What is this all about? Nightline's Saddam Tapes.

[El Supremo]

Drudge is hyping this as the "smoking gun" for WMDs.

I ain't staying up to watch it. Could somebody please clue me in tomorrow?

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Investigation/story?id=1616996

[Atman]

1. The Smoking Distraction From All of BushCo's Other Ills?

Do tell, Nightline!

[NYCGirl]

2. Here's an article from Newsweek. They're no smoking gun —

Saddam Tapes: What They Don't Prove
Newsweek

Feb. 20, 2006 issue - Government investigators are trying to determine how 12 hours of tape recordings of Saddam Hussein and his aides, acquired by U.S. personnel in Iraq, got into the hands of the organizers of a private "intelligence summit" to be held in D.C. next weekend. John Loftus, a former government prosecutor and self-described whistle-blower, claims the tapes "will be able to provide a few definitive answers to some very important—and controversial—weapons-of-mass-destruction questions." At one point Saddam muses how vulnerable D.C. would be to a "biological" attack, but adds that Iraq wouldn't do it.

House Intelligence Committee chairman Pete Hoekstra is reviewing transcripts to determine if U.S. officials missed WMD evidence after the war. But intel agencies are skeptical. The tapes were taken without permission from an FBI-run translation center, officials say, and are years old. Two government officials, requesting anonymity because of the sensitive subject, say the tapes in no way prove that WMD stockpiles or programs existed at the time of the U.S. invasion or were moved to another country before U.S. troops arrived.

—Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11299205/site/newsweek

[Catherine Vincent]

3. just a wet dream for blind repukes

[annabanana]

4. tapes NOT a "smoking gun"

See our earlier thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x431977

There was a mention of these tapes on CBS Evening News.

We got on this BS so fast that Schaffer said that they were tapes of Saddam hiding the fact that he had NO WMD's and didn't want the word to get out and make him look weak. They were from the early 90's..

We (the blogosphere) tripped it up before it got out of the gate.

[LibinMo]

5. From the Coast to Coast am website:

First Hour: Intelligence analyst Bill Tierney will discuss his tapes of Saddam Hussein that were revealed to ABC News.


Nightline & Coast to Coast on the same story??? Weird.