*****UPDATE*****

Welcome Spokeman-Review Readers

RBT is very impressed with the Spokeman-Review's local investigative reporting, e.g. the Jim West Story. If you missed PBS' Frontline piece last night on the story that the SR broke, you can view it here.

No matter what your opinion is on the Iraqi war and the GWOT in general, this is a story that has largely been ignored by the Mainstream Media (MSM).

You, the reader/viewer, may have formed conclusions/opinions based on the MSM's less than objective reporting. See this excellent Wall Street Journal article by the noted professor of public policy James Q. Wilson.

I would encourage all to read the work of Ray Robinson, Mark Eichenlaub, and Scott Malensek on the Saddam Regime Documents that were mentioned in last week's NYT lede [Linked to in the posts below]

If you missed Dr. Terry Law and Gen Sada's presentation, here's a MP3 audio file from an earlier church appearance in Oxford, UK. Scroll down for the link. The presenation is similar but lacks comments on recent developments in Iraq and the NYT story.

RBT

*****


RBT's "letter to the editor" submission to the Spokesman- Review on Gen Sada's appearance in Spokane.

*****

Editor – Spokesman Review

Iraqi General Georges Sada's Message to the American People

Iraqi General Sada spoke to a crowd of 1200 in Spokane Thursday. As an Iraqi Christian and a former Vice Air Marshal, he told of his personal experiences with Saddam. He said the Americans did a wonderful thing in liberating the Iraqi people. In time the current sectarian violence will end. It will take time for Iraqis to learn how to live in a democracy. This, Iraqis will have to do on their own.

Gen. Sada is a pilot's pilot having trained in the US, Great Brittan and Russia. He recognized a US Air Force Colonel in the audience who was imprisoned with him during Gulf War I. Saddam put Sada in charge of the captured pilots. Sada refused to execute them as ordered by Saddam's son and was thrown into prison.

According to Sada, Saddam had WMD as late as 2002. Saddam moved them by plane and truck to Syria under the guise of relief aid after a Syrian dam break. The NYT last week confirmed that Saddam possessed advanced nuclear weapons information and perhaps was one year away from having a nuclear bomb - the death knell of the meme Bush Lied – People Died!

[...]

*****

Related Links

Iraqi Gen Sada on Saddam's WMD going to Syria

The Death Knell of the MEME,'Bush Lied - People Died!'

If Todays Press covered the “Battle of the bulge”

Al-Qaida Launches 'Media War' Against U.S.

'Flags of Our Fathers' by Scott Malensek

Iraq and Iwo - First Marine Nominated for Medal of Valor

Al Qaeda's war and US politics - A Must Read!

Another Al Qaeda Victory

Iraqi Gen Sada Interview with KXLY CH 4 - Spokane, WA

IRAQ WMD - Gen Sada audio and video files
- Machiavellian Foreign Policy or a Highstakes Game of Texas Hold'em

RBT sent this backgrounder to the Spokesman Review re Gen Sada's visit to Spokane, WA.

*****

RE: Iraqi General Sada's vist to Spokane Tonight.

Scott Malensek just sent me links to his five part series in the The New Media Journal . This series provides more info on Gen Sada and the shell game that went on with Saddam's WMD at least chem/bio weapons. Follow the now known relationships between the AQ Kahn nuke tech network, Col Kadhafi, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea et al. Hint: Don't keep your stash where the cops will look e.g. the UN and the IAEA!

This was only discovered after Col Kadhafi publicly fell on his sword after Saddam was dragged from his hole by US forces. As I said before, the North Koreans were "shitting brick" because they knew once the US invaded Iraq, these relationships would be discovered in the Saddam Regime docs. All of this was going on under the noses of the UN and the IAEA. The recent NYT lede re the nuke secrets is a hit piece by the IAEA to cover their incompetence.

Ray Robison, Mark Eichenlaub, and Scott Malensek and many other bloggers and researchers are pouring over these Saddam Regime Docs. This is a classic example of what Univ of Tennesse law professor Prof Glenn Reynolds, AKA Instapundit decribes in his recent book, An Army of Davids.

Scott Malensek is also the author of an excellent independent rebuttal to the recent Senate Intel Committee's recent Phase II Report. If you weren't in the know, this was a carefully staged partisan hacked job. Scott takes the Committee's report point by point and rebutts the Co's findings by information form sources the committee failed to include or consider.

This is the investigative direction that an engaged and inquiring media should go when challenging/questioning our government and partisan political leaders instead of relying on "official" governmental releases and disinformation that may be spread by partisian interests no matter what side of the political aisle they're on.

This is the prime responsibility of the American media given it by the American people in the 1st Amendment to hold those who we choose to govern, accountable and responsible. When the media becomes so co-opted by partisian interests as James Q. Wilson so eloquently describes in his recent article in the WSJ, this is truly a diservice to the American people.

Further such a co-opted media becomes a propaganda organ of the enemy in the War of Information in the GWOT. This was clearly documented in the last dust up between the Israelis and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The enemy's ends are accomplished when disinformation is propagated by the media. The goal is to demoralize the folks back home in turn to weaken the political will and support for prosecuting the war agains the enemy.

I do believe we just witnessed this in the midterm elections. War is hell and deadly It must be faught with no holds barred as to do less only increases the over all loss of life. Further if we do not totally and decisively defeat this enemy driven by a Medievil ideology of hate and Evil for which there is no moral equivalence in modern society, are children are destined to fight this war all over again at much greater costs.

Again this is why Iraqi Gen Sada's message is so important for the American people to hear.

Again I have been impressed by the SR's ability to do investigative reporting.

Are you up to this challenge?


*****

In Search of Saddam Hussein's WMD:
Introducing Iraqi General Georges Sada
Part 1 of a 5
http://www.therant.us/guest/pender/04032006.htm

In Search of Saddam Hussein's WMD:
The Russian Connection
Part 2 of a 5
http://www.therant.us/guest/pender/04042006.htm

In Search of Saddam Hussein's WMD:
Russian Intelligence, Belarus & Highway 11
Part 3 of a 5
http://www.therant.us/guest/pender/04052006.htm

In Search of Saddam Hussein's WMD:
Saddam's "Special Weapons"
Part 4 of a 5
http://www.therant.us/guest/pender/04062006.htm

In Search of Saddam Hussein’s WMD:
The Documents Tell the Story
Part 5 of a 5
http://www.therant.us/guest/pender/04072006.htm

*****SCROLL FOR UPDATES*****

RBT has to credit Flopping Aces and Right Wing Nuthouse for having the best posts on the total irony of the NYT's piece on Saddam's nuclear secrets appearing on a government archive site:

The Grey Lady Discovers Saddam Had Nuclear Aspirations

IRONY SO THICK YOU CAN BATHE IN IT

*****

RBT just linked to this brilliant piece by renowned professor of public policy James Q. Wilson that the MSM is in the tank with the enemy in the GWOT

RBT couldn’t agree more with Professor Wilson!

RBT has been busy all weekend working with Ray Robison, Mark Eichenlaub, and Scott Malensek to break a story that the LL and MSM have been ignoring.

This story has been largely ignored by the MSM until the NYT broke with the story on the IAEA hit piece on Saddam nuclear secrets being revealed on the government’s website.

The realization that President Bush did not lie about Saddam is crucial to securing the continued support and will of the American people to win the GWOT.

This is a story that all Americans need to hear.

RBT

*****
The Death Knell of the MEME, Bush Lied - People Died!

I would encourage all to watch Ray Robison’s Blog as this big story unfolds.

Ray Robison, Mark Echenlaub - Regime of Terror, and Scott Malensek have been working on this story for a long time and no one has paid much attention. And of course don’t overlook Iraqi Gen Sada and his message he has been criss-crossing Americia with.

Finally this cesspool is finally is seeing the light of day, ironically, by the LL and the MSM in their delusional state with BDS. This is AQ Kahn's nuclear tech blackmarket network that included Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Pakistan and perhaps the House of Saud. And some would agrue operated with the tacit approval of the Russian and Chinese.

Damn that Rove guy is one hell of a smart dude! The call has been placed in this high stakes game of Rovian Texas Hold’em.

Please remember this nuclear info is not unknown within intel circles. It just boils down to who has the scienitific, engineering, manufacturing, and raw materials to carry this out. The strategic threat to the US continues to remain with Iran, North Korea, to a lesser degree Syria, and other Islamic states.

Do you suppose there is any connection with the impressive US Naval presence in the vacinity of Iran?

The irony is that this was all going on right under the noses of the IAEA until Col. Kadhafi fell on his sword and rolled over on his nuke program.

According to John Loftus [Appeared in FOXNEW - OBSESSION], if you believe him reliable, said the NORKS were “shiting brinks” when it became apparent the the US was going into Iraq. Why? Because they knew their “ass” was “grass” as all of these under the radar collaborations would become apparent in the Saddam Docs.

Glenn Reynold’s, Army of Davids effect, has come to fruition. Folks actually have been working on these docs that are now coming to light. The government did not have the resources or vetted translators to comb through these docs.

I’ve liken this before to the fade out scene in Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Arc. As you may recall the Arc is last seen languishing on some cavernous governmental warehouse shelf.

The death knell of the meme, Bush Lied - People Died! The rope they’ve been running with has finally drawn taught with a snap!

Update:

HT The Belmont Club

As always Wrethchard at The Belmont has this excellent analysis:

The Philosopher's Stone

[...]

Commentary

Posting very sensitive, undoubtedly secret restricted data is treason, isn't it? And very irresponsible. The NYT should know. I'm rather disappointed in the Times for warning me, this late in the game, of the terrible dangers that lurked in Saddam's archives. Recipes for unthinkable weapons that could have been given to just anyone, something Saddam surely wouldn't do unlike the Bush administration which evidently would. They should have warned us sooner, such as during the days when Abu Nidal was in residence in Baghdad, and all those men of good will who are now cutting off the heads of Iraqis by the gross were in charge of those very documents whose shadow menaces the world. But they really didn't exist then, did they? And even if they did they were in safe hands. Because if they did, then taking down Saddam was a responsible thing to do. But they exist now and releasing those newly existing secrets is a terribly irresponsible thing to do. It was the dream of alchemists to turn lead into gold and they failed. The NYT has succeeded.

Maybe President Bush and his cabinet are imperfect people or even bad people. But it doesn't logically follow from that premise that the NYT and all that its ideology represents is good. The terrible possibility exists that Bush may be incompetent and yet the political alternatives worse. People who face amputation from diabetes may not like losing a leg, but often they prefer it to losing their lives. One is bad. The other is worse.

But personally I think the whole debate surrounding Iraq's WMDs is glorified misdirection. America did and does face a threat from terrorist-supporting nations of which Saddam's Iraq was one. Before it was taken down. The AQ Khan network, Iran and North Korea were all part of the threat. That America did not find an actual, ticking nuclear weapon in Iraq doesn't particularly mean anything in an era where design work, production and testing can be divided among anti-American allies. Even refrigerators are made that way today. The gleeful assertion that Saddam didn't "have" WMDs has slowly deligitimized any effort to rid the world of the malignant threat that is growing before its eyes. This campaign has made it politically impossible to act against any nation even if it is in as advanced — oops — as retarded a state of development as was Saddam's Iraq. That the threat did not exist was a lie and the greatest danger of all lies, including this one, is that it comes to be accepted as the truth.

Update II:

HT Flopping Aces

Flopping Aces has this extensive roundup of the Blogosphere on this story.

[...]

UPDATE

The antiwar crowd is going to have to argue that the information somehow wasn’t dangerous in the hands of Saddam Hussein, but was dangerous posted on the Internet.

I just had to put the above sentence from Jim Geraghty up at the top of this post….read further to get the inside scoop:

END UPDATE

I find it funny the lengths the NYT’s will go to in trying to destroy the Bush Presidency, and then shooting themselves in the foot….I mean WHO are they to question the release of sensitive information?

[...]

Read More

HT Austin Bay

Several sites have link to this brilliant piece by renowned professor of public policy James Q. Wilson. RBT has been arguing for a long time that the MSM has been in the tank for the enemy in the GWOT.

RBT

*****

The press – such as it is – at war

[...]

But the war coverage does not reflect merely an interest in conflict. People who oppose the entire war on terror run much of the national press, and they go to great lengths to make waging it difficult. Thus the New York Times ran a front-page story about President Bush’s allowing, without court warrants, electronic monitoring of phone calls between overseas terrorists and people inside the U.S. On the heels of this, the Times reported that the FBI had been conducting a top-secret program to monitor radiation levels around U.S. Muslim sites, including mosques. And then both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times ran stories about America’s effort to monitor foreign banking transactions in order to frustrate terrorist plans. The revelation of this secret effort followed five years after the New York Times urged, in an editorial, that precisely such a program be started.

Virtually every government official consulted on these matters urged that the press not run the stories because they endangered secret and important tasks. They ran them anyway. The media suggested that the National Security Agency surveillance might be illegal, but since we do not know exactly what kind of surveillance is undertaken, we cannot be clear about its legal basis. No one should assume that the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires the president to obtain warrants from the special FISA court before he can monitor foreign intelligence contacts. Though the Supreme Court has never decided this issue, the lower federal courts, almost without exception, have held that “the Executive Branch need not always obtain a warrant for foreign intelligence surveillance.”

Nor is it obvious that FISA defines all of the president’s authority. Two assistant attorneys general have argued that when the president believes that a statute unconstitutionally limits his powers, he has the right not to obey it unless the Supreme Court directs him otherwise. This action would be proper even if the president had signed into law the bill limiting his authority. I know, you are thinking, That is just what the current Justice Department would say. In fact, these opinions were written in the Clinton administration by assistant attorneys general Walter Dellinger and Randolph Moss.

The president may have such power either because it inheres in his position as commander in chief or because Congress passed a law authorizing him to use “all necessary and appropriate force” against nations or people that directed or aided the attack of 9/11. Surveillance without warrants may be just such an “appropriate force.” In any event, presidents before George W. Bush have issued executive orders authorizing searches without warrants, and Jamie Gorelick, once Bill Clinton’s deputy attorney general and later a member of the 9/11 Commission, said that physical searches may be done without a court order in foreign intelligence cases. Such searches might well have prevented new terrorist attacks; if they are blocked in the future, no doubt we will see a demand for a new commission charged with criticizing the president for failing to prevent an attack.

[...]

What has been at issue is whether media politics affects media writing. Certainly, that began to happen noticeably in the Vietnam years. And thereafter, the press could still support an American war waged by a Democratic president. In 1992, for example, newspapers denounced President George H.W. Bush for having ignored the creation of concentration camps in Bosnia, and they later supported President Clinton when he ordered bombing raids there and in Kosovo. When one strike killed some innocent refugees, the New York Times said that it would be a “tragedy” to “slacken the bombardment.” These air attacks violated what passes for international law (under the U.N. Charter, people can only go to war for immediate self-defense or under U.N. authorization). But these supposedly “illegal” air raids did not prevent Times support. Today, by contrast, the Times criticizes our Guantanamo Bay detention camp for being in violation of “international law.”

But in the Vietnam era, an important restraint on sectarian partisanship still operated: the mass media catered to a mass audience and hence had an economic interest in appealing to as broad a public as possible. Today, however, we are in the midst of a fierce competition among media outlets, with newspapers trying, not very successfully, to survive against 24/7 TV and radio news coverage and the Internet. As a consequence of this struggle, radio, magazines, and newspapers are engaged in niche marketing, seeking to mobilize not a broad market but a specialized one, either liberal or conservative.

Economics reinforces this partisan orientation. Prof. James Hamilton has shown that television networks take older viewers for granted but struggle hard to attract high-spending younger ones. Regular viewers tend to be older, male, and conservative, while marginal ones are likely to be younger, female, and liberal. Thus the financial interest that radio and television stations have in attracting these marginal younger listeners and viewers reinforces their ideological interest in catering to a more liberal audience.

Focusing ever more sharply on the mostly bicoastal, mostly liberal elites, and with their more conservative audience lost to Fox News or Rush Limbaugh, mainstream outlets like the New York Times have become more nakedly partisan. And in the Iraq War, they have kept up a drumbeat of negativity that has had a big effect on elite and public opinion alike. Thanks to the power of these media organs, reduced but still enormous, many Americans are coming to see the Iraq War as Vietnam redux.

[...]

Read More