WPost Taps White House War Salesman for Op-Ed SpotThe big story in the New York Times‘ Sept. 8, 2002 edition was headlined, “U.S. Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts.”
That infamous article, by Judith Miller and Michael Gordon, told the now-debunked tales of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs, through the voices of lying Iraqi defectors and anonymous quotes by Bush administration officials.
Most folks who read it probably can’t recall the details of the article. But few have forgotten one comment from an unnamed “hard-liner” administration official, parahprased by the reporters:
The first sign of a ‘smoking gun,’ they argue, may be a mushroom cloud.
It was memorable then for being such a clever and powerful turn of phrase. It’s memorable now because we know it was baseless — yet oft-repeated. And it’s important to remember at this moment because the man who wrote it, Michael Gerson, just got himself a regular column in the Washington Post. (Gerson’s authorship of the “smoking gun” line was reported by Michael Isikoff and David Corn in their new book, “Hubris.”)
With no apparent sense of irony, the Post announced on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that Gerson — one of the men who worked hardest to dishonestly connect al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein in the public mind, and launch an invasion of Iraq based on the horrible events of that day — will join its op-ed team.
In the release publicizing its selection, Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt calls Gerson “an eloquent writer and provocative thinker.” Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
Take, for example, this eloquent and provocative line from Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address: “Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own.” (We know now, of course, that’s not the case.)
Yep, that was Gerson’s. He was, in fact, the only speechwriter in the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), created to sell the idea of invading Iraq to the U.S. public. He was responsible for nearly every misleading statement that came out of the administration — at least the ones that sounded good.
Perhaps the most alarming episode from Gerson’s history is the infamous “sixteen words” in Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address, which alleged Iraq had sought to buy uranium from Niger. Gerson signed off on the speech even after the CIA had warned him that the allegation was false; when the truth came out he neglected to produce evidence showing he had been cautioned; and he stood by while others took the fall.
Months after the speech, experts publicly challenged the claim. At first, the White House blamed the CIA. Then-CIA director George Tenet gave a public apology, but the White House soon admitted that some of its top aides had been warned ahead of time by the CIA that the claim was false. (Gerson had kept a copy of one of the CIA’s warning memos in his files, according to “Hubris” — but didn’t produce it until after Tenet had apologized.)
Following the episode, White House adviser Steven Hadley, who also played a key role in the debacle, offered to resign. No such offer from Gerson has been reported.
In failing to adequately debunk the false claims Gerson and the White House generated tirelessly to lead the country into war with Iraq, the Washington Post has plenty to apologize for. So does Gerson, it seems, although I can’t find a record of his having done so.
So how does the paper plug its failures and his failures into an equation that, when solved, equals Gerson getting his own column?
Update: This post has been clarified to show that Gerson’s authorship of the smoking gun/mushroom cloud line was reported by Michael Isikoff and David Corn in their book, “Hubris.”
