Monday, November 01, 2004
Remember when ...
Cybercast News Service's exclusive story exploded on the web? Yes, that paragon of cutting edge reporting, formerly known as Conservative News Service, documented how Saddam Hussein was in cahoots with many terrorist organizations and that he obtained WMD-level poison gases. Bill Hobbs breathlessly described this momentous event as a "bombshell."
Iraqi intelligence documents, confiscated by U.S. forces and obtained by CNSNews.com, show numerous efforts by Saddam Hussein's regime to work with some of the world's most notorious terror organizations, including al Qaeda, to target Americans. They demonstrate that Saddam's government possessed mustard gas and anthrax, both considered weapons of mass destruction, in the summer of 2000, during the period in which United Nations weapons inspectors were not present in Iraq. And the papers show that Iraq trained dozens of terrorists inside its borders.
... A senior government official who is not a political appointee provided CNSNews.com with copies of the 42 pages of Iraqi Intelligence Service documents. The originals, some of which were hand-written and others typed, are in Arabic. CNSNews.com had the papers translated into English by two individuals separately and independent of each other.
Despite this air of veracity and unbiased writing, the article is supported by the opinion of Laurie Mylroie, whose reputation for accuracy in writing is at the same level and Anne Coulter. Nor does it cite a date or location of this "discovery." This article was thoroughly dismantled, examined, and debunked by Warblogger. The Bush Administration was unaware of this important development.
So what's happened since then? No confirmation from government sources. The only follow-up at CNS has been a background piece as to how the article was developed, the publication of all documents obtained from the intelligence sources, a comparison of their allegations against the Duelfer Report, and an article on how anti-war organizations didn't believe the content of the article. Otherwise, there's been no confirmation.
In my opinion, CNS has not established itself as a source of accurate reporting.
