January 28, 2006
In the previous post, I discussed the bias in blogging about the NY
Sun's story about General Georges Sada claims that Saddam Hussein had
shipped WMDs to Syria during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Sada's
claims were, as pointed out, hearsay. The right wing seized
the story, the left ignored it. I cautioned the claims of Sada but
noted that, for something this significant, no one was picking up the
Sun piece. I further suggested some investigation.
First to be
noted is the author of the NY Sun piece, Ira Stoll. Stoll is a known
right wing crackpot who has championed the Iraq war since the beginning: Seth
Lipsky and Ira Stoll assembled their staff for a Champagne toast to
mass death on the commencement of hostilities against Iraq. Stoll called it "my war." And a cursory look at Stoll's blogroll would certainly confirm this quality.
As
was also discussed, Sada is now closely linked with Terry Law's World
Compassion organisation and is the president of the National
Presbyterian Church in Baghdad and chairman of the Assembly of Iraqi
Evangelical Presbyterian Churches. He was also tossed into to prison by Hussein, so he would conceivably have a bone to pick, despite vengence being reserved for the Lord.
But things get interesting when looking at the publisher of Sada's book, Saddam's Secrets. Integrity Publishers
is a Christian imprint. One of the things that will strike oddly is how
out of sorts Sada's book appears next to Pat Robertson's Miracles Can be Yours Today. (Admittedly, Saddam's Secrets might not look as conspicuous next to Robertson's highly anticipated future tomes, Bring Me Chavez's Head! and the sure-to-be-harrowing Smite Dover!)
Indeed, that a book containing the "major revelations" brought forth by
Sada appear courtesy of a Christian imprint is nothing, if not strange.
But the integrity of Integrity has, heretofore, been called into question. Dr. Gary Adams of edresearch.com documents a run-in with Integrity that occurred in 2003. Integrity published a book called Discover Your Child’s DQ Factor
by a one Greg Cynaumon. In the promotion of his book, Cynaumon had
claimed many titles and that he was many things, chief among them
psychologist, marriage and family therapist, and radio talk show host.
He was and still is none of those. In other words, the author of the
Integrity Publishers' proud treatise in child psychology was a fraud.
Adams called the publisher, told them this and was assurred that they
would look into the issue. Adams called back after some months to ask
why the book was still on the shelves and the Joey Paul, senior vice
president of Integrity, told Adams to bug off, he had nothing to say.
Adams named Integrity Publisher to his Hall of Shame.
All of which is enough to give enormous pause regarding any of Sada's claims, possibly even those about himself.
Though
I may have expressed some ire regarding the lefties for ignoring this,
if for no other reason than the fact that it should have been brought
down swiftly, it seems likely that many of them were probably just
shaking heads at this latest attempt by Ira Stoll to further agitate
the players in his war. He'd like nothing better than for the US to
invade Syria looking for all those tonnes of WMD that surely must be
there. And the invasion of Syria would then be the product of yet more
faulty intelligence delivered by yet another singular voice, crying out
from the wilderness. Just like Chalabi. But it should have been obvious
from the first moment this came out that, for the White House not to
jump all over it, it had to be some pretty bad fiction. Weren't the
righties wondering why the White House ignored this? This is something
the White House has been trying to claim all along, so for them to
studiously ignore Sada ... well, like I said, something stinks.
Of course, fellow blog mate and the ever trusty Cernig at Newshog hammered on Sada and his claims, pounded them into submission and left them a dangling, bloodied mess.
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