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The mainstream media misreports Kay reportCommentary by Steve Gill
October 13, 2003
Amidst the media frenzy last week over Rush Limbaugh’s comments concerning Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb there was some “real” news that was overlooked, or maybe even buried, by the mainstream media. Top U.S. weapons inspector David Kay revealed in an interim report that Saddam Hussein WAS a threat and DID have an active weapons-of-mass-destruction program. Unfortunately, most of the media were too busy tittering over Rush to actually read the report.
The New York Times headlined their story: “No Illicit Arms Found In Iraq,” while The Washington Post trumpeted their own version with: “Search in Iraq Finds No Banned Weapons.” Neither headline accurately presents the truth about the Kay report; nor did hundreds of equally inaccurate headlines just like them across the country.
So what did Kay actually report? “We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002,” Kay told Congress last week. In other words, Saddam lied about his ongoing weapons programs and attempted to conceal the programs and weapons from U.N. inspectors.
Despite Saddam’s efforts to hide the evidence or destroy it, Kay’s inspectors have found a great deal, including:
• “A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses … that contained equipment … suitable for continuing [chemical and biological weapons] research.”
• A prison lab that was “possibly used in human testing” of biological weapons.
• “Reference strains of biological organisms, one of which can be used to produce biological weapons.” The vial of botulinum bacteria referenced by Kay was found at the home of an Iraqi scientist where it was stored for safekeeping. The Center for Civilian Bio-defense Strategies at Johns Hopkins University says it is “the single most poisonous substance known.”
• Hidden documents and equipment, useful for enriching uranium for nukes.
• ”Plans and advanced design work for [prohibited] long-range missiles.”
They also found reports by Iraqi scientists of development of a production line that “could produce anthrax in one week if the seed stock were available” and research efforts on bio-weapons applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever, as well as continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin.
The efforts to conceal these and other weapons programs continued, according to Kay, “even beyond the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom.” At this point, 120 out of 130 known Iraqi “Ammunition Storage Points” remain unsearched by inspectors, so much more is likely to be found in the next several months.
Contrary to media reports that nothing has been — or will be — found, Kay himself says that more will indeed be found in the coming months and that there is evidence of a plan to move some of the weapons from Iraq to neighboring countries in the months preceding the war. In fact, just last week newspapers in Kuwait reported foiling an attempt to smuggle chemical weapons and biological warheads from Iraq to Europe through Kuwait. More details should emerge shortly.
There is no real doubt that Saddam Hussein had prohibited weapons. What remains to be determined is whether he destroyed them, has hidden them very well, or slipped them out of the country to others. In view of the third possibility, the fact that we have not yet found a “smoking gun” should not be of much comfort — even to the most adamant critics of the Bush Administration.
Bottom line? The Kay report reveals much more than the mainstream media has reported, and Americans interested in the truth will need to read the report for themselves. But perhaps a more important issue is why has the mainstream media buried the true story?
October 13, 2003
Amidst the media frenzy last week over Rush Limbaugh’s comments concerning Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb there was some “real” news that was overlooked, or maybe even buried, by the mainstream media. Top U.S. weapons inspector David Kay revealed in an interim report that Saddam Hussein WAS a threat and DID have an active weapons-of-mass-destruction program. Unfortunately, most of the media were too busy tittering over Rush to actually read the report.
The New York Times headlined their story: “No Illicit Arms Found In Iraq,” while The Washington Post trumpeted their own version with: “Search in Iraq Finds No Banned Weapons.” Neither headline accurately presents the truth about the Kay report; nor did hundreds of equally inaccurate headlines just like them across the country.
So what did Kay actually report? “We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002,” Kay told Congress last week. In other words, Saddam lied about his ongoing weapons programs and attempted to conceal the programs and weapons from U.N. inspectors.
Despite Saddam’s efforts to hide the evidence or destroy it, Kay’s inspectors have found a great deal, including:
• “A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses … that contained equipment … suitable for continuing [chemical and biological weapons] research.”
• A prison lab that was “possibly used in human testing” of biological weapons.
• “Reference strains of biological organisms, one of which can be used to produce biological weapons.” The vial of botulinum bacteria referenced by Kay was found at the home of an Iraqi scientist where it was stored for safekeeping. The Center for Civilian Bio-defense Strategies at Johns Hopkins University says it is “the single most poisonous substance known.”
• Hidden documents and equipment, useful for enriching uranium for nukes.
• ”Plans and advanced design work for [prohibited] long-range missiles.”
They also found reports by Iraqi scientists of development of a production line that “could produce anthrax in one week if the seed stock were available” and research efforts on bio-weapons applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever, as well as continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin.
The efforts to conceal these and other weapons programs continued, according to Kay, “even beyond the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom.” At this point, 120 out of 130 known Iraqi “Ammunition Storage Points” remain unsearched by inspectors, so much more is likely to be found in the next several months.
Contrary to media reports that nothing has been — or will be — found, Kay himself says that more will indeed be found in the coming months and that there is evidence of a plan to move some of the weapons from Iraq to neighboring countries in the months preceding the war. In fact, just last week newspapers in Kuwait reported foiling an attempt to smuggle chemical weapons and biological warheads from Iraq to Europe through Kuwait. More details should emerge shortly.
There is no real doubt that Saddam Hussein had prohibited weapons. What remains to be determined is whether he destroyed them, has hidden them very well, or slipped them out of the country to others. In view of the third possibility, the fact that we have not yet found a “smoking gun” should not be of much comfort — even to the most adamant critics of the Bush Administration.
Bottom line? The Kay report reveals much more than the mainstream media has reported, and Americans interested in the truth will need to read the report for themselves. But perhaps a more important issue is why has the mainstream media buried the true story?
