BCT news article – 6/26/06

This page was last updated on June 28, 2006.

What they found: Weapons of Mass Deterioration; J.D. Prose, Times Staff; Beaver County Times; June 26, 2006.

To emphasize, this article was a “Top Story” in the news section of the website. I checked the print edition of the Times and could not find this article. It’s possible the article appeared on a different day in the print edition.

As you will read below, this is another example of the editorial pages spilling onto the news pages.

I critiqued only one portion of the article, but each portion contributed to a trend. Democrats were treated well and Republicans were not.

Finally, I don’t know if the WMD reported by Sen. Santorum et al were dangerous or not. The point of this critique is to show this “news” article is really an op-ed piece.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject article.

“U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn Hills, might have - if you can believe it - jumped the gun Wednesday when he and another Republican lawmaker began trumpeting a declassified report that said weapons of mass destruction had been discovered in Iraq.

‘We now have found stockpiles,’ Santorum said, according to The Associated Press.

“The AP said Santorum - who trails in most polls to Democratic challenger Bob Casey Jr. - and U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., hounded ... uh ... urged National Intelligence Director John Negroponte to release the report so that they could counter Democratic charges that Iraq did not have WMDs.”

[RWC] Just a reminder, this is supposed to be a news article, yet it’s worded like a sarcastic opinion piece.

“Unfortunately, the man who led the hunt for WMDs in Iraq wasn’t clued in on the revelation’s importance to Santorum’s re-election bid.

“David Kay said weapons experts agree that the mustard and sarin agents found wouldn’t be lethal. He said they were probably made for use during Iraq’s eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s.

“Intelligence officials told the AP that there is no evidence that Iraq manufactured chemical weapons after the 1991 Gulf War.

“As for the chemicals referred to in the newly released report, intelligence sources told the AP that ‘they are so degraded that they couldn’t now be used as designed’ although Hoekstra insisted otherwise.”

[RWC] If this were a news article, it would have noted Defense Secretary Rumsfeld (during a Pentagon press conference) agreed the chemicals in the shells were still lethal.

Some people are parsing their words on this topic. For example, they say the shells are not operational or something similar. Just because the shells may not mechanically operate the way they are supposed to, it doesn’t mean the chemicals inside are harmless.

“Kay said the sarin identified in the report ‘is less toxic than most things that Americans have under their kitchen sink at this point.’”

[RWC] If this were a news article, it would have noted American soldiers were attacked in May 2004 with an IED that included two of these old chemical weapon shells. Those soldiers had to be treated for mustard gas and sarin exposure.

If the idea that the WMD “is less toxic than most things that Americans have under their kitchen sink at this point” is true, why did/do we go through excruciating procedures to destroy our own chemical weapons? Why didn’t we just wait for them to age into a harmless state?

“Pssst. Don’t tell Santorum and Hoekstra, but there might be some Formula 409 under my kitchen sink right now.”

[RWC] Finally, this alleged news article failed to note the obvious. According to Saddam Hussein, all of these weapons were destroyed. Clearly the evidence shows Hussein lied. Why should we assume he destroyed more dangerous WMD but chose to keep “old clunkers?” Lest we forget, Hans Blix himself reported approximately 10,000 liters of anthrax were unaccounted for as of late 2002/early 2003.

I don’t know if caches of WMD exist in Iraq or not. Remember, not finding something is not the same as saying it no longer exists. For example, just because you can’t find your car keys doesn’t mean your keys no longer exist.