You can’t hide them Lyin’ Times

Monday, November 28th, 2005 10:02 pm by Neal

Thanks to powerlineblog for this tip:

The estimable editors of the New York Sun have a far higher threshold for pain than we do. They are able not only to continue reading New York Times columnist Frank Rich, but also have the patience to subject his columns to the critical examination they merit. Don’t miss today’s editorial on Rich’s Sunday Times column: “Frank Rich’s war.”

Frank Rich must fit like a glove at the New York Times. In a lame attempt to discredit the President, the war in Iraq, and prewar intelligence, Rich blatantly ignores established fact in favor of the left’s favorite myths. Rich is operating straight out of the Dan Rather playbook. The Sun’s meticulous debunking of Frank Rich’s tripe is definitely worth the read if you haven’t seen it yet (read it here). Here’s one of Rich’s many lies:

Mr. Rich’s New York Times column yesterday accuses Messrs. Bush and Cheney of “falsely claiming they’ve been exonerated by two commissions that looked into prewar intelligence – neither of which addressed possible White House misuse and mischaracterization of that intelligence.” Yet two major reports that looked into the matter of the administration and intelligence did exonerate the president. Here is a quote from the report of the bipartisan Robb-Silberman commission: “The Commission found no evidence of political pressure to influence the Intelligence Community’s pre-war assessments of Iraq’s weapons programs. As we discuss in detail in the body of our report, analysts universally asserted that in no instance did political pressure cause them to skew or alter any of their analytical judgments.”

Here is a quote from the report of the bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: “The Committee did not find any evidence that Administration officials attempted to coerce, influence, or pressure analysts to change their judgments related to Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities.” Yet, in contravention of those conclusions – reached by groups that included Democrats such as Senators Edwards, Levin, Wyden, and Durbin and Clinton administration officials Lloyd Cutler, William Studeman, and Walter Slocombe – Mr. Rich speaks of “the administration’s deliberate efforts to suppress or ignore intelligence that contradicted its Iraq crusade.”

Frank, you’re not fooling anyone.

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