Bob Woodward admits WMD evidence "skimpy" before War

Bob Woodward, whose reporting (or lack of) on the White House and WMD in the run-up to the war in Iraq has drawn much criticism, continues to shirk much of the blame. The latest evidence is in an interview this week with the news editor of the Reno News & Review in Nevada. In it, Woodward's reveals that his attitude about Saddam and WMD was guilty-until-proven-innocent -- and he still largely defends that approach, which helped pave the way for more than five years of war.

In a maddening but revealing exchange, Woodward admits that he felt the evidence for WMD was skimpy but he took the word of his inside sources who said it was adequate. At another point he reveals that he knew there was no "smoking gun" -- and that there should be one before going to war -- but hey, what more could he do?

Finally, he claims that we couldn't just take Saddam's word that he had no WMD. His questioner points out that we did have weapons inspectors on the ground just before the war, who were finding nothing.

-----

Woodward admits, "I fault myself mightily for not being aggressive enough on that. But I had sources who told me the evidence on WMD is skimpier than they say and we were going to do a big story about it, and I went back to the sources and I said, 'Okay, the evidence is skimpier, but do you still believe that there is WMD in Iraq?' 'Oh, yes.' They all--all the sources believed it. They didn't say it didn't exist, they said the evidence is skimpier.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003807989

Woodward is a POS who sold his soul as a journalist for inside access for his pimping books.

There was none. If there were no WMD, as has been verified, there was no real intelligence about WMD.

Does Santa Claus wear boxers or briefs, Bob?

To quote Pink Floyd, "every man has his price, and yours was pretty low."

All you had to do was listen to the UN inspectors like Scott Ritter, who spent the years from 1991-98 dismantling Iraq's WMD and production capacity for WMD. How in the world would anyone know better than them?

It was always obvious. If I knew, Woodward knew (as well as certain senators).