Irony, by Power Line

Power Line, as we all know, is a wingnut blog which found fame by covering the Rathergate "story." Yesterday, they pointed to a different story which is supposed to be proof that Saddam had WMDs and connections to global terrorist networks.

Wow, that's damning. But if a media watch dog like Power Line is pumping the story, then it must be accurate!

Let's take a look at the article Power Line is endorsing, "Exclusive: Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties," from the conservative CNSnews.com.

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.

Some of you may be wondering, "Why would anybody give CNSnews.com the exclusive story?" Others may ask an equally valid question: "Who the FUCK is CNSnews.com?" They aren't by any means popular when compared to other bastions of the right wing media, like World Net Daily, Newsmax, and Drudge Report. So if a "senior government official" aims to get the media to cover this story, why give it to a news organzation that nobody gives a shit about? Why didn't the three I mentioned get these documents? Hell, why didn't Foxnews get these documents?

There's a third question, of course: "Why isn't the Bush administration using this information?" Well, let's ask CNSnews.com.

Bush administration likely unaware of documents' existence

The senior government official and source of the Iraqi intelligence memos, explained that the reason the documents have not been made public before now is that the government has "thousands and thousands of documents waiting to be translated.

"It is unlikely they even know this exists," the source added.

Okay, run that by me again? A senior government official holds documents which prove that Saddam had WMDs and ties to global terrorist organizations, but somehow this senior government official can't get the Bush Administration to notice them? Uhm, what? Are we actually supposed to believe this bullshit?

As for the documents themselves, how can we verify that they are authentic? I mean, that's what blogs like Power Line are hell bent about, right? Well, here's the answer from CNSnews.com.

To protect against the Iraqi intelligence documents being altered or misrepresented elsewhere on the Internet, CNSNews.com has decided to publish only the first of the 42 pages in Arabic, along with the English translation. Portions of some of the other memos in translated form are also being published to accompany this report. Credentialed journalists and counter-terrorism experts seeking to view the 42 pages of Arabic documents or to challenge their authenticity may make arrangements to do so at CNSNews.com headquarters in Alexandria, Va.

So the public can't look at the documents? Shouldn't that make blogs like Power Line go into total shitfit mode, especially after how much they bitched about Rathergate? Yet, Power Line, and the rest of the wingnuts, are silent. Fucking hypocrites.

So we have supposedly authentic documents that supposedly came from a "senior government official" who supposedly couldn't get the attention of the Bush administration, even though he's a "senior" government official. So what's the next step? Leak the documents to a news organization with less reach than Foxnews, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and Drudge Report! That will get the attention of everyone in the country!

Christ. I guess CNSnews.com and Power Line should get some credit here; while there are still no WMDs, they did find a biohazard. Of course, it was in the form of a steaming load of shit, but hey, who's paying attention to those pesky details?