CNN.com Plays Up Silly WMD Quote as Lead Story
For a while today, CNN.com's lead story was about a quote by a republican congressman named Porter Goss that suggests WMD may still be found. However, the way in which it was presented, with a headline that said "Congressman: Iraqi WMD details 'years away'", a photo from Iraq, and just the quote on the front page, just might lead one to believe that there was any actual reason to expect any WMD to be found in the next few years. A further reading of the article does at least pan out to reveal the facts that contradict this suggestion. Readers on this topic will note that a few weeks ago David Kay (lead of the WMD search team) told congress that there wasn't any sign of WMD's. A Washington Post interview with the top Iraqi weapons scientist uncovered their complex "WMD programs" (as Bush so carefully put it in the State of the Union last night)--in the form of scribbles on notepads of possible missiles they had no way to build. These scribbles looked more like kid drawings than scientific weapons plans. It seems well understood by all involved (including whomever chose to greatly reduce the searchteam size) that there never were any WMD and that Iraq had no capacity to change that.
Posted on January 21, 2004 05:32 PM