<http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB111326384573804082,00.html>
The Wall Street Journal April 12, 2005 REVIEW & OUTLOOK Catching a 'Curveball' April 12, 2005 We journalists are bound to make mistakes from time to time, and there's nothing dishonorable about acknowledging it. So we find it a little puzzling that more than 10 days after the bipartisan Robb-Silberman Commission debunked a major piece of the media's Iraq war narrative -- that Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress played a major role in the bad intelligence on Saddam's WMDs -- almost none of the outlets that sold the story have seen fit to correct the record or explain their reporting. An honorable exception is NBC's Tim Russert, who in any case appears to have been guilty of nothing more that believing what he read in places like the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. On Sunday's edition of "Meet the Press," Mr. Russert acknowledged having repeated the story and confronted Jay Rockefeller with the Commission's (and the CIA's) finding of no evidence linking a lying Iraqi defector code named "Curveball" to the INC: Mr. Russert: "But, in fact, for the record, there's no evidence that Mr. Chalabi was associated with Curveball." Senator Rockefeller: "Chalabi's footprints are all over virtually everything. I mean, where you have defectors, where you have, as Curveball was called, a fabricator, you're likely to find somewhere Chalabi's footprint." Mr. Russert: "But the report says there was no direct involvement with Curveball or linkage to ..." Senator Rockefeller: "So what does "direct involvement" mean?" (In fact, the Robb-Silberman report says Curveball was presented to the CIA through a foreign intelligence service that we have since learned was Germany's.) Mr. Russert then went on to read from a recent editorial of ours, in which we noted the Commission's finding that "INC-related sources had a minimal impact on pre-war assessments." As for Curveball, Mr. Russert said, "If there's no connection, it should be so stated." At which point Senator Rockefeller added the name of Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith to his rant, repeating still more phony allegations that have been undercut by both the Robb-Silberman findings and an earlier report by the Senate Intelligence Committee on which Mr. Rockefeller sits. Kudos to Mr. Russert, but whoever is doing Mr. Rockefeller's staff work is overpaid. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. Fund a student project in NYC/NC today! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EHLuJD/.WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
