Wolfowitz spinning:

On Fox News Sunday:

HUME: In your briefing the other day, you mentioned something -- your concern with foreign government-supported media operating within Iraq. Presumably you're talking about Al-Jazeera, al Arabiya, the two satellite news agencies.

WOLFOWITZ: That's right.

HUME: You say foreign government-supported. What should be done about that, in your view, if anything, and what could the administration do to curb the (inaudible)? What are you complaining of here?

WOLFOWITZ: Well, what I'm complaining of are false reporting and very biased reporting that has the effect of inciting violence against our troops. And these governments should stop and realize that this is not a game, that they're endangering the lives of American troops.

And, you know, they have a way when they want to cover somebody favorably, including Saddam Hussein in the old days, of slanting the news incredibly. ...

Gee, who else slants the news?

On Meet the Press:

DR. WOLFOWITZ: Let me say a couple of things, Tim. People act as though the cost of containing Iraq is trivial. The cost of containing Iraq was enormous. Fifty-five American lives lost, at least, in incidents like the Cole and Khobar Towers, which were part of the containment effort. Billions of dollars of American money spent so...

MR. RUSSERT: Was Iraq linked to those?

DR. WOLFOWITZ: Absolutely. Oh, no, not to the—I don’t know who did the attacks. I now that we would not have had Air Force people in Khobar Towers if we weren’t conducting a containment policy. I know we wouldn’t have had to have the Cole out there doing maritime intercept operations. ...

NOTE: The distance (as the crow flies) between Aden, Yemen (where the USS Cole was attacked) and Baghdad, Iraq is 1407 miles.

We're no experts on these matters, but according to the Navy webpage on the mission of the Cole (and ships of a similar type), it's:

These fast warships help safeguard larger ships in a fleet or battle group.

Guided missile destroyers operate in support of carrier battle groups, surface action groups, amphibious groups, and replenishment groups. Destroyers primarily perform anti-submarine warfare duty while guided missile destroyers are multi-mission (anti-submarine, anti-air, and anti-surface warfare) surface combatants.

Which makes it unlikely that the Cole was out there, according to Wolfowitz, doing intercept operations.


posted by Quiddity at 7/27/2003 10:27:00 PM