Blitzer did not challenge Huckabee's claim that Saddam "said that he had" WMD

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200710300002?f=h_latest

Summary: On CNN's Late Edition, Wolf Blitzer failed to challenge Mike Huckabee's claim that Saddam Hussein "said that he had" weapons of mass destruction. In fact, in December 2002, Iraq issued a declaration to United Nations weapons inspectors on its chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs and its long-range missile programs, and CNN.com reported that "Iraqi officials say the report proves Baghdad has no weapons of mass destruction."

On the October 28 edition of CNN's Late Edition, host Wolf Blitzer failed to challenge Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's claim that Saddam Hussein "said that he had" weapons of mass destruction (WMD), which Huckabee made after Blitzer asked whether President Bush "made a mistake" when he ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In fact, prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Saddam maintained that Iraq did not possess WMD, and following President Bush's speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2002, Iraq agreed to unconditionally accept U.N. weapons inspectors. Further, on December 7, 2002, Iraq issued a nearly 12,000-page declaration to U.N. weapons inspectors on its chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs and its long-range missile programs. At the time, CNN.com reported that Iraqi officials said "the report proves Baghdad has no weapons of mass destruction." Rajiv Chandrasekaran wrote in a December 7, 2002, article in The Washington Post that Iraqi officials said the report "contains 'currently accurate, full and complete' details of the nation's chemical, biological and nuclear programs but reiterates claims that it has no weapons of mass destruction."

Blitzer also failed to challenge Huckabee's assertion that "{j}ust because we haven't found" the WMD "doesn't mean they didn't exist." Blitzer sought no response from Huckabee to findings by the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) issued in October 2004, also known as the Duelfer report. The report stated that "ISG judges Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991"; "Iraq appears to have destroyed its undeclared stocks of BW {biological weapons} weapons and probably destroyed remaining holdings of bulk BW agent"; and "Iraq did not possess a nuclear device, nor had it tried to reconstitute a capability to produce nuclear weapons after 1991." The report also stated: "The problem of discerning WMD in Iraq is highlighted by the prewar misapprehensions of weapons, which were not there. Distant technical analysts mistakenly identified evidence and drew incorrect conclusions. There is also the potential of the obverse problem. Observers may have evidence before them and not recognize it because of unfamiliarity with the subject. Often ISG found no evidence of one thing or another. It may be that a more accurate formulation might be we recognized no evidence."

[karlrschneider]

1. If Blitzer knew nine more things

he would be an idiot.

[bullimiami]

2. well wolf is an idiot and a tool and that was a bald faced lie.

not only did saddam NOT say he had WMD. He said he DID NOT and sent a pile of documentation.

i dont heart huckabee at all.

[mike_c]

3. those lies are getting pretty tired by now...

...and yet we hear them repeated over and over. American foreign policy is fabricated from lies, greed, and violent repression. The gullible American public swallows the lies again and again, aided by a complicit press and politicians for whom sound bites are preferable to truth.

[Atman]

4. Blitzer wouldn't challenge a Republican if he said the earth was an octagon

Blitzer if a fucking idiot to the core who owes his very existence to the Bush regime.

.

[harun]

5. Wolf never misses the chance to throw the pom poms on

and root for more war.

[TwilightGardener]

6. Hucky makes shit up--like the assertion that the Founding Fathers

were mostly clergy, and illegal immigration exists because of abortion. Someone needs to abort this guy's campaign.