Fox News never gives up

July 22, 2006

It’s really no wonder Fox News viewers are so terribly confused.

On the July 21 edition of Fox News’ The Big Story, during a report on the “scary ‘what ifs’ ” surrounding the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, host John Gibson, along with Fox News’ The Big Story Weekend Edition host Julie Banderas, speculated on whether there was any truth to the baseless reports and statements from unidentified “experts” that Saddam Hussein’s alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction was secretly transported to Syria prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and “might have been put in the hands of Hezbollah.” Throughout the segment, the onscreen text read: “Are Saddam Hussein’s WMDs Now in Hezbollah’s Hands?”

During the report, Banderas endeavored to “separate fact from fiction.” Not mentioned at any time during the segment was the fact that the Iraq Survey Group’s final report, commonly known as the Duelfer report, included no evidence that any secret transfer of weapons from Iraq to Syria had ever taken place.

They never give up, do they?

This story first appeared years ago, just before the current Iraqui unpleasantness on Israeli websites. Not news at all. Also unverified.

  • These guys remind me of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

    [the Black Knight continues to threaten Arthur despite getting both his arms and one of his legs cut off]
    Black Knight: Right, I’ll do you for that!
    King Arthur: You’ll what?
    Black Knight: Come here!
    King Arthur: What are you gonna do, bleed on me?
    Black Knight: I’m invincible!
    King Arthur: …You’re a loony.

  • These guys remind me of the Black Knight.

    Any and all Python references are always encouraged….

  • The funny thing is that this ridiculous ‘theory’ is that it’s so easy to debunk. Over the last few years I’ve persuaded several wingnuts that this transfer was extremely unlikely.
    You have to assume in the run up to the war, just about every surveillance satellite we own was focused on Iraq. The Bush regime might be stupid, but no one is stupid enough to launch an invasion without doing this. Even if Iraq’s WMD cache was 1/2 of what was claimed, one of these hundreds of satellites would have picked up at least one weapons movement. To believe otherwise is to believe in the tooth fairy.

  • BOO!!! BOO!!!!! BOOOOOO!!!!

    They killed Zarqawi, Bin Laden isn’t scary enough, so, meet the new Bogeyman, Hezbollah…

    Be afraid sheep, be very afraid.

  • it’s not just that the duelfur report had no evidence of said “transfer,” it’s that the duelfur report, in painstaking detail, made clear that there were no wmds in saddam’s hands to transfer in 2002.

  • Just like Pravda. They keep spitting out King George’s BS just like Pravda spits out Communist BS in Russia. They believe their own lies. That’s what happens when you hang out in fantasy land!

  • They won’t ever give up. Even if the U.S. invades Syria and doesn’t find the “transferred” WMDs, they will simply insist they were moved to yet another country, (fill in name of next enemy here).

  • Iran will be the next site for Saddam’s WMD.

    Or North Korea.

    Or France.

    Or the New York Times.

    Or a local Taco Bell (see today’s first story).

    Or Monster Island.

    Speaking of Fox News, from Mediamatters:

    Julie Banderas (of Fox News) rhetorically asked viewers to “guess which television” outlet Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had recently appeared on, and then stated: “NO, NOT THE NEW YORK TIMES, but Al Jazeera television, broadcasting this terrorist on TV.”

    First it was the fear that a Simpsons episode might be confused for a real Fox News report,
    now it’s the claim that the NYT is a terrorist-loving television station.

    The material just writes itself, doesn’t it?

  • The babblespeaking freakazoids at FauxNews won’t give up the WMD issue—until you pry it from their cold, dead hands—or until everyone in the country can recite—with resigned clarity and exhausted meaning—that 2 + 2 = 5….

  • “Saddam Hussein’s alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction was secretly transported to Syria prior to the 2003” – Faux News

    Well, for those who don’t remember, before the Gulf War, Saddam sent his airforce to Iran for ‘safe keeping’. He didn’t get it back.

    You’d think that would be lesson enough. And in fact for the Iraqi War, he choose to bury his airforce (it’s kind of hard to bomb a fighter under ten feet of sand).

    But also consider that while the ruling party in Iraq was the Baath party, and the ruling party in Syria is the Baath party, these are just names. In Iraq, they were Sunnis with a history of mass murder against Shia. In Syria, the Baath are Shia with a record of surpressing their Sunnis. And simply, they hate each others’ guts.

    Then consider the fact that these ‘analysts’ who tell you the WMD are in Syria are accepting the word of disident Syrians who want us to overthrow the Baathists and of discredited Iraqi exiles who used WMD to entice us into overthrowing Saddam and have to explain where the damn things went.

    It’s like the twits who believe the Iranian exiles who claim that al Qaeda operatives are living and working in Iran, even though Iran is Shia and al Qaeda is Sunni and both of them hate each other.

    We are on the verge of a Shia-Sunni sectarian war throughout the Islamic world and we can’t keep the two straight? What does that say about our foreign policy establishment under Boy George II?

    Oh, yah, they are lead by a Soviet Studies Expert who doesn’t have the imagination to anticipate an attack with airliners like the one described in Tom Claney’s “Debt of Honor”.

  • The funny thing is that this ridiculous ‘theory’ is that it’s so easy to debunk. Over the last few years I’ve persuaded several wingnuts that this transfer was extremely unlikely.-Joe W

    Joe-You must have easier wingnuts where you live. On the now rare occasions that I try to actually change their ‘minds’, Indiana wingnuts just foam at the mouth and scream at me that I won’t listen to reason. There are some moderates with whom I’m having success…that’ll have to do for now…

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