September 13, 2002
Journalism's Tribute to Ike Turner
Last night all three cable news networks took part in a rhetorical bitch-slapping of Scott Ritter. The fun started with Fox, when David Asman nailed Ritter on a number of points, including his mysterious flip flop on Saddam's chemical warfare capability, the payoff by a Saddam frontman, etc. One very instructive exchange:
ASMAN: September 11, 2001 was not hypothetical, nothing hypothetical at all.
RITTER: Don't disgrace the death of those 3,000 people by bringing in Iraq.
ASMAN: We know there are people out there willing to do the dirty deed and we also know Saddam Hussein has had contacts with these people in the past.
RITTER: No, you don't know that.
ASMAN: We know from Czech intelligence. They say that an Iraqi met with Mohammed Atta twice.
RITTER: What does the CIA and FBI say?
ASMAN: The FBI says the situation is not clear but Czech intelligence says it is. And why it is the only person, only Arab leader that [Usama bin Laden] likes and approves of and speaks highly of is Saddam Hussein, why?
RITTER: That's absurd, David. In 1991 Usama bin Laden offered his services to confront Saddam Hussein. He issued a fatwa against Saddam Hussein.
ASMAN: We talked to representatives of Al Qaeda here in 1998 shortly after the bombings of those embassies in Africa. The only Arab leader -- I spoke to them personally, the only Arab leader they were willing to praise, not to condemn, was Saddam Hussein. Why?
RITTER: Well, I'm just telling you that the fact of the matter is the Iraqi government -- and I'm not an apologist for the Iraqi government, Saddam Hussein is the most brutal dictator I can think of today and I wish he was dead -- but the fact of the matter is Iraq is a secular dictatorship.
ASMAN: Exactly. So why it that Saddam Hussein supports this secular individual?
RITTER: Well, first of all, I don't think that case has been made.
ASMAN: It's been made not only by Usama bin Laden himself but by representatives of Al Qaeda to me personally on air. We've got the tape. I can show it to you.
RITTER: I'm not disputing that.
ASMAN: You were disputing it.
RITTER: I'm not disputing that people have sat before you and said these things. I'm disputing that Al Qaeda is in allegiance with Saddam Hussein.
ASMAN: Why shouldn't they be? They both want the destruction of the United States. You don't think they do?
RITTER: Let's keep Usama bin Laden out of this conversation -- out of this conversation because I'm not linking him.
The rest of the interview is in the same vein. Asman raked Ritter over the coals like a prosecutor. He'd catch him on a point, nail Ritter to the wall on that point, then Ritter would change the subject, and the process would start all over again. By the time the interview was over, Ritter was thoroughly and utterly discredited. Though, of course, the day was just beginning for our little Saddam sympathizer.
Ritter hung around a bit, and received another less intense bitchslapping from Bill O'Reilly(sorry, no transcript), who used reports from the Institute of Strategic Studies to nail Ritter on a number of points. It was a shorter interview, and the O'Reilly bitchslapping was a kindler, gentler bitchslapping, but no less effective. I don't have the details off the top of my head, but O'Reilly did nail him on a number of points, and wasn't his usual aggressive self. I have to say he partially redeemed himself for the atrocious job he did on the Pat Roush case.
From O'Reilly, Ritter sashayed over to the UN for a hot date with Ashleigh Banfield(again, sorry, no transcript). She nailed him on a few points, and used the words "traitor" and "treason". Ritter then laid into her with a spittle punctuated diatribe about how he was an ex-marine, served in combat, yada yada yada. Of course, Benedict Arnold was a general who served in combat too. When she mentioned the Atrocity to him, and used the word treason, she looked like she could have pulled out a pistol and shot him right then and there. I have to say she showed quite a bit of testicular fortitude last night. Not bad, considering she is also MSNBC's eye candy.
After that, it was over to CNN where Aaron Brown let Richard Butler do the bitchslapping for him. Aaron Brown was rather gentle during the whole thing, but Butler was devastating. He nailed Ritter on point a number of times, saying the Ritter was echoing "the rankest of Iraqi propaganda." Another informative exchange:
RITTER: No, the conversation he is talking about, is that when I pounded on table, and Richard Butler was threatening to shut down the concealment mechanism investigations, and I said, you can't do that, what about the intelligence we have about this, that -- and he said, we can't talk about that here, and I said, Richard you're shutting the program down, so I am going to bring it up in front of everybody, so you can explain why you're terminating...BROWN: He's not telling the truth.
RITTER: He's a liar.
BROWN: He's a liar.
RITTER: He's a liar.
BROWN: Mr. Butler?
BUTLER: Sorry, who is he calling a liar?
BROWN: You.
RITTER: You.
BUTLER: Oh, I just find that deeply sad. That is so silly. That is so silly. I don't know why on earth Scott is doing what he's doing. I feel, you know, I regret, this is saddened, sorry and silly. He knew very well that Iraq had weapons unaccounted for. The day we had the discussion I was just referring to, he knew that very well. What I fail utterly to understand, is why he's now telling the world that that's not the case. Now when we left Iraq, we filed a final report with the Security Council, that said what was unaccounted for.
And we did that in the most extraordinary hostile environment. The Russians in particular, wanted UNSCOM destroyed, they wanted Iraq off the hook. They used all kinds of devices. The Russians today, are very different, by the way. But then, they used all kinds of devices to challenge and question, our final report on the unaccounted for weapons. They demanded an independent inquiry.
Now, that inquiry took place. And at the end of that inquiry, even these extraordinarily hostile folks, the Russians, conceded, that yes, there were weapons unaccounted for in Iraq.
Now, Scott knew that then, he knows that now. I ask you, Scott, why, are you going about the world saying to people now, that Iraq has no such weapons? Why are you saying...
RITTER: Richard what are you saying?
BUTLER: ... that we destroyed 95 percent...
RITTER: I'm agreeing, that we had weapons unaccounted for. What is he saying. What's he saying. What fabrication is going on here, Richard?
BROWN: There's no fabrication, I think there's a very clear question. Why are you going around saying the things that you've been saying about whether or not these weapons were accounted for? Whether they exist, whether they're likely to exist, programs that you said could be put back together in six months. It's been a lot longer than that since inspections are in there. So the question that a lot of people are asking, what are you doing?
RITTER: What am I doing, I'm telling the truth. What do you mean, what am I doing?
All in all, I have to say I was impressed by just about everybody here. It was one of the rare instances where you see patriotism and journalism work hand in hand. All the journalists in question had knives sharpened, and all of them looked almost gleeful in their willingness to nail Ritter to the wall for his perfidy and propagandizing. Watching the interviews, I have to say I saw absolutely no punches pulled with Ritter in any way, shape or form. I will have to say I didn't catch all of the interviews completely on air, but David Asman of Fox definitely did the best job of the bunch. Ashleigh Banfield, amazingly enough, looked the most angrily patriotic. O'Reilly was the most deadpan. He didn't have the typical demogogic aggression that he usually shows on air, but simply gave Ritter the rope to hang himself. Aaron Brown played most disinterested and neutral, but in reality was letting Butler do the heavy lifting. He only occasionally asked questions himself, but Butler was so devastating that Ritter came off again like a blatant Iraqi propagandist. Which, of course, is what he is.
Posted by John Bono at September 13, 2002 08:29 AM | TrackBack
