This post updates “The ‘No WMD’ Lie (with Linked Proof)” from November of last year, using material from Richard Miniter’s book “Disinformation” (Amazon link is in detail; text of the book’s inside flap is here; Miniter’s blowaway bio is here), and additional investigative work by me. It has been moved to the top for the rest of today.

A REMINDER: The specific word-for-word claim being refuted here is “We now know that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

That EXACT statement was made here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here; all were found in a simple Google search using quote marks, and are verbatim quotes with the exception of the final item, which added “all too well” after “know”). The number and variety of people who have made the statement without the first four words (leaving “There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq”) is too voluminous to chronicle.

The Rev. Joseph Lowry repeated the same lie using slightly different words at the funeral of Coretta Scott King: “We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there.”

All of the above statements are absolutes; there’s no room for nuance, conditions, or “yeah, buts.”

Though all it takes to refute these statements would be a gram of WMD powder, there is, of course, much more than that.
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Quick Overview

• 1.77 metric tons of uranium — certainly raw materials for WMDs, but not actual WMDs. How quickly convertible to fuel for A-Bombs dependent on sophistication of secretly constructed at Tuwaitha.

• 1,000 (items of) radioactive materials — definitely at least some WMDs.

• The “Polish 17″ chemical weapons — definitely WMDs.

• The Mosul Chem Lab — inconclusive, straining credulity that none of Saddam’s chemical weapons ever passed though there.

• The Sarin Shell — definitely a WMD.

• The Mustard Shell — not a WMD itself, but indicative of hundreds of shells known to be unaccounted for and later found to be 75% filled and usable WMDs.

The Scoreboard:

3 - Undisputable Definites

1 - Definitely usable raw materials

1 - Inconclusive

1 - Not a WMD, but a clue to hundreds subsequently found that were.

The “No WMD” Lie — Still a Lie

The “Debate” — Over (Update: Though I reserve the right to pile on in the future)

Interest in “Debating” an issue that is over — NONE

Detailed Post Follows:

(more…)

Fast and furious, the media composes, and the blogosphere disposes:

Photographer Alleges Unearthing of Bodies (from Little Green Footballs; HT e-mailer Larwyn)

A portion of the photographer’s comment (it appears that Denton’s original is gone, but that another commenter reposted it within his own comment; scroll down to “Andy Levin Fri Aug 11 09:54:08″)

i have been working in lebanon since all this started, and seeing the behavior of many of the lebanese wire service photographers has been a bit unsettling. while hajj has garnered a lot of attention for his doctoring of images digitally, whether guilty or not, i have been witness to the daily practice of directed shots, one case where a group of wire photogs were coreographing the unearthing of bodies, directing emergency workers here and there, asking them to position bodies just so, even remove bodies that have already been put in graves so that they can photograph them in peoples arms. these photographers have come away with powerful shots, that required no manipulation digitally, but instead, manipulation on a human level, and this itself is a bigger ethical problem.

In comments, some other photogs came down hard ….. on Denton, who backed off in tone, but not in substance.

The Corruption of the Media (from EU Referendum)

EUR’s exhaustive (and probably exhausting) comprehensive post on distorted photography and reporting coming out of The Middle East and Lebanon continues to “unearth” (literally) more.

Associated Press Go-To Guy: Hard Core Radical Islamist (from Little Green Footballs; HT on top of it e-mailer Larwyn)

The Associated Press’s “subject matter expert” in an article (”Plot Shows Rise of Extremism in Europe”) on the “causes” of terror attacks, including the ones just disrupted (and hopefully thwarted) in London, is Azzam Timimi, a hardcore Islamist. LGF links to a chilling YouTube video to prove it, where Timimi calls Israel a “cancer that must be eradicated,” a “menace,” and more. “Expert” Timimi also appeared today on NPR’s Morning Edition; an audio link is there.

Al-AP’s Arab-state paymasters appear to be getting the bias, distortion, and untruth that they’re paying for.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

Free Links:

• I must have missed the part of the Catechism where it says doing this is OK:
  

  DUSSELDORF - A Catholic chaplain to a German prison was accused during a court hearing Thursday of smuggling letters and doing internet searches on behalf of a detained al-Qaeda suspect.

• Remember the name Vanessa Arrington (of the Associated Press), and question everything she writes from here on out — This article on Cuba (”Some Cubans enjoy comforts of communism”) is disgraceful statist propaganda disguised as analysis. There’s no point trying to excerpt it, just go there.

• A non-comforting assessment (link no longer works at Eureka, but this one does at a different site; HT Porkopolis):
  

  Two researchers working within Cardiff University’s School of Computer Science, Professor Antonia J Jones and Joseph R Rabaiotti, together with a third independent researcher Stuart P Goring, have today released details of a problem with HSBC’s online banking system. The bank was informed of the issue prior to publication.

  The researchers demonstrated (without in any way hacking, or even entering, the system) that the problem they observed, together with the illegal use of a keylogger (a device which records keystrokes and can later play them back), would in principle allow an attacker to gather all the necessary information required to enter any customer account.

  HSBC and Cardiff University are now working together to address a number of issues raised by this research.

  No illegal access took place during this research. It is generally assumed that to be in a position to prove that a gatekeeper system has a weakness one must have broken the law. However, the researchers were able to demonstrate that this is not the case. In this case they showed that by perfectly proper use of the system (a legal log-in which fails due to a typing error) and by intelligent observation one can logically prove a weakness without even passing the gatekeeper or entering the system. While they were able to do this because of a rather trivial problem, an interesting point of principle has been established and a significant loophole identified.

  Professor Jones said: “What is truly amazing about this particular problem is that it apparently has not been illegally exploited for at least two years, during which time all user accounts were in principle open to the access procedure we describe.

  “This fact alone raises some serious questions about the wisdom of having any sensitive system online and about online banking in general.”

Requires Free Registration:

• The Business & Media Institute exposes a howler of a piece in The New York Times by Melanie Warner:
  

  Would You Like a Gas Guzzler With That?

  ….. This week ….. (McDonald’s) started putting toy Hummers in children’s Happy Meal boxes, calling it the “Hummer of a Summer” promotion. Television and radio ads, which started running this week, feature a family riding in a Hummer on the way to a McDonald’s.
  ….. Not surprisingly, environmental groups are appalled.

  ….. Charlie Miller, a spokesman for Environmental Defense, said he thought that McDonald’s might be trying to help an ailing General Motors win some future customers.

  ….. “Anything that sends a message to kids that these are the cool vehicles to buy is the wrong message,” Mr. Miller said.

  ….. With toy Hummers, McDonald’s is “sending a message to children that utter waste of this precious resource that is causing us such national security problems is O.K.,” she said.

  McDonald’s decision to include Hummers in its Happy Meals is surprising given that the fast-food chain has strived in recent years to bolster its image as an environmentally aware company.

  Where to begin? Oh, forget it — They’re TOYS, people.

Especially after the “Peace in our time” cravenness in the Middle East this past weekend, the world of 2006 looks more and more like the world of 1938, with fewer excuses for allowing it to happen.

This modification of an old prayer of St. Francis (fifth prayer at link) is particularly poignant:

God grant us the serenity to change those things that can be changed with talk and diplomacy, the courage to fight for those things that require it, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Dylan de Silva is 13 years old, and started running “Cape Cod Cares for Our Troops” when he was 12 (HT Pundit Review, who interviewed Dylan Sunday night on their Boston-based WRKO and Internet-broadcast radio program; Update — interview audio is here). Its mission and description is on its home page:

Cape Cod Cares for Our Troops is a non-profit organization started by 12 year old Dylan DeSilva. Dylan wanted to find a way to honor our soldiers for their service, dedication and sacrifices to our country. With the help of his family and friends he sends care packages to our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan on a weekly basis.

Dylan’s organization has made substantial contributions in the form of “care packages” of personal items, food, and other useful items (scroll down to the bottom of the home page to see the details.

His work has been rewarded with substantial appreciation and commendations from our troops overseas (you may need to scroll down at the link a bit before you see the first quote; the formal commendations begin after the quotes).

Go there. In appreciation of what he’s doing, consider dropping him a line.