April 11, 2003
... freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes ...
April 24, 2003
... if you are suggesting how would we feel about an Iranian type government, with a few clerics running everything in the country. The answer is, that ain't gonna happen ...
I don't know that much about Miller, but I wonder if the strain of being embedded full-time halfway around the world has made her crack. It's a lot different from most reporters' experience of phone calls and quick interviews.
I also wonder how much feedback she's getting outside of her editors (whose judgement is another issue altogether).
My own theory is that the military has decided to resume it's LSD experiments.
Posted by: Sven on April 25, 2003 01:31 PMdack, none of your washington post links work on my computer
Posted by: bob on April 25, 2003 02:57 PMJudith Miller's comment that she saw the "scientist" from a distance and saw him point to the sand reminded of the scene in "Notting Hill" when the book store employee recounted his brush with greatness when he saw Ringo Starr at a distance, but then again it might have been Topol from "Fiddler on the Roof". Or, maybe, it was nobody famous after all.
Posted by: Larry Wilmott on April 25, 2003 03:29 PMBob: What happens with the WaPo links?
Larry: That's some funny stuff. I had successfully avoided "Notting Hill," and planned on continuing to not see it after enduring "About a Boy," but perhaps now it's worth a rental.
Posted by: dack on April 25, 2003 03:43 PMLarry: That's some funny stuff. I had successfully avoided "Notting Hill," and planned on continuing to not see it after enduring "About a Boy," but perhaps now it's worth a rental.
Lars: It's definitely not worth a rental.
Posted by: on April 25, 2003 04:15 PMAnother question I have is: Why would the "scientist" request anonimity for fear of reprisal? Reprisal from whom? The toppled government? This is a serious question if Bush is quoting him as an intelligence source. His explanations of the last-minute destruction and exportation (not to mention the Baath-al Qaida connection) reek of US-apologism.
Also-If Iraq was moving TONS of WMDs across the border to Syria during the "ultimatum" period, wouldn't US sattelite and recon intelligence notice this huge exodus?
The only reasonable statement in the article is that attributed to Bush. The WMD are already destroyed. Actually they were destroyed before this second gulf war started but that was a minor detail to the coalition forces.
The important fact is people remember and give credence to front page news whether accurate or inaccurate.
Judith Miller chose to write a preposterous article for reasons only she knows. Her willingness to risk her journalistic credibility is yet another casualty of the Iraqi invasion. However, another embedded news report has been planted which governmental spokespersons and the mainstream media will attempt to build upon to establish evidence in support of their agendas. Those who embrace a spirit of skepticism will be aware of the discrepancies and absurdities of Ms. Miller’s report; and these are the genuine Americans who must acknowledge the grave reality that their expressions of dissent are repudiated and ridiculed while simultaneously being labeled as unpatriotic.
When I click on the link my browser acts like it's about to load (transferring data from ...) but then it never loads. I can go to he WaPo website directly. I use Mozilla if that helps figure it out.
Posted by: Bob on April 26, 2003 03:49 PMYour browser woes are clearly the current administration's attempts to sabotage this island of dissent and free speech!
Just kiddin'... The general public at large has been long primed to recieve the sort of sober analysis offered here as something coming from a remote Montana cabin. There is no reason to censor the dissidents -- most people in the US are so assured of their rightenousness that they simply laugh in the face of rational thought...
Posted by: KS on April 26, 2003 04:19 PMJudy, Judy, Judy -- Sad you can't tell the diff between an Iraqi scientist and Elvis.
-- 'from a Montana bungalow'
Posted by: K. Leighton on April 27, 2003 11:20 AMMaybe Judith noticed that her credibility was going to hell. She has now found a real scientist with an acutal name for her latest. Too bad he only knew about WMD destroyed in the early 90s.
Rummy quotes:
Q:Can you confirm that finding [which Miller reported]?
Rummy: No
[odd, since the military edited (ie rewrote) her "silver bullet" piece]
Rummy: people are now beginning to explore sites ... we've embedded reporters milling around those places. You'll be told if we do find something. So, in good time. In good time.
maybe "in good time" he will claim the Miller scientist if it is not exposed as a fake. Or maybe "in good time" they will bribe an actual scientist to tell a similar story.
--quotes from 4.21 dod transcript
"The important fact is people remember and give credence to front page news whether accurate or inaccurate."
Marielle hit the nail on the head. This is absolutely how it works.
I know, for the last two years I've been working as a reporter for a small town daily newspaper and I have to go out and ask our average citizens for their thoughts on the war in Iraq and a great number of them cite front page news stories that I know to be inaccurate (and later corrected on, say, page 16) to explain why they support the "liberation" of the Iraqi people. Just as polls show, many of them also cite Sept. 11 when "they attacked us" as a rational for the invasion. Many also say Bush "did everything he could" to prevent war and that - and I heard this from several people on the night of the invasion - that "it was about time" we invaded. Many of these quotes sounded as if they could have come directly from Bush himself, and I believe that, in fact, many of them did.
When anyone in the Bush administration says anything, no matter how unsubstantiated, it often ends up as a headline in the NY Times, Washington Post, etc. The ENTIRE story is often framed around quotes from the administration, and often the headlines of these stories paraphrase or directly repeat the quotes.
It doesn't matter if there is any truth to the assertions they make, because they are not treated by the press as assertions, but as statements of truth. The idea of even questioning whether they might be true - or quoting someone else who might raise such a question - never rears its ugly head in these stories.
As a result, when you go out on the street and ask people who support the war, why the support the war, their arguments often sound exactly like the quotes you read from administration officials.
It is a little odd that, in this case, a "reporter" like Miller is essentially quoting herself in a story, but the idea that there isn't any attempt at providing objective facts to go along with the story should not be surprising.
And if her story turns out to be nothing it won't matter in the slightest. The headlines will continue to resonate and will no doubt be quoted back to me at some future point: "Hussein destroyed his weapons before the war began," etc etc.
Follow the money, er, ahem (sotto voce) follow the money...
Posted by: banningIII on April 28, 2003 06:43 AMthe only war that you are wrong about was ww2 when Adolf declared war on theUSA.Did we have a choice. I serves in it for 5years from Jan 1941 till 1945. Should waited for Adolf to have come here? Some people would have welcomed him here. Hope you were not one of them.I hope
Posted by: berniex on May 27, 2003 07:48 PMYou people are being awful to that girl!
She may well have been born-again! hellayloolya! and completely incapable of telling a lie! I don't know where you people come-off not believing the President and our patriotic media companies in a time of crisis after Saddam bombed the WTC and spread Anthrax through the post, all designed by radicals from the West Bank!
A day will come where dear Mr Cheney and Mr Ashcroft will ban you commie types from even being Muslims and the Load will set you on a path of entitlement!
I think the Americans are not going deep in the sycological behavior of the Iraqis, they are very much misslead by using force against the Iraqi people. you can get what you want by gentlness attitude, cooparation with ethics solute them and ask them as man to man with respect you will get the goal. Using the force they will oppose it and will be ready to die. you have to treat them before youare using your evilness.
Posted by: muthir albaker on May 31, 2003 11:36 PM