frankenlies.com
#15: Franken's "Curveball"
In his last book, Lies, Franken tried (and failed) to plaster Ann Coulter for her work with footnotes/endnotes. So it’s a little surprising (OK, not at all) to see Franken try a footnote stunt of his own in his new tome.
On page 49 of Truth, Franken quotes Colin Powell from his February 5, 2003, United Nations speech, as saying, "Iraqi officials deny accusations of ties with al Qaeda. These denials are simply not credible." Franken then attaches a footnote to this quote in which he writes, "Powell would later say of the speech ... ‘It turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong, and in some cases deliberately misleading’. (emphasis mine)"
There are two serious errors Franken has committed here. First, Gen. Powell was saying that the intelligence sources were misleading, not that anyone in the administration was. (More on this below.)
Second, Powell’s quote comes from a Meet the Press television interview from May 16, 2004.1 His remark was a specific response to a question about the faulty intelligence ("Curveball") surrounding Iraq’s biological weapons. By no means did Powell's comment have anything to do about an Iraq-al Qaeda link, although Franken apparently wants to dupe his readers into thinking so.
Here’s the context of the Gen. Powell’s remark (from Meet the Press, 5/16/04), which Franken apparently doesn’t want you to see (emphasis mine):
... It now appears that an agent called Curveball had misled the CIA by suggesting that Saddam had trucks and trains that were delivering biological and chemical weapons. How concerned are you that some of the information you shared with the world is now inaccurate and discredited?RUSSERT:
GEN. POWELL: I'm very concerned. When I made that presentation in February 2003, it was based on the best information that the Central Intelligence Agency made available to me. We studied it carefully; we looked at the sourcing in the case of the mobile trucks and trains. There was multiple sourcing for that. Unfortunately, that multiple sourcing over time has turned out to be not accurate. And so I'm deeply disappointed. But I'm also comfortable that at the time that I made the presentation, it reflected the collective judgment, the sound judgment of the intelligence community. But it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and in some cases, deliberately misleading. And for that, I am disappointed and I regret it.2
Again - Powell's remark had nothing to do with an Iraq-al Qaeda link.
Franken is shredded again.
ADDENDUM
By the way, does Gen. Powell really believe that the United States "lied" its way into war with Iraq, as Franken seems to want us to think that Powell believes?
Here is what Gen. Powell told host Doug McIntyre in an interview on KABC radio in October 20053 (emphasis mine):
As the person representing America at the United Nations, you made your very powerful presentation ... Some of that [intelligence] turned out not to be true. What would your response be to those people who say, "Bush lied"?MCINTYRE:
GEN. POWELL: It wasn’t a lie. The information that I presented on the 5th of February of 2003 to the United Nations was the best information that the intelligence community, the Director of the CIA, George Tenet, would sign off on. And we didn’t make it up. I didn’t tell them what they should tell me to say. And it reflected what they had been saying to the President all along, what they had been saying to Congress to get Congress to pass the resolution supporting the war before in came; the same kind of intelligence they had been giving to the Clinton administration, which caused President Clinton to feel he had to bomb back in 1998.
Now where was it right, and where was it wrong? I think it was right with respect to the fact that this was a regime and a leader who had used chemical weapons and had the intention of having these kinds of weapons again, and had the intention and the inherent capability to produce biological as well as chemical weapons; and continued to be interested in nuclear weapons programs. Where we got it wrong, and we didn’t know it was wrong at the time, or I wouldn’t have used it, neither would the President had relied on it: They didn’t have stockpiles, and there’s no denying that. We got that part of it wrong. And we have to figure out why we got that wrong. Intelligence isn’t a perfect science. You’re trying to get information from people who don’t want you to have that information. And so I regret very much that my presentation had information in it that turned out to be wrong. But we didn’t know it was wrong at the time it was presented. Therefore, it wasn’t a lie, and it wasn’t an attempt to mislead.
By the way, George Tenet, former Director of the CIA, was appointed by President Clinton.
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Notes:
1 “Transcript for May 16,” NBC News’ Meet the Press, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4992558.
2 Ibid.
3 As of November 2005, the audio of the interview can still be found at http://www.kabc.com/mcintyre/default.asp.