NBC Interrupts 9-11 Commemoration to Scold Iraq War
Just as they did right after the killing of Osama bin Laden back in May, NBC's Brian Williams and Richard Engel interrupted Sunday morning's ceremonies marking the tenth annivesary of the 9/11 attacks to pontificate against the war in Iraq.
At about 9:30am on Sunday, during live coverage of the events at Ground Zero, Williams instructed the audience: "Iraq had nothing do with this." Correspondent Richard Engel quickly echoed: "Iraq had nothing to do with this," before complaining: "And that message is still lost today." (Video and transcript after the jump; h/t Gerardo)
Back in May, as NewsBusters' Kyle Drennen caught, Engel was brought on the May 2 NBC Nightly News to make the same point in a newscast devoted to the successful killing of bin Laden by Navy SEALs. "The truth was, there was never a connection between Iraq and Osama Bin Laden. There were no weapons of mass destruction, either," Engel lectured.
Here's a transcript and video clip of the exchange between Williams and Engel, followed by an excerpt from the May 2 NBC Nightly News:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: And we should probably point out as we look at today's speakers, as we think about today, politics and geopolitics are right there in the background. Yes, today is about memories and sadness, but here's President Bush. Millions of Americans will always believe that while we started bombing in Afghanistan 26 days after what happened here, the first war we launched, people will always believe, was elective, because Iraq had nothing do with this.
RICHARD ENGEL: Iraq had nothing to do with this. And that message is still lost today. The war in Afghanistan most people think was necessary. A response was appropriate because this militant group, al-Qaeda, was being harbored by the Taliban. And the Taliban was driven from power in about three months from the September 11th attacks by just 400 or so mostly CIA operatives. It was a largely covert war that cost a billion dollars. Lost one CIA agent in that, one CIA officer in that conflict. But then not long afterwards the United States shifted focus to Iraq. It was a much more costly endeavor, had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, and that had an impact on the military, had an impact on the original war in Afghanistan, and those two wars are still ongoing.
# From the May 2 NBC Nightly News:
RICHARD ENGEL: Afghanistan and Iraq were lumped together in what was called a 'global war on terrorism.' The truth was, there was never a connection between Iraq and Osama Bin Laden. There were no weapons of mass destruction, either.
But when civil war in Iraq broke out, American troops were stuck. Deployment after deployment, trying to stop the daily carnage. The cost was enormous. More than 4,400 American troops dead. Along with 150,000 Iraqis. And it was a distraction from the United States' original mission to find Bin Laden, stop Al Qaeda, and prevent another 9/11. With American troops tied down in Baghdad, Al Qaeda and the Taliban slipped back into Afghanistan, a fight the United States is still waging.Story Continues Below Ad ↓
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Comments
That "message" is lost to the
Submitted by rbosque on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 11:10am.
That "message" is lost to the left, not for the rest of Amercia. Dispite the left-wing media's crusade to hamper our war effort.
"hamper war effort"?
Submitted by lrgon on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 2:19pm.
How can we win when we fight them in Afghanistan and help the terrorist everywhere else?
Mamoud Abbas has been the recipient of Billions of US tax payer dollars (albeit inflated and devalued) nonetheless, but the Palestianian Authority has gotten US payolla from G.W.Bush and recently got a promise from Hillary Clinton that the PA would be handed more loot as soon as congress can be persuaded to approprate more millions to the "Palestinian homeland."
Abbas is viewed as the moderate in the region and the reasoning given by Bush and the current State Department Secretary articulating administration policy, is to bribe "moderate" Abbas with US bucks so that he can tone down the Muslim Brotherhood and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
US servicemen are dying from al-Qaeda IEDs and Bush and Hillary hand terrorists money and then make our servicemen train them too! http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/foreign-policy/857
In case you missed the point: Palistinian Authority Mamoud Abbas was Yasser Arafat's protégé. Abbas earned his PhD (candidate of sciences) at the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University in Moscow. So highly did Abbas regard Arafat that he named one of his sons Yasser Abbas, after the PLO leader.
Quotes from Schmoozing With Terrorists by Aaron Klein: "The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the bombing in which [American citizen] Daniel Wultz was murdered.
Klein's interview in which one of the bigades' leaders is bragging about the killing:
"The cell of the Brigades that directed the attack … happens to be one of the groups I am closest to. ... the entire bombing operation — from the planning to the recruitment of the suicide bomber — was carried out by Fatah’s Brigades....
"The very crew who sent the bomber into Israel to gravely injure Daniel Wultz consisted of none other than the U.S.-trained Brigades leaders who walk around with American-provided assault rifles."
"American-trained Nasser Abu Aziz, deputy commander of the Brigades in Nablus and the West Bank, called Wultz’s passing a “gift from Allah.”
irgon,
Submitted by Agnostic on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 2:31pm.
The only thing I would like to add is a correction to your first sentence because it implies that we aren't helping terrorist in Afghanistan when we are doing just that.
This is the political equivalent of ROE - they are trying to nudge countries in the direction of freedom and American is paying a massive price over time instead of getting the job done.
It is simply not Brian Williams' place to...
Submitted by Order270 on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 11:13am.
...make such sweepingly subjective statements in his position. The positives of the Iraq war far out weight the negatives. Most importantly, after 9/11, Americans demanded someone pay. We did in Afghanistan in six weeks what the Russians couldn't do in six years, but America wanted something tangible.
We needed to show the world we will not stand for this nonsense and we needed a war that we could see. Cave warfare doesn't make good TV and we needed something we could schedule on TV and watch along with the rest of the world that if you want to get silly with America, this is the lesson you will be taught.
Lesson: Mess with America and we will kill you. We will go to your country and destroy it. We will take your generals and waterboard them. We will find your leader and drag him out by the scruff of his neck and hang him. Then, we will find his best friend, blast him in the face and dump him in the sea.
Don't Mess With America
Exactly
Submitted by Marcus Porcius on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 1:22pm.
Order270 pretty much spells it out.
"Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions." G.K. Chesterton
www.theconservativereview.com
"Afghanistan and Iraq were
Submitted by NC Cop on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 11:13am.
"Afghanistan and Iraq were lumped together in what was called a 'global war on terrorism.' The truth was, there was never a connection between Iraq and Osama Bin Laden. There were no weapons of mass destruction, either."
Iraq was "lumped" together because Iraq supported terrorism, quite openly. It was a safe haven for terrorists and Saddam financed suicide bombings in Israel. There was no conncection between Bin Laden and Iraq and nobody ever said there was, so that's an idiotic statement. There WERE WMD's found in Iraq, items specifically banned by the U.N., however it was not the huge stockpiles that people were expecting.
The media's lying is absolutely disgraceful.
Brian Williams' Agenda
Submitted by rwnewsnut on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 12:51pm.
Maybe Mr. Williams should review Tim Russert's interview of Dick Cheney on 9/16/2001.
**************************************************************
NBC News Transcripts
September 16, 2001 Sunday
MR. RUSSERT: Saddam Hussein, your old friend, his government had this to say: "The American cowboy is rearing the fruits of crime against humanity." If we determine that Saddam Hussein is also harboring terrorists, and there's a track record there, would we have any reluctance of going after Saddam Hussein?
VICE PRES. CHENEY: No.
MR. RUSSERT: Do we have evidence that he's harboring terrorists?
VICE PRES. CHENEY: There is--in the past, there have been some activities related to terrorism by Saddam Hussein. But at this stage, you know, the focus is over here on al-Qaida and the most recent events in New York. Saddam Hussein's bottled up, at this point, but clearly, we continue to have a fairly tough policy where the Iraqis are concerned.
MR. RUSSERT: Do we have any evidence linking Saddam Hussein or Iraqis to this operation?
VICE PRES. CHENEY: No.
**************************************************************
The liberal media promoted the message they wanted to promote.
A Truly Lost Message
Submitted by rwnewsnut on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 12:59pm.
Rep. Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) investigation into operation "Fast and Furious" has gone unreported on the NBC Nightly News.
So if we were to watch NBC Nightly News exclusively, we would not know anything of the investigation Issa is conducting of the ATF's Fast and Furious program.
What did the Holder know and when did he know it?
After Williams did a report on the connection between Perry and the the drug company Merck, I fully expect him to investigate Solyndra and the connection to President Obama via George Kaiser, an Oklahoma billionaire who was one of President Obama's big fundraisers. -- crickets
It was necessary to remove Saddam from power
Submitted by ekslib on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 11:57am.
Joe Biden said so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLmVLut2bSg
Dear Mrs. Williams, Your Talent Had Nothing to Do With...
Submitted by Motormouth KOS on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 12:39pm.
You having a job.
You are a phony fuckwit, on your best day, a lying sack of cat turds on your other days..
How DID you get your job? Please pick from the following possible answers:
a. You gave Immelt a lifetime supply of hummers
b. You work for free?
c. You have a tattoo on your flabby ass that says "I Lie For Liberals"
d. You're married to Michael Moore?
Please enlighten me. You are so smart and cerebral. I want to be just like you when I die.
The Obamination... A crisis leading to a catastrophe..(please donate to MRC)
Who "lumped" them together? The MSM, of course!
Submitted by CobraMan on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 12:44pm.
The MSM keeps harping about Iraq and Afghanistan being "lumped" together in the GWOT, but THEY are the ones who, for more than 6 years, ""lumped" them together. We, the rest of America, knew that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq weren't linked to 9/11, but the MSM tried, insistently, to "link" them together as a means to bash Bush. Now they're complaining about what they, themselves, tried to accomplish, the linking of Iraq and 9/11? Talk about the ultimate hypocrisy!
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Williams and Engle
Submitted by grammajane on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 1:12pm.
are a disgrace to America. When all is said and done in 2012, these two will be on the outside looking in. In the meantime who cares what they say. People are not stupid and realize the "news" is nothing but paid for bias by Soros and probably the WH, Seems the only cheering section for boy wonder is saps like williams and this authority on war procedures, engel. We wouldn't know about Issa, the beatings of Tea Party members, millions wasted in solar, Immelt etc.if it were not for NBusters and I thank you
They've stopped trying to hide it
Submitted by rwnewsnut on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 1:38pm.
Doesn't it seem that the MSM has even stopped trying to hide their liberal bias? It's as if they will accept that small left wing audience that they cater to and now openly spew the Democratic talking points.
How can NBC not cover the ATF scandal and now Solyndra? What did I expect? If the MSM could not see a scandal with the Rezko/Obama land deal - there is no scandal big enough for them to see in Obama.
Very sad.
Ahh 20/20 hindsight +bias. It's the Demorats turn.
Submitted by upcountrywater on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 1:48pm.
That was then, 10 years ago... Today this is what we get.
Here is a sample of the smart power, Global Counterterrorism Forum,
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday marked the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks by calling for the integration of more “smart power” initiatives – more democracy, development, and rule-of-law promotion – into global counterterrorism efforts.
“We need to take a smart and strategic approach that recognizes that violent extremism is bound up with nearly all of today’s complex global problems,” she said.
Despite the cutbacks, Clinton on Friday announced the creation of a new Global Counterterrorism Forum, designed to enhance international counterterrorism cooperation by bringing together policymakers and experts in the field on a regular basis. The new forum, to be formally launched later this month at the United Nations, will initially be co-chaired by the U.S. and Turkey and include 30 other countries, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Algeria.
Clinton said that perhaps the most effective recent action against Al Qaeda’s ideology “has been the blow delivered by the people of the Middle East and North Africa themselves” – a blow she said disproved Osama bin Laden’s insistence that change can only come through violence. The U.S. will be doing itself no favors, either in terms of security or prosperity, Clinton said, if it fails to support the region’s aspirations and democratic transition through a full range of “smart” diplomatic efforts.
As we all know the lowest form of government poor people sink to is democracy. Just like iran 32 years ago, and Carter is still yapping yap yap.
You Didn't Build That.
That's odd, Neither I nor anyone I know
Submitted by krendler on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 2:53pm.
believes that Iraq or Saddam was behind 9-11. That's a fallacy that was propagated by the likes of Chris Matthews and Tim Russert, with Matthews claiming that 80% of Americans thought Iraq was behind 911 (never citing a single survey) because Bush/Cheney told them so (they never did, of course. Cheney specifically denied Iraq was behind 911 at LEAST twice on MTP).
Iraq was about PREVENTING the NEXT - possibly much more catastrophic - 911. It's too bad Clinton didn't develop the same attitude (prevention) in the wake of the WTC bombings in 93. 9-11-2001 might never have happened.
Who are Brian Williams and
Submitted by rockyracoon on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 3:37pm.
Who are Brian Williams and Dick Engle?
Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
As much as I loathe NBC and MSNBC
Submitted by djwolf12 on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 6:17pm.
I really liked the documentary of the news anchors that described what it was like covering 9/11 as it happened. Then, they ran a 3 part documentary on Cheney, Rumsfeld, Halliburton, and Torture. These networks are a total disgrace. When Richard Engel (who just so happens to be seen hanging around with terrorists every time he is on TV) and Rachel Maddow co-anchor a documentary, you know there is smears abound, and they did not disappoint their ilk with launching their hate bombs.
Of course Iraq and 911 are
Submitted by dscott on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 7:04pm.
Of course Iraq and 911 are linked, that's way they keep saying it's not. The fact is were it not for 911 we would not have had the pretext to go into Afghanistan and then set the stage to go into Iraq. Each needed the other occur in the proper sequence otherwise the invasion of Iraq would never have occurred. The claim of WMD in Iraq without the backdrop of 911 would have not been enough of itself to justify the invasion.
Ultimately, it was Bill Clinton's fault for creating the conditions for 911 and Iraq given his incompetence in failing to kill OBL when he had literally 10 chances to do so. Remember, 911 was conceived, planned, trained and funded under Bill Clinton's watch, and THEN 9 months later it occurred after George W Bush took office. In 9 months, W didn't do anything to upset the Muslims, in fact at the time he wasn't that enamored of Israel until 911 occurred and reset that relationship.