2.15.2006

About those "Saddam tapes"

I'll be at the Intelligence Summit this weekend, and yes, will be covering the "Saddam tapes." (Story here and here.) I was asked to do a couple of media interviews on this.

Bottom line is nothing much is known about the tapes yet, so we'll all have to wait to see the import. Critical issues will be dating of the tapes. They come in a context of universal debunking of pre-war intelligence (and the WMD claim) by the CIA and U.S. Military. (Iraq Survey Group, Robb-Silverman Commission, Intel committee, DIA, etc).

[I sometimes get questioned as though only Nancy Pelosi and mainstream media are responsible for the belief intelligence was significantly flawed - somehow people forget it was the CIA and US military officials that led the ISG, not the DNC or the NYT. ]

ABCNEWS TO AIR 'SECRET SADDAM TAPES'...

Per Emily Lenzner, Media Relations Exec. Dir. at “Nightline"


  • ABC World News Tonight will break the story at 6:30 but “Nightline” is the in-depth report.
  • “Nightline” will have a pre-recorded snippet of an interview with Loftus
  • They have the full 12 hours of audio tape and will play bits of it on “Nightline”

Loftus told me today ABC is continuing coverage -he'll be doing Good Morning America next.

It's already clear different interpretations are being put on the significance of the tapes (ranging from "proof" to "discussions, but proof of nothing"). It will be interesting to see what the tapes are all about.