enquirer) - was planning on joining in the journalistic gang bang surrounding what some are calling Bomb Gate. After Dan Rather stonewalled for weeks on the National Guard forgeries, how can we take these people seriously? Maybe Jacques Derrida isn’t dead. The truth is all relative and malleable to those who want to use it for their own ends, conscious or unconscious. The victim in that is, of course, democracy and those who linked fascism and deconstruction had a valid point.

Meanwhile back at the ranch of the perpetrator of this fantasy, the venerable Gray Lady, it’s Saturday Night Live as the Times trumpets: Iraq Explosives Become Issue in Campaign. How do they do this with a straight face? [Maybe they don't.-ed] Actually, as N. Z. Bear shows us, the Times behaved just like a guilty child, burying the truth deep in its initial article. (I didn’t mean to lie, mommy. Don’t send me to bed without my dinner.) This is precisely what they did in the Swift Vet story, burying the real lead, that Kerry had made a complete fabrication on the floor of the Congress about spending Christmas in Cambodia, beneath a morass of irrelevancy. Captain’s Quarters wrote that the Times owes those brave people who risked their lives defusing thousands of tons of actual explosives an apology. He’s right.

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25 Comments

1. mrp:

“Bomb Gate” - boring

I vote for “al-Qaqaa-gate” - it seems to resonate.

Oct 26, 2004 - 9:54 am 2. someone:

This Qaaqaa stuff is caca.

Oct 26, 2004 - 10:07 am 3. Lola:

This getting really stupid . . . seems to be too many “pass the hot potato” incidents these days. How about a novel concept - actually putting some elbow grease into honest-to-God, good ol’ fashioned pound the pavement, adhering to the “just the facts, ma’am” mode???

Oct 26, 2004 - 10:17 am 4. Frederick:

The name should arise from the significance. A significance greater than falsity or NY Times bias may be the source. Where did this come from? The NY Times should be forced to reveal it. My guess is that the source is foreign, and that this was an attempt by someone at the UN or in an international agency to affect the outcome of a US presidential election.

Oct 26, 2004 - 10:20 am 5. Fausta:

It all connects to the Kerry-Edwards theme of Campaigning from the mirage. Fabulists, unite! will be their rallying cry.

Oct 26, 2004 - 10:20 am 6. Fausta:

Frederick, according to NRO, an unnamed source (ehem) claims it was AlBaradei.

Oct 26, 2004 - 10:24 am 7. someone:

Seriously, though, CBS is looking an awful lot like Wile E. Coyote about now.

Oct 26, 2004 - 10:32 am 8. Mike:

Many of the media heavyweights, ABC, NBC, CNN, the NY Times, WAPO, LA Times, Newsweek, Time, etc, have been shamelessly unethical in their support for Kerry during this election cycle.

But CBS has managed to set itself apart from the rest. Rathergate, and now the 60 Minutes plot (not to mention 60 Minutes’ earlier emphasis on Bush hatchet job segments) reveal an institutional fanaticism unmatched in the MSM.

CBS has become the Democratic Party’s kamikaze unit. The naked partisanship being exposed at CBS is indicative of an organization that has lost its credibility, and doesn’t care, so long as it can kill its opponent before expiring itself.

I sincerely hope Bernard Goldberg is already writing CBS’ obituary as we speak.

Oct 26, 2004 - 10:47 am 9. insatty:

NYT, CBS, Chris Matthews, and Kerry playing team ball. Will any of them apologize for the election-eve smear? Never. Whatever it takes is their motto, and don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story is their creed. Where is Larry O’Donnell screaming “LIE” at these clowns, as he did to O’Neill? These people should be taken down! But being liberal and in the media means never having to say you’re sorry.

Oct 26, 2004 - 10:53 am 10. Swopa:

Wow, in full-scale vengeance mode already! That’s impressive, guys.

And all on the basis of a three-sentence NBC report that one unit (which wasn’t even the first there) didn’t find HMX or RDX.

Do you even know how hard they looked?

AR: Was there a search at all underway or was, did a search ensue for explosives once you got there during that 24-hour period?

LLJ: No. There wasn’t a search. The mission that the brigade had was to get to Baghdad. That was more of a pit stop there for us. And, you know, the searching, I mean certainly some of the soldiers head off on their own, looked through the bunkers just to look at the vast amount of ordnance lying around.

Oct 26, 2004 - 10:59 am 11. LifeTrek:

Just a point about securing Iraq:

I am sick of hearing about how we “protected the Iraqi Oil Ministry but didn’t bother to secure high explosives!”

Just to explain or make this point - As I have said many times before - Could it be that the President and the Army knew more about what our real enemy/objective was in Iraq?

The weapons were not in the ammo dump when the army got there!

But the Documents that prove the UN was corrupt and was actually paid to be our enemy in this endeavor were still in the oil ministry! Got that! Without those we wouldn’t have proof as to why they blocked us - why they stopped our entry through Turkey, which would have freed up our troops to stay behind and guard an empty ammo dump!

We wouldn’t have been able to confront them (which I believe will happen in Bush’s second term) and cause a real alliance against terror!

Folks, our real enemies in this matter are spinning this and Kerry and the Main Stream Media is helping them just so they can take over power. But what kind of power will they have at the end of this? We will be lucky to have the “spitballs” Zell Miller discussed at the RNC!

DKK

Oct 26, 2004 - 11:02 am 12. vegetius:

Wow!!!!! What a scoop for the NYT.

Explosives missing in former military dictatorship.

What next??? Bullets unaccounted for…….

Oct 26, 2004 - 11:13 am 13. Charlie (Colorado):

Swopa, you’re still franticating.

I think the wheels must be coming off, though — you and the other guy, Ralph124c41 or whatever, you’re even just linking to talkingpointsmemeo, not even covering up.

Oct 26, 2004 - 11:32 am 14. ricpic:

I think somebody just stepped in a big pile of Al-Qaqaa (okay, its easy and its childish but its irresistable). :^)

Oct 26, 2004 - 12:02 pm 15. PeterUK:

RDX is widely used by the worlds military, in demolition and mining.Invented in the 1890s by Hans Henning it was used extensively in WWII in combination with other explosives and plasticisers.In itself therefore,not a significant item,and freely available on both the open and black markets.

It is clear from a statement by ElBaredei that the IAEA had no clear idea how much explosive material Iraq had,nor its location.

“Another area of focus has been to determine how certain other ‘dual use’ materials have been relocated or used - that is, materials that could be used in nuclear weapons production but also have other legitimate uses. A good example is the Iraqi declaration concerning the high explosive ‘HMX’ - which states that, out of the HMX under IAEA seals in Iraq at the end of 1998, some had been supplied to cement plants as an industrial explosive for mining. The whereabouts and final use of the removed material are matters that will require further investigation - although it will be difficult to verify the disposition of the HMX that is declared to have been used.

BBC News Tuesday 28 January 2003

IAEAhhhhh indeed!

Oct 26, 2004 - 1:53 pm 16. Assistant Village Idiot:

This is expressly WMD-detonating material, right?

It is enormously destructive in its own right, yes?

Al-Qaqa was one of the UN’s most suspected WMD sites which they examined a dozen times, true?

The Brits had al-Qaqa as a likely WMD site, uh-huh?

Has the NYTimes just unwittingly shown that there were WMD in Iraq after all?

Oct 26, 2004 - 2:28 pm 17. Terrye:

Swopa:

I take it you have no problem with this “revelation” coming out like this right before an election? It would seem to me that if it could wait 18 months it could wait another week or two and isn’t amazing how all these media folks work and play together?

Does this not strike you as odd?

I thought there was no scarey stuff in Iraq.

I thought Saddam and his brave insurgents had every right to have whatever they want and use it to kill who ever they wanted?

What is the deal Swopa? Are you pissed we went or that we did not send more men or that we bothered poor Saddam at all or exactly what?

Oct 26, 2004 - 2:45 pm 18. PeterUK:

RDX In its pure synthesised state it is a white crystalline solid,so if the reporters found it first who knows who’s nose it went up..CBS blown its mind again.

Oct 26, 2004 - 2:54 pm 19. Terrye:

Peter:

That explains it!!

380 tons up Rather’s nose.

BTW I looked in at the Corner and soldiers who were there are talking about how the place was empty of these explosives.

People forget, the soldiers have email now.

Oct 26, 2004 - 2:57 pm 20. PeterUK:

Terrye,

Kerry has and ad concerning this,is he once again traducing the military by calling them liars?

Oct 26, 2004 - 6:12 pm 21. Terrye:

Peter:

Kerry is oblivious to the fact that it is not Bush he is really insulting, it is the military. It is unlikely that Bush said, “Whatever you do let the bad guys loot the nytro”. No, if there was a mistake made, it was made on the ground and as usual Kerry makes sure his ass is covered before he starts telling other people how they fucked up.

The man is an idiot. You would think that if he was going to do an ad he would at least get his facts straight.

I think the fact that none of these explosives have been used tells us they are probably in the same place the fabled VX is.

The UN only managed to further complicate things.

Oct 26, 2004 - 6:38 pm 22. Pierre Legrand:

We have seen thuggery on a scale that I have never seen in the last 30 years of elections. People attacked, ideologies silenced, free speech abridged, Mainstream Media attacking the President as if they belong to the Democratic party, has me wondering will a party that has broken every rule so far stop if they win? How do they stop? Those who have helped them reach the Whitehouse through such tactics wont be mollified by benign neglect if Kerry reaches the Whitehouse.

Does anyone else worry about where they are going? I am not alone in my worries see this article by the first Libertarian Candidate for President. He is worried as well.

Sadly I don’t know enough about the history of Facism to know what the first steps are away from a free society to a fascist state. Seems to me that the world doesn’t have a lot of experience with a society as liberal as our descending to Facism.

Thanks for listening.

Pierre

Oct 26, 2004 - 6:56 pm 23. PeterUK:

Pierre,

You are seeing them now,all the methods being used now,the cheating,the intimidation and coercion we are used by the Nazi Party prior to their election.Those who gain power by such methods rule by those same methods.

Oct 26, 2004 - 7:33 pm 24. Korla Pundit:

CBS and the Times will beat around looking for evidence that they “know” must be there to prove their preconceived conclusions. And if the evidence doesn’t materialize in time for the election, they flat-out fabricate it.

Or they merely accept “leaks” from partisans, and foreign enemies trying to influence the election, without giving a crap about their motivation or authenticity.

Similar to how they handled this story from way back when.

Oct 26, 2004 - 9:06 pm 25. Knucklehead:

Pierre,

The methods are to use the system to weaken the system to the point where it can be pushed aside and ignored. The process was started many years ago with the push to fight every legislative and electoral setback in court to take advantage of judicial usurpation.

The results have progressed to the point where the left feels safe enough to begin using the initial phases of strong arm tactics (primarily intimidation and property destruction) along with accelerating “legal” challenges. If they are not effectively countered they will, at some point relatively soon, forego the expensive and time consuming “legalisms” and move to ever more aggressive strong arming.

Once upon a time the Democratic Party used these methods to establish and maintain Jim Crow in the south and to establish and maintain the urban ghettos. The Jim Crow south evaporated on them and they have replaced it by capturing the social and economic mechanisms used by the snerds (the sneering elite who see themselves as the nation’s “meritocracy” and “intelligencia”).

Both the ghettos and the power centers of the snerds, however, require hi-density, urban or near-urban settings to thrive - at least this stage of their development. The suburbification and the rise of “exurbs”, however, are placing demographic pressure on the ability of the leftists to keep pressing the advantages they once held. It seemed like victory was within their grasp but now?

The great-center of the country is not moving “right”. What’s happened is that we’ve dug our heels in and decided we’ve moved far enough - probably too far - left. The left can’t stand this and is, as Roger so aptly points out, becoming reactionary as they see victory slipping from their grasp.

We need to keep hammering the Leftists in elections and fighting them when they try to subvert elections.

Oct 27, 2004 - 1:14 pm

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Roger L Simon

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