The Gateway Pundit:
McClatchy Newspapers Report: “There Is No Al-Qaeda in Iraq”
UNBELIEVABLE!
Just when you thought that the mainstream media had hit rock bottom…
McClatchy Newspapers reported today that there is no Al-Qaeda in Iraq…And… That when George Bush “tried” to tie Al-Qaeda to terror attacks in Iraq as he did in July 2007, he was being dishonest!
What the McClatchey Newspapers actually reported:
An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein’s regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden’s al Qaida terrorist network.
The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam’s regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.
Why does the Pentagon hate America?
It takes a special kind of stupid to conflate pre-war Saddam/Al qaeda ties with the current presence of post-war Al Qaeda, just like it takes a special kind of stupid to confuse an AP report with an AP report about a Pentagon Study.
The Gateway Pundit is that special kind of stupid.
serge
It truly burns……….!!!
The Moar You Know
John:
I appreciate that you read these morons so that I don’t have to; but I must admit, I feel really bad about your making such a sacrifice on my behalf. No one should have to be exposed to this level of stupid.
cleek
i always read it as “GetAway, Pundit”
Zifnab
Everyone’s favorite game! “ARE THEY LYING OR JUST THAT DUMB???”
I’m going to go with “Lying” on this one. Gateway knows what the article said. They aren’t deluded in the least. However, they also know that their audience functions on the Rush Limbaugh Listener reader level and that they are all too lazy to read the actual article for themselves. Ergo, when McClatchey reports “Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam and al Qaida”, it’s just a matter of cutting out a few words to get “Exhaustive review finds no [sic] al Qaida” and work your reader base into a hissy fit of outrage.
Dennis - SGMM
Gateway Pudyank
Tom Shipley
You might want to ease up. This is starting to feel like picking on retarded people.
TheFountainHead
In this case, the reality has a well known media/liberal bias.
scarshapedstar
Bonus points awarded to me for sleuthing out the typo in the original title. Look closely at the URL:
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/03/mcclatchy-newspapers-report-their-is-no.html
Busted.
scarshapedstar
Well, that didn’t parse right.
RSA
There’s also the stupidity of putting quotation marks around a phrase and attributing it to a source, when it’s nowhere to be found in the linked article.
Gateway Pundit Confession: “I am a total dumbass.”
Birdzilla
Another libeal left-wing rag thats not worth reading not worth lining a birds cage with and not worth wrapping a dead fish in
AnnPW
There’s stupid, and there’s dishonest. Then there’s that special combination of the two that is unique to today’s rightwing leadership.
Jake
At least we know Gatewank Punkdick wasn’t tainted by an early education program. Or even a late education program.
Reeding komprehenshon is for Islahomobamafascists!
IanY77
I left this comment:
An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein’s regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden’s al Qaida terrorist network.
Notice the past tense. McClatchey isn’t saying that they’re not there now, just that they weren’t there before the war.
The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam’s regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.
So let’s hear all the armchair QB’s tell us how the Pentagon is a teeming hive of unrepentant liberalism that’s trying to undermine the president
Anyone taking bets on how long before it’s deleted?
caustics
I’m beginning to feel Tom Shipley’s and Birdzilla’s concern.
We should just drop this and move on.
chopper
i guess this all depends on what the definition of “was” is.
Dave S.
Actually it only takes a certain kind of hackery to generate and disseminate this kind of stuff. Self-awareness/self-delusion levels may vary and enthusiasm for the task may be proportionate to the predisposition to believe what you’re writing, but it’s pretty easy to find something if you know what you’re looking for.
Xenos
Nothing special about what it is: systematic dishonesty in furtherance of an anti-constitutional political program. In plain language – treasonous lying bastards.
For those less deranged by all this than myself, consider it a matter of criminal apologetics.
dearleader nyc
As always when dealing with these sub-mental cretins, the real fun begins in the comments section:
Hey buddy, if you hate America you can always leave…
JR
Oh, snap! I think he deleted it. Check out his main page.
JR
Doh. Nevermind. I’m blind.
TenguPhule
A: Because Democrats might actually ask them whether or not all that money for those big shiny new war toys is being spent wisely.
Jake
Oops, someone let Birdzilla out of her cage again.
dmbeaster
I’ll match your stupid and raise you a moron — this is the “Update” posted by Gateway Pundit in reference to John’s post.
UPDATE: Apparently, there are still those [links to this post] who believe that Al-Qaeda is not operating in Iraq- Nuts.
Dantheman
“It takes a special kind of stupid to conflate pre-war Saddam/Al qaeda ties with the current presence of post-war Al Qaeda, just like it takes a special kind of stupid to confuse an AP report with an AP report about a Pentagon Study.”
Umm, no. It just takes the typical kind of stupid that roughly 50% of self-identified Republicans have. Nothing special about it at all.
Z
Picking on Gateway Pundit isn’t picking on retarded people… it is picking on the playground sociopath who is manipulating retarded people (his readers).
cleek
for an intellect as deep as Gateway Pundit’s, there is no past, and no future – all are contained in one super-dimensional hyper-now. he sees all that was, is and will be as a whole. “then”, to such a mind, is merely “now”, with more Republicans in Congress.
Jake
Oh noes, there are those who do not accept GatPu the Illiterate’s version of events!
Foolish lIEberals, when will u realize that yr fact-based reality iz no match for teh unstopable pWnage of GatPu the Illiterate’s BildUROwn RLYTY Device?!
The Populist
I don’t have access to this info YET I knew this. I told everybody I knew and yet all of them pointed at the Bush Administration and said “You are wrong…”
LOL, now I get the last laugh but my rightie friends STILL want to believe that Iraq had a hand in attacking us and that Saddam LOVED AQ.
This is the main reason why I switched from R to I on my voting card. You can’t reason with these folks. They wanted a President that they could have a beer with and got him. They wanted a war and got two of them. They wanted less taxes yet the only people who saw the gains were the top 2% (I love how one of my friends says Bush is great because he got $600 back early on and that Clinton NEVER did that for him).
rawshark
Its a 2 + 2 = 5 kind of stupid.
A person can’t be reasoned out of what they weren’t reasoned into.
The Populist
A person can’t be reasoned out of what they weren’t reasoned into.
True, but intelligence does allow for a chance to sway someone to compromise.
Ray Robison
It’s not a Pentagon report, it’s an IDA report commissioned by the Pentagon. A very bad report at that. My work provides documented proof that the Saddam regime was working with al Qaeda based on those same documents that IDA couldn’t find any links in.
Ray Robison is the author of Both In One Trench: Saddam’s Secret Terror Documents
http://www.bothinonetrench.com
rawshark
Ok here’s the actual quote that I butchered above:
I try to remember this quote whenever one of my friends drops ‘God carved the Grand Canyon’. Keeps me from bothering to start an argument with someone I know understands the principle of erosion but who just will not apply the knowledge when religion already has an answer. This also applies when Rush has supplied an answer unfortunately. Its the reason wingnuts can’t explain their positions.
Davebo
Gee Ray, I can’t imagine why the pentagon didn’t just hire you to write the report..
Or better yet, just saved money by buying your book.
And I hadn’t realized Laurie Mylroie had gotten a sex change operation either.
rawshark
No way was Saddam working with a group whose goal would be a world with no Saddam.
Zifnab
Why are you not barefoot and pregnant? Get back in the kitchen! And Tits or GTFO! Sorry, I’m just pissed because I haven’t gotten laid in, like, forever.
Jake
♫It’s a shame about Ray.♪
Just remember, the quality of the report has nothing to do with the findings of the report. It would be equally bad if it contained pictures of Hussein playing “Hide the WMD” with bin Laden.
Which it doesn’t. Because those pictures are available exclusively in MY book.
D.N. Nation
Apparently Gateway Pundit believes that Saddam is operating in Iraq right now.
Or something.
libarbarian
No, it’s “2 + 2 = Arby’s Big Beef & Cheddar” kind of stupid
PierreLegrand
Ah ha so the very same people who managed to fail so spectacularly on 9/11 by allowing 19 college students to launch the most devastating attack on the Continental United States in our history should now be trusted to analyze themselves. Ok. That makes a lot of sense.
Maybe next we can ask Spitzer to investigate himself for his crimes. Or we can have the mafia investigate themselves on their drugs and money laundering operations.
Saddam and Al Qaeda had no links…no operational ties?
Not according to this Pentagon looking for ass with both hands comes up empty…Saddam’s Connections to Al Qaeda IS a Slam Dunk!
Poopyman
OK, moving right along…..
Hmmmm. Here’s something for John.
http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/7886250?MSNHPHMA
How ’bout them Mountaineers now!
AkaDad
What part of Saddam hid all his Al Qaeda terrorists and WMD’s in Syria don’t you understand?
libarbarian
I have ties to Kevin Bacon.
Lee
Ray,
How about I write a report that magic unity ponies are prancing all around Iraq just looking for places they can work their magic.
Does it make it any more true than yours?
Lee
I got a pretty good laugh following some of the links. The right wing blogs really are nothing more than a great big echo chamber. I had always heard that but had never seen it for myself until today (yeah I need to get out more).
AkaDad
Zero
That’s the number of suicide bombs that exploded in Iraq before we invaded.
Face
Shorter Ray — Our Pentagon is filled with liberal Nancys who couldn’t find sand in a swimsuit on the last day of spring break. I, OTOH, can find a link to anything.
And all this time, I figured they’d at least capitulate when they saw the fucking Pentagon wrote the report. I promise to never underestimate the assfuckery of these clowns.
ACK
And 16 million American adults also still believe Elvis is alive…
bago
Another 4chan meme invades!
Ted
James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal’s blog pushes this kind of stupid all the time too. When I try to point out to him that the fact that Al Qaeda is in Iraq *now* doesn’t mean that they were there in 2002 or 2003, I get no response.
rawshark
Pierre are you actually trying to show that attacking Iraq after 9/11 was justified? That’s about the only reason I can think of to bother finding all those unconnected threads and put them in one place. All you really have is a bunch of noise that would be extremely compelling to someone who already is predisposed to believe the connection you’re implying. Its the religious method, choose your conclusion and only see evidence that supports it. Anything else is said by people with agendas right? People with agendas can be dismissed right?
What makes you say Islam is not a religion of peace? Terrorism? I consider Christianity to be a religion of peace in spite of the Crusades and the Nazis and the KKK. Do you agree?
Do you realize there is no reason for anyone with an open mind to read past your opening:
There is no reasoning going on in the article. Its just ‘this is this and this is what this means and if you don’t get it then you’re the problem’. I’m sure your target audience eats it up tho.
Call me ishmael
A quick look at Ray’s book shows this blurb:
5 seconds later, Googling the Guardian gives:
Read to the bottom of the article for this:
That would have made a better blurb, methinks.
tBone
I have to say, I’m a little concerned about his son Leto.
Don’t make promises that are impossible to keep. Republidrones like GWP are able to transcend the theoretical limits of assfuckery at will.
RSA
Nice catch, Call me ishmael. I’d have written the blurb as follows:
Jay C
AHA!! I think you hit the nail on the head, AkaDad: the real reson why we never found any WMD’s OR Al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq! Saddam had the Al-Qaeda guys carry all those chemical and nuclear weapons out of the country with them when they left! Voila! NO weapons, NO terrorists, NO evidence!!!
Wanna collaborate on a book deal? I’m sure we could gin up some cover blurbs to make ourselves just as authoritative as half the wingnut bloggers out there….
PierreLegrand
Saddam had a grudge against the United States because of our playing both sides against the middle in their war against Iran. Sure we ended up supporting him but he paid a high price for our games.
Then Bush Sr. really pissed him off by throwing him out of Kuwait. Did we think that this meglomaniac would not strike back? Gore thought Saddam was dangerous before Bush Jr…Gore warning us about Saddam
Pierre are you actually trying to show that attacking Iraq after 9/11 was justified? That’s about the only reason I can think of to bother finding all those unconnected threads and put them in one place.
The world is a scary place…both liberals and conservatives died on 9/11. The folks that did that didn’t care about the nuances of our positions. We are supposed to keep track of our government not for the joy of arguing against each other but because of the Government’s amazing incompetence. So whether we are liberals or conservatives we need to stop beating each other over the head with the lies put out by an incompetent government.
Much of the material that I put together was provided by our press. Certainly a case can be made that we need to be careful when putting together such evidence but there are so many different sources of information all pointing towards Saddam’s involvement in terror that only the willfully stupid can avoid the conclusion.
Furthermore I am not a believer in bringing Democracy to anyone not ready for it. I am a believer in striking down folks who would murder your family or mine for a fucking religion. Democracy a fool’s errand or our only way out? Jeane Kirkpatrick responds
rawshark Says: What makes you say Islam is not a religion of peace? Terrorism? I consider Christianity to be a religion of peace in spite of the Crusades and the Nazis and the KKK. Do you agree?
Probably the differences between the founders of both relgions. Contrast and discuss the differences between Mohammed and Jesus. One a thug, rapist, highway robber the other not. One preaches turning the other cheek the other preaches chopping off the heads of your enemies.
tBone
So we’ll put you down as a “yes” for war with Saudi Arabia, then?
Paul D
2 Chronicles 15:13 That whosoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.
Suck it, Pierre. We needn’t go toe-to-toe with you on biblical violence; it’s off-topic here.
Suffice to say, you do NOT want to go down the road of comparing Islam and Christianity to see who’s more violent. You will not like what you discover.
Fe E
Just out of curiosity, which one’s what, now?
Jake
Uh, you guys do realize you’re arguing with someone whose name is Big Peter? If you keep playing with him his pal Hugh E. Rection will show up.
Jay B.
Pierre,
Which is it champ — you’re on Bush’s side with the Al-Queda/Hussein love fest. So either he’s been right all along, and thus ‘competent’, or you’re both wrong and the Pentagon is right.
rawshark
I’ll ask again:
Pierre are you actually trying to show that attacking Iraq after 9/11 was justified? That’s about the only reason I can think of to bother finding all those unconnected threads and put them in one place.
Saying the world is a scary place is an answer to someones question I imagine, just not mine. Saying we shouldn’t believe an incompetent lying government after producing an article full of incompetent lying government crap is not an answer (you got it from the press, where did they get it?). Calling me willfully stupid is not an answer. Especially since I didn’t say Saddam had no connection to terror, its been well documented that he’s offered money to suicide bombers in Palestine (its not well documented that he actually paid anyone though). I said he has no connection to Al Qaeda. There’s not a person in the world who disputes that Saddam would work with anyone with whom he had common cause. Al Qaeda just doesn’t fit that.
Here’s a question. Any chance that’s actually not why they do it? Any chance at all that a group could be manipulated by their leadership and told that their religion was under attack? It doesn’t have to be true just appear true from a certain point of view? Contrast and discuss the muslim belief that a new crusade in occurring with the War on Christmas. Neither is true but they look true. To some.
J. A. Baker
Call me ishmael:
Ahh, quote-mining – don’cha just love it! And don’t you just LOVE seeing the flag-bukkake fetishists *ahem* borrow the tactics of those who believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old?
Ted
Taranto understands the difference. He’s just being a willing shit-eating liar.
rawshark
of course Jesus could’ve been nailing cocktail waitresses two at a time during the missing 18 years but I won’t go there. Especially since I find all religions to be full of shit no matter who founded them.
Call me ishmael
rawshark:
If JC had been in Vegas (perhaps appearing as a divine aparition to to the Nephites in Utah) he would have most definitely been banging cocktail waitresses 2 at a time. I know I would have. If I was a God. And simultaneously my own son too.
p.a.
Actually, it seems to be an all too common kind of stupid, common to about 25% of the population.
Brachiator
Nonsense. Nobody has a clear understanding of Saddam’s thinking or motivations. And I don’t recall anything in the conversations that he had with his captors in his final months to indicate that he was nurturing some huge grudge against the US.
More importantly, he lacked any significant military power to pose a threat to the US.
The good intelligence on Iraq was ignored and belittled. Saddam’s “danger” was, and still is, exaggerated.
People died on 9/11, not walking ideologies. And the world is always a scary place for those who want to live in fear. The saddest legacy of 9/11 are leaders who encourage us to be afraid, and citizens who place false security over the challenges of true liberty.
The hardest thing for Americans of any ideology go get over is the arrogant misconception that we can control, direct, channel, encourage or stop the national goals of other nations. I don’t recall India, for example, being passively brought democracy by the Brits, but rather crafting the possibility of democracy to suit their own sense of destiny.
croatoan
he would have most definitely been banging cocktail waitresses 2 at a time
Are you telling me Jesus is Fredo? Whoa.
Pierre Legrand
Suffice to say, you do NOT want to go down the road of comparing Islam and Christianity to see who’s more violent. You will not like what you discover.
Compare and contrast Jesus and Mohammad. If you do that you understand the difference between Islam and Christianity. But you are welcome to show the violence in comparison to Islam. Please be prepared to discuss Hindu Kush, Armenians, and various and other sundry fun facts.
Had Christianity lived up to the example of its founder, Jesus? Nope. Has Islam lived up to the example of its founder, Mohammad? Yup. Nuff said.
Nonsense. Nobody has a clear understanding of Saddam’s thinking or motivations. And I don’t recall anything in the conversations that he had with his captors in his final months to indicate that he was nurturing some huge grudge against the US.
On July 25, President Saddam Hussein of Iraq summoned the United States Ambassador to Baghdad, April Glaspie If you use pressure, we will deploy pressure and force. We know that you can harm us although we do not threaten you. But we too can harm you. Everyone can cause harm according to their ability and their size. We cannot come all the way to you in the United States, but individual Arabs may reach you.
Pierre are you actually trying to show that attacking Iraq after 9/11 was justified? That’s about the only reason I can think of to bother finding all those unconnected threads and put them in one place.
Yup. Saddam was a danger. The idea that he was not a danger because he did not have huge competent armies is nonsense. Those 19 “youts” did not have much and they accomplished quite a lot. More in fact than anyone prior to them and that list included some mighty fine power mad dictators. None of them managed to attack us as devastatingly as those 19 “youts”.
Probably one day in the not too distant future we will find out just how powerful a small band of fanatics armed with tactical nukes or worse can be. I suspect that none of us will be too happy with the results.
Finally no doubt that ideologies did not perish on 9/11. That is exactly the point. But now ideologies argue about how to fight the possibilities of another 9/11. Sometimes I worry that our positions, you and I, would be opposites no matter which position I took. Of course I don’t worry about the specific you and I but the general state of our culture where the argument is valued over the solutions.
rachel
Mooslims are teh suxxors so it’s OK to invade them! (Even the ones who haven’t done anything to us.)
(Yes, I’m being sarcastic.)
Badtux
Number of Jews killed by Christians: Roughly 30,000,000, between pogroms in Poland and Russia, Adolph Hitler, the Spanish Reconquista with its forced expulsions and forced conversions of Jews, the 1st Crusade which slaughtered every single Jew of Jerusalem as they huddled in their synagogues when the crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099AD…
Number of Jews killed by Muslims: Roughly 200,000 killed during wartime or during reprisals taking place during wars between the State of Israel and its neighbors.
Which is the religion of peace, again?
– Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Pierre Legrand
Number of Jews killed by Christians: Roughly 30,000,000, between pogroms in Poland and Russia, Adolph Hitler, the Spanish Reconquista with its forced expulsions and forced conversions of Jews, the 1st Crusade which slaughtered every single Jew of Jerusalem as they huddled in their synagogues when the crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099AD
Forgive me for asking for cites but since you seem to have a loose association with reality, indulge me. Btw Adolph was not a Christian.
Finally you misunderstand me, probably deliberately since you have no response but to avoid the question, compare Jesus to Mohammed’s professed out look on life. Not the followers compare the founders. Muslims make no excuse for Mohammed, why do you? We all know that Christians have committed grevious sins.
Btw the Crusades are not what you are making them to be.
Jrod
Yes, just look at Europe between 400-2000 A.D. Never in the world history has a land been more peaceful, and it’s all thanks to JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESUSAH.
But you’re right, who cares what a religion’s followers actually do? All that really matters is what the founders of those religions said fifteen hundred or more years ago. Everything that happened between then and 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 is of no importance.