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April 13, 2003

The CNN Thing

The prison in question is at the General Security Services headquarters, which was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children — toddlers up to pre-adolescents — whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace.
-- Scott Ritter, September 2002

Well, that was actually enough for me. The blogosphere seems to be falling all over itself trying to make something out of CNNs recent confession, as if they were shilling for Saddam. Eason Jordan sounds reasonable in his explanation.

The truth is that we don't want to know. Our hearts are too big. It would make us responsible for others. By the Fourth of July, Iraq will be on page 20. Ritter has said some interesting things that I'm going to review over at Vision Circle. In retrospect, a lot of things are becoming clear.

Posted by mbowen at April 13, 2003 12:50 AM

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Comments

I agree with you on the CNN scandal. I keep asking myself what scadal?. There were certain stories they decided not to tell so that innocents would not be killed. One could argue that instead of "protecting" Saddam and pleading the case for the continued presence of their bureau office, they should have packed up and pulled out. I ask: Then what? They tell the stories and get people killed? They pull out, don't tell the stories, and don't have access to the horrible stories they were able to tell.

Others are asking what stories from countries of other brutal dictators is CNN not reporting so they can keep a bureau open. That is a straw man and does not address the point of why they did it. I have no love for the media, and have even less since this war began, but this "scandal: is just silly. No story is worth a human life.

Posted by: walter at April 17, 2003 11:57 PM