McCain helped pimp out the "Iraq Anthrax " deception (Glenn Greenwald)

[chill_wind]

UPDATE III: See this important point from Atrios about Richard Cohen's admission that he was told before the anthrax attacks happened by a "high government official" to take cipro. Atrios writes: "now that we know that the US gov't believes that anthrax came from the inside, shouldn't Cohen be a wee bit curious about what this warning was based on?"

That applies to much of the Beltway class, including many well-connected journalists, who were quietly popping cipro back then because, like Cohen, they heard from Government sources that they should.

Leave aside the ethical questions about the fact that these journalists kept those warnings to themselves

. Wouldn't the most basic journalistic instincts lead them now -- in light of the claims by our Government that the attacks came from a Government scientist -- to wonder why and how their Government sources were warning about an anthrax attack? Then again, the most basic journalistic instincts would have lead ABC News to reveal who concocted and fed them the false "Saddam/anthrax" reports in the first place, and yet we still are forced to guess at those questions because ABC News continues to cover up the identity of the perpetrators.

UPDATE IV: John McCain, on the David Letterman Show, October 18, 2001 (days before ABC News first broadcast their bentonite report):

LETTERMAN: How are things going in Afghanistan now?

MCCAIN: I think we're doing fine . . . I think we'll do fine. The second phase -- if I could just make one, very quickly -- the second phase is Iraq. There is some indication, and I don't have the conclusions, but some of this anthrax may -- and I emphasize may -- have come from Iraq.

LETTERMAN: Oh is that right?

MCCAIN: If that should be the case, that's when some tough decisions are gonna have to be made.

ThinkProgress has the video. Someone ought to ask McCain what "indication" he was referencing that the anthrax "may have come from Iraq."

After all, three days later, McCain and Joe Lieberman went on Meet the Press (on October 21, 2001) and both strongly suggested that we would have to attack Iraq. Lieberman said that the anthrax was so complex and potent that "there's either a significant amount of money behind this, or this is state-sponsored, or this is stuff that was stolen from the former Soviet program."

from: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

(bold formatting mine)

Without question, in light of current news events, McCain should be publicly forced to explain himself.

[chill_wind]

1. Was McCain popping Cipro, too along with the media and half of Congress?

While keeping us in the dark about perceived public threat? If he wasn't, then why not? Didn't he believe his own propaganda?

If he was.... how does he justify his secrecy and conscience? The voting public deserves to know.

[bridgit]

2. yeah he did, said the strain itself came form Iraq without mentioning where Saddam got it from...

to begin with, just the same old republican flim-flam, find the lady, dog & WMD show over & over :silly:

[AllentownJake]

3. Seeing the strain used was the most advanced strain ever developed

that was developed in the United States and only the United States had the ability to develop any scientist working for the government would figure that out on first analysis, McCain was either lied to or lying on behalf of the administration.

Also strange it was sent to people who might oppose an Iraq invasion...the media and Democratic Senators. :shrug: