CNN Lies

CNN’s reporting of the PDB is unbelievable.

In a story that is considerably longer than PDB itself, CNN spins it to death in some parts and simply makes up facts in others:

CNN: An intelligence report received in May 2001 indicating that al Qaeda was trying to send operatives to the United States through Canada to carry out an attack using explosives. That information had been passed on to intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

I read the thing 5 times and I have no idea how they got this. I even did a text search for “Canada” and “May.” They are each mentioned once but not mentioned anywhere near each other:

PDB: The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin’s first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.

PDB: CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.

Maybe someone can see what I missed but CNN just made that up.

It gets even worse in the extended entry…

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CNN: An allegation that al Qaeda had been considering ways to hijack American planes to win the release of operatives who had been arrested in 1998 and 1999.

PDB: We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a xxxxxxxxxx service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of “Blind Shaykh” ‘Umar ‘Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.

Not a flat lie but a hell of a spin job. I take it back, it was a lie.- Notice they mention arrests in 1999 but the threat was made in 1998. They made it seem like newer data than it was.

CNN: An allegation that bin Laden was set on striking the United States as early as 1997 and through early 2001.

PDB: Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and “bring the fighting to America.”

I gotta say, this is slick. The PDB says he has wanted to attack us since 1997. It mentions no date later than 1998. CNN injects the “early 2001.” It is slick because you can’t call it an outright lie… But it looks like a lie and quacks like a lie don’t it?

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But the one that goes completely over the top is Bill Schneider

SCHNEIDER: I think it could be seriously damaging. What this says is, the White House knew what bin Laden was capable of planning, where he intended to do it, which was New York or Washington, D.C., how he was going to do it. There was only one thing missing, which was exactly when he was going to do it, which turns out to be September 11.

Simply put BULL SHIT. It does not say HOW they are going to attack. It does not even say they ARE gong to attack. It says they WANT to attack. And unless he has a diffrent copy than I do, I can’t find the words “World Trade Center” or “Pentagon” in it anywhere.

This is the worst reporting I have seen in years. He simply lies.

SCHNEIDER: Critics and members of the commission will say, the White House should have been far more aggressive to prevent, what sounds from this memo, like an imminent strike, obviously years in the planning….

Again.. BULL SHIT. There is nothing in the PDB that is even written in the future tense. What exactly sounds “like an imminent strike?”

CNN has been caught in some incredible lies. I can only hope the rest of the media tries to handle it more fairly.

But They Should Have Connected the Dots

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