Morning Joe reported that Saddam allegedly financed three Dems' Iraq trip, but not that DOJ reportedly said they didn't know
Please upgrade your flash player. The video for this item requires a newer version of Flash Player. If you are unable to install flash you can download a QuickTime version of the video.
SUMMARY: On Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough discussed "[a] trip made by three U.S. lawmakers to Iraq before the war [that] was secretly financed by -- Saddam Hussein." Brzezinski stated, "The dates of the tour match one taken by Democratic representatives Jim McDermott, David Bonior, and Mike Thompson." But neither Brzezinski nor Scarborough mentioned that, as reported on the Morning Joe on-screen news ticker, "The Justice Department [told] NBC News it is satisfied the lawmakers believed in good faith the trip was funded by a legitimate charity."
On the March 27 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski reported that "[a] trip made by three U.S. lawmakers to Iraq before the war was secretly financed by -- Saddam Hussein." Brzezinski then said, "[T]hey didn't do that, did they?" to which co-host Joe Scarborough replied, "Yeah, they did." Scarborough added: "I remember the people said things over there that made people roll their eyes and say, 'What, was their trip financed by Saddam Hussein?' " Brzezinski then commented, "Oh, well, yeah, it was." She then stated: "Federal prosecutors say that an Iraqi-American man from a Michigan charity secretly set up the visit in exchange for Iraqi oil. He has been charged with working for Iraq's ousted government. The dates of the tour match one taken by Democratic representatives Jim McDermott [WA], [then-Rep.] David Bonior [MI], and Mike Thompson [CA]." However, as reported on the Morning Joe on-screen news ticker, "The Justice Department [told] NBC News it is satisfied the lawmakers believed in good faith the trip was funded by a legitimate charity." During the discussion, which included Brzezinski, Scarborough, and co-host Willie Geist, no one mentioned this reported statement by the Justice Department.
Brzezinski and Scarborough discussed the story again at the beginning of the second and third hours of Morning Joe, but in neither case did they mention the Justice Department's reported statement to NBC News.
At various times during Morning Joe -- including during the third-hour discussion of the story -- the news ticker at the bottom of the screen displayed the following text: "Federal prosecutors say a pre-war trip to Iraq by three Democratic lawmakers was secretly financed by Saddam Hussein's intelligence service * The Justice Department tells NBC News it is satisfied the lawmakers believed in good faith the trip was funded by a legitimate charity."
In contrast to Brzezinski's and Scarborough's comments, a March 27, 1:15 a.m. Associated Press report stated that "Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators 'have no information whatsoever' any of them [McDermott, Bonior, and Thompson] knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam." The AP reported that "[t]he three anti-war Democrats made the trip in October 2002, while the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. While traveling, they called for a diplomatic solution." The report also stated that "[d]uring the trip, the lawmakers expressed skepticism about the Bush administration's claims that Saddam was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Though such weapons ultimately were never found, the lawmakers drew criticism for their trip at the time."
From the March 27 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:
BRZEZINSKI: A trip made by three U.S. lawmakers to Iraq before the war was secretly financed by -- Saddam Hussein.
SCARBOROUGH: Ouch.
GEIST: Whoops.
BRZEZINSKI: Is that a --
SCARBOROUGH: Ouch. That is bad.
GEIST: That is bad.
BRZEZINSKI: Can you -- they didn't do that, did they?
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, they did. I remember that trip, and I remember --
BRZEZINSKI: You weren't on that, were you?
SCARBOROUGH: No, it wasn't me --
BRZEZINSKI: OK.
SCARBOROUGH: -- but I remember the people said things over there that made people roll their eyes and say, "What, was their trip financed by Saddam Hussein?"
BRZEZINSKI: Oh, well, yeah, it was. So anyhow --
SCARBOROUGH: Now we find out it was.
BRZEZINSKI: Federal prosecutors say an Iraqi-American man from a Michigan charity secretly set up the visit in exchange for Iraqi oil. He has been charged with working for Iraq's ousted government. The dates of the tour match one taken by Democratic Representatives Jim McDermott, David Bonior and Mike Thompson. All righty.
[...]
BRZEZINSKI: A trip made by three U.S. lawmakers to Iraq before the war was apparently secretly financed by Saddam Hussein. OK.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
GEIST: That's amazing.
BRZEZINSKI: The dates of the tour match one taken by Democratic representatives Jim McDermott, David Bonior, and Mike Thompson.
SCARBOROUGH: And I remember some people saying when those guys were over there --
BRZEZINSKI: Hmm. Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: -- it sounded like they had been funded by Saddam Hussein. And now we find out actually, it had.
BRZEZINSKI: I think it was an exchange for oil. I -- OK.
[...]
BRZEZINSKI: A trip made by three -- this is interesting -- U.S. lawmakers to Iraq, now, before the war, this trip was taken. Apparently, it was secretly financed by -- Saddam Hussein.
SCARBOROUGH: And I remember that trip, thinking, and a lot of people saying, "Boy, they're talking like this trip was financed by" --
BRZEZINSKI: Saddam Hussein.
SCARBOROUGH: -- "Saddam Hussein."
BRZEZINSKI: Well, apparently it was.
SCARBOROUGH: Wow.
BRZEZINSKI: The dates of the tour match one -- this is what they're looking into -- taken by Democratic representatives Jim McDermott, David Bonior -- we know him -- and Mike Thompson. We'll follow that story.
SCARBOROUGH: Wow.
NEver let it be said that Joe Scarborough will allows the facts get in the way of a good argument. He's almost as useless as Mark Levin.
(And if anyone in Mark Levin's organization - even Mark himself - is reading this, tell Mark to bite me.)
Intelligent like your insult here that's without foundation?
Do you ever write anything even remotely intelligent?
Speaking as a professional technical writer for over 25 years, yes. Can you read what I write without moving your lips?
Some people will believe anything the government tells them until the government tells them something they don't want to believe.
Example: The people who still believe in the Administration's claim that there were WMD in Iraq after report upon report from that same Administration's government tells them that there were no WMDs.
Example: The people who still believe in the Administration's claim that there was a link between al Quaeda and Iraq after report upon report from that same Administration's government tells them that there was no link.
And now, people will believe that these three Rep's went to Iraq KNOWING they were on Saddam Hussein's dime when the government tells them that there was no way they could have known that.
Geez...when you want people to flip-flop and they just won't! What to do...:)
In other words, MSNBC didn't report that these guys are total idiots for thinking their trip was financed by a "charity."
Great post, MM! </sarc>
The total idiot would be you for thinking that you have a point besides the one on the top of your head.
The money was laundered through a charity, and they had no reason to doubt that it was the charity which was paying for it. That does not mean they're idiots.
I am outraged that anyone would even suggest that these "patriotic" three were somehow unAmerican. They took a free trip to help out an old friend in need of propaganda. Who can argue with that?
"Lazy-ass media ..."
That is one of the biggest canards perpetrated by the left: That the media somehow didn't challenge the war before it happened. Of course they did! Why does the left conveniently forget all of those HUGE front-page photos of anti-war demonstrations BEFORE the war started?
Journalistic Fraud by Bob Kohn illustrates how the NYT posted headline after headline, day after day, that dumped on the idea war against Iraq. This happened for months before the war started. (And please don't point to a couple of dopey columns by Judith Miller to challenge this. Their attention was extremely minimal, if any.)
Why does the left conveniently forget all of those HUGE front-page photos of anti-war demonstrations BEFORE the war started?
Because those supposedly HUGE front-page stories were of the demonstrations in France and Germany, not the ones in the US. And those stories were used to condemn and vilify the French and the Germans, who were completely, unquestionably right in their assessment of the lies of the W administration.
The demonstrations in the US were belittled and ridiculed, crowd sizes were woefully underestimated, and those lies were used by the media to downplay the amount of discontent there was with the buildup to W's optional, greed-fueled war.
Or don't you remember White House stenographer Judith Miller, who listened as the White House dictated their lies to her,so that she would post them word-for-word as gospel truth?
Come back when you know what you are talking about. Your ignorance is staggering.
Probably not, and even if he did, somewhere between 30% and 70% would not agree with the report, depending on what it says.
"And you could pretty safely bet, that what they saw would be beneficial to Sadman and may well have not been the whole story."
Like not seeing WMD that REALLY WEREN'T THERE to begin with? Stuff like that?
After all these years of trying to paint golf trips to Scotland and pleasure trips in the tropics being paid for by corporate lobbyists as nothing more than "Fact Finding" trips instead of the bribes they really are, NOW all of a sudden the Right cares about where the money is coming from?
Whatever.
Jeez, the keyboard is moving more than it should. Rumsfeld went to Iraq in 1982.
I think we can with some certainty say, whatever side you may believe in, that the truth will eventually come out. An ABC article says:
If they can physically prove that 2 million barrels were given to Al-Hanooti, which shouldn't be THAT hard to figure out if it really happened or not, the evidence looks pretty damning. If not, they have nothing.