Newsweek: The Story That Didn’t Run

[Synnical]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6073449/site/newsweek/

Here’s the piece that ‘60 Minutes’ killed for its report on the Bush Guard documents


Sept. 22 - In its rush to air its now discredited story about President George W. Bush’s National Guard service, CBS bumped another sensitive piece slated for the same “60 Minutes” broadcast: a half-hour segment about how the U.S. government was snookered by forged documents purporting to show Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium from Niger.

<snip>

A team of “60 Minutes” correspondents and consulting reporters spent more than six months investigating the Niger uranium documents fraud, CBS sources tell NEWSWEEK. The group landed the first ever on-camera interview with Elisabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who first obtained the phony documents, as well as her elusive source, Rocco Martino, a mysterious Roman businessman with longstanding ties to European intelligence agencies.


<snip>

The delay of the CBS report comes at a time when there have been significant new developments in the case—although virtually none of them have been reported in the United States. According to Italian and British press reports, Martino-the Rome middleman at the center of the case—was questioned last week by an Italian investigating magistrate for two hours about the circumstances surrounding his acquisition of the documents. Martino could not be reached for comment, but his lawyer is reportedly planning a press conference in the next few days.

[StClone]

1. Wonderful

If that is true I'm going to feel a little sick.

[54anickel]

2. Damn, damn, damn! n/t

[high density]

3. That's unbelievable!

How are they ever going to air this story now?

[Gato Moteado]

4. CBS is still the most reputable news outlet....

the awol memos were obviously a trick by karl rove to muddy the waters around bush's complete lack of courage and responsibility.

next question.

[high density]

13. I know I have a low post count

and I have seen that's equated with being a Bush supporter to some people on this board, but you can't seriously think that CBS is going to air a story about somebody else's forged documents now?

I like CBS and Dan Rather but it's time to face reality. I think CBS is going to lay low and be extra, extra cautious until this Killian memo thing blows over.

[Jack_Dawson]

21. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[high density]

22. Thanks

:)

[trogdor]

64. Welcome for me, too.

I agree with you, as long as it doesn't include:

1. Forced retirement of Dan Rather.
2. Being nicer to the Chimp.

If they do either one of these, the VRWC has won.

[scottcsmith]

37. Ah, good ole' VB

When I went to Sydney in 1991, I drank gallons of Victoria Bitter.

[Jack_Dawson]

45. Me2!

Haven't been able to find it here. If I did I would stock my fridge.

[yellerpup]

36. Good point.

Welcome to DU! :hi: Don't sweat you low post count. Everybody starts at one.

[fearnobush]

42. Agreed, plus this story has a French connection that the Freeper

new world order would be pounding on 10 times greater than Dan's documents. This story not coming out could very well be a blessing in disguise for the Wilson Case and for Kerry.

[leesa]

53. Maybe, but they would be fools to do so, no matter how much SOME folks

might like them to. NOW is the time to come out with all guns blazing. Does that disappoint you?

[Emboldened Chimp]

9. They can't now...at least not credibly...

Now I'm convinced this was a Rove plant. The admin must have gotten wind this story was going to air, so Rove, knowing CBS would bite, throws them a bone with the fake TANG docs. Who's going to believe CBS now after all that flack?

[Sinnerman]

31. That's the problem

Because CBS got caught with it's hand in the cookie jar, now real stories about bush and the Re pukes are going to come out and they won't report them because they are going to question the validity of every story & every source.

[fearnobush]

39. Not exactly. A storm is brewing.

[Carla in Ca]

32. Maybe now IS the right time...

could help their credability...maybe. What do they have to lose?

Welcome to DU!!!:hi:

[girl gone mad]

55. I don't think there's any reason for them..

not to run it.

[MallRat]

5. Wow. They killed two stories with one inaccuracy.

Unreal.

:-(

[drdtroit]

24. Gee, what a coincidence! n/t

[They_LIHOP]

6. "Now discredited"?

Hate to break it to you, but the only thing about the story that's been 'discredited' is the part about where the documents originated.

Other than that, the 'facts' of the story remain unimpeached, indeed, even unchallenged.

But, hey, MSRNC, thanks for carrying the water for Bushco, as usual!

Wh*res.

[ClassWarrior]

15. Bingo.

23.

[alittlelark]

7. Sounds like Rove was beginning to panic

and had to dangle a meaty bone to derail

[dennis4868]

8. I think I will drink myself to sleep.....

this cannot be true, right?

[PROGRESSIVE1]

10. I said that this is the story that should have run, not this stupid....

crap!!! The LIES that lead us into Iraq are the REAL story.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

12. CBS is stupid if they did this!

:cry:

Why?????

The Niger story would have blown Bushler out of the water! People hate the war in Iraq. They want a solution. CBS should have shown this story. This would have been the END of *!!!

:argh:

DAMN CBS!!!

[AIJ Alom]

11. I don't see the problem in putting this story out there asap.

I mean CBS is the network which also outed the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandel.

They also outed the Bush PDB memo of august 6, 2001.

[Bandit]

16. I agree... They are the only News agency willing to question

If they don't it will never get reported because we know the other networks aren't going to do it. If they truly consider themselves Patriots and not just tools they will go ahead and run this story. It is an important story that needs to be told. The right is going to squeel no matter what happens and you know what, I like hearing them squeel. Report the News and the Truth. CBS reported the Truth but had questionable documents as part of their evidence. It is not proved that the documents are not true documents. It does appear to be proved that the Niger documents were indeed false, and that Bush* knew they were false and used the information anyway.

[koopie57]

40. What I would like to see CBS do

is each week discuss how * policies have effected people. Their reporting could not be disputed cuz it all would be factual based on written policies and laws. I think it would be effective for women especially to become aware of all the programs that * has cut for women's health, prenatal care, nutritional programs for babies, etc. I suspect most people are not aware of how much has been cut that made a difference in many people's lives.

And another week talk about changes in education funding and how that is affecting people. Etc.

I think it would be a way to prop up their credibility, surprise people at how much damange * policies have actually done, how far back we've gone and get people talking positively about CBS. IMHO.

[napi21]

14. Dpn't panic yet! If Newsweek has this part of the story, it will get

out, one way or the other. CBS may have to take second chair in it, and let Newsweek take the lead, but it sounds to me like it will happen.

[TA]

56. I agree napi21 - More people are working on this, the story will get out

Besides CBS and Newsweek there is also Laura Rozen - War and Piece plus Joshua Marshall - Talking Points Memo. The CBS switch to the Burkett documents was unfortunate but the Niger story will happen soon.

[leftchick]

17. WTF? U.S. government was snookered by forged documents ?

There wasn't any snookering about it. They knew they were fakes from the git go but it suited their needs to "get their war on"!!!

[Catherine Vincent]

18. They should still run the story.

If the other networks ignore it, then this country is screwed.

[Cush]

19. great

they probably won't run it now. The article mentioned Josh Marshall, sounds like this was the big story he was working on

[chemteacher]

20. If Newsweek at MSNBC has it...

can Olbermann or someone with a shred of credibility at MSNBC run with it?

Probably not enough to get the real hacks on the network side to do much with it, but any traction someone like Keith could give it would be great.

Even Tweety has been yo-yo-ing a little bit lately in his support for one side or the other and might bite on this a little bit.

[candy331]

25. CBS is not discredited it is the news whores that are, and if CBS

thinks by their yielding and dancing to their tune that they will be allowed to slide then they'd better wake up in a hurry. The end result is to destroy them and by "Any means necessary" so CBS better decide whether thy will have a future by fighting back or be driven out.

[wryter2000]

23. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[Synnical]

29. Thanks n/t

:-)

[TankLV]

26. What was "discredited" - NOTHING HAS BEEN DISCREDITED!

Only the usual suspects are claiming - alleging - that anything wasn't real about the documents - NO ONE HAS PROVEN THAT CLAIM!

But glad to hear you repeating repuke talking points - just like in the run up to the illegal war, swift boat lie, late term abortion lies, and other repuke lies.

[H2O Man]

30. It's the article

that calls the Bush documents "discredited" -- the same article which reports what story was postponed. The DU contributer did not repeat any "repuke talking points" .... just posted an important article.

[Me.]

27. The Story That Won't Die

No matter how hard the repugs try, the whole Plame matter has a life of its own.

Link to the "Come Together" Plame thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2359185

[H2O Man]

28. This is a great article.

For the past few days, on the DU e-mail, a few of us from the Plame threads have been discussing the connectionsbetween the two stories. I'm pretty sure that after reading this Newsweek article, everyone knows what happened with the Bush Guard documents. We are up against a resourceful opponent, who is pulling out all the stops. There are things that haven't been making it into the news .... such as the break-in at an ACT campaign headquarters in Morrisville, PA about a week ago .... no $$$ taken, but their computer hard-drive, with all information on voters, stolen. Sound familiar? Hmmmm .... campaign HQ broken into .... hmmmm...

The fact that the republican machine made such a huge effort to keep the Plame/neocon spy ring/ forged Niger documents from being reported should give you a clear idea what an important story it is.

[2Design]

46. has this hard drive thing been in the news - that is something

important that they were after the data

[H2O Man]

48. I would be interested in knowing

if anyone in the Philly area has heard about it? It should be making national news, really. I had contacted the person on DU listed as the head of PA business, but got no response.

[lefty_WOHM]

51. I'm in PA and I've not heard of it

But I don't listen to the local news much. I'll do a search...

[krkaufman]

33. Bush TANG docs story was likely rushed...

... in order to fill-out the segment with the Barnes interview.

[Carolab]

34. I don't get it

CBS admitted they were taken in by forged documents, and admitted the error.

The Niger story is ABOUT being taken in by forged documents and NOT admitting the error.

I think that their willingness to investigate and admit their own mistake in trusting the source makes them more credible, not less.

[Bandit]

57. When did CBS admit that?

I heard them say they could not authenticate the documents but have never heard them say the documents were not true or that they were forged.

[Roland99]

35. HOLY SHIT!!

And CBS dumped that for these documents that they already had doubts about???


WTF???

[AIJ Alom]

38. Hardball mentioned the story...

Also Chris Matthews and the Newsweek Reporter Ishkoff spoke about how the Niger Yellowcake scandel investigation was started 1 year ago but the FBI has been slowed in their efforts (surprise, surprise).

[shraby]

41. Olbermann mentioned it too.

[goodboy]

43. It's all very clear to me now.

They did it to pre-emptively destroy the embarassing piece about their own use of a forged document.

[grasswire]

44. this..................................

is why the WH urged CBS to get the story on the air that evening. The WH wanted them to get it out.

That's why.

Rove got a five-fecta out of it.

1. Smack Dan Rather
2. Intimidate other journos
3. Spank Burkett
4. Innoculate Bush on AWOL
5. Squash the Niger story off the air


A FIVE-FECTA

[JohnOneillsMemory]

50. Exactly. CIA still have their minions in most media for this occasion.

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/MOCK/mockingbird.html
(Subversion of the Free Press by the CIA: Operation Mockingbird)

"You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month." - CIA operative discussing with Philip Graham, editor Washington Post, on the availability and prices of journalists willing to peddle CIA propaganda and cover stories. "Katherine The Great," by Deborah Davis (New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1991)

>snip<

It was conceived in the late 1940s, the most frigid period of the coldwar, when the CIA began a systematic infiltration of the corporate media, a process that often included direct takeover of major news outlets.

In this period, the American intelligence services competed with communist activists abroad to influence European labor unions. With or without the cooperation of local governments, Frank Wisner, an undercover State Department official assigned to the Foreign Service, rounded up students abroad to enter the cold war underground of covert operations on behalf of his Office of Policy Coordination.

Philip Graham, a graduate of the Army Intelligence School in Harrisburg,PA, then publisher of the Washington Post., was taken under Wisner'swing to direct the program code-named Operation MOCKINGBIRD. "By the early 1950s," writes former Village Voice reporter Deborah Davis in Katharine the Great, "Wisner 'owned' respected members of the New York Times, Newsweek, CBS and other communications vehicles, plus stringers, four to six hundred in all, according to a former CIA analyst. " The network was overseen by Allen Dulles, a templar for German and American corporations who wanted their points of view represented in the public print. Early MOCKINGBIRD influenced 25 newspapers and wire agencies consenting to act as organs of CIA propaganda. Many of these were already run by men with reactionary views, among them William Paley (CBS), C.D. Jackson (Fortune), Henry Luce (Time) and Arthur Hays Sulzberger (N.Y. Times).

>snip<

In the 1950s, outlays for global propaganda climbed to a full third ofthe CIA's covert operations budget. Some 3, 000 salaried and contract CIA employees were eventually engaged in propaganda efforts. The cost of disinforming the world cost American taxpayers an estimated $265 million a year by 1978, a budget larger than the combined expendituresof Reuters, UPI and the AP news syndicates. In 1977, the Copely News Service admitted that it worked closely with the intelligence services - in fact, 23 employees were full-time employees of the Agency.

[Geek_Girl]

58. Five-Fecta!

Man Rove really is an evil genious.

[UCLA Dem]

47. Hi guys, I would have posted this on a new thread, but I'm

new, so I can't yet. I just thought this was good stuff.

http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=301

[Tight_rope]

62. Welcome to DU UCLA Dem!

You can post after 20 post.

[KoKo]

49. It's Josh Marshall, Laufa Rosen's story...They said they had a network

on board to go with the story. They got trashed because of whatever happened with Memo's.

Something's very fishy about this.

[leesa]

52. And yet Newsweek continues to whore for BushCo.

If any of you are purchasing ANY of these mainstream "news" magazines or newspapers, you are part of the problem.

[DeepModem Mom]

54. Thanks, Syn -- and welcome to DU!

[kegler14]

59. How could CBS be so stupid...

The Niger story is MUCH, MUCH more important to the average person than whether or not Bush got preferential treatment 30 years ago. We all know he got preferential treatment and didn't fulfill all his duties and the fact is most people just don't care. And we can't make them care by hammering it home.

But more information about a forged document that has now helped cost 1,100 Americans their lives and the country hundreds of billions and international prestige? That's a story that could light some fires even.

[Geek_Girl]

60. My Guess

My Guess is they thought they would do the document piece first then run the Niger story shortly after. They thought the documents were real.

[Bridget Burke]

61. The documents are real. The story they tell is real.

Their provenance is questionable.

Bush did have strings pulled to get him into the National Guard. And he did screw up rather than finish his obligation.

[kegler14]

63. As I said in my post

I know the story is real. But I don't think many people care much. I think people DO care about Bush lying to convince people that we needed to invade Iraq.

[T Bone]

65. My guess is this

Rove knew they were about to run with the forged Niger docs.
He had some other very evil dirt, as a threat on Rather.
Gave Rather a choice. Run with these guard docs instead of the Niger story NOW, or I will destroy you with this other stuff(unknown to us).
Whatever the choice was it was so bad Rather had to run with the guard docs, not knowing that those docs themselves were the poison pill that would be used against his further credibility for the rest of his career.

Now think about one more thing. Rather first came into national prominence on exactly WHAT day in US history?

Just a coincidence huh?