In a tale between two interpretations of the United States WMD report, I present both the Khaleej Times and the World Tribune as proof that the wording in the final report perhaps should have been more clear.

First from the Khaleej Times:

WASHINGTON - The US-led group that scoured Iraq for weapons of mass destruction has found no evidence Iraq hid such weapons in Syria before the US invasion in March 2003, according to a final report on the investigation.

The 1,700-member Iraq Survey Team, responsible for the weapons hunt, also said in a report released late on Monday it found no Iraqi officials with direct knowledge of a transfer of weapons of mass destruction developed by former President Saddam Hussein.

This wording is indeed in the final report, however the investigators were also unable to rule out such a transfer of WMDs to Syria. That is mentioned in the Khaleej Times article, however it is towards the bottom and presented as an after thought.

Now from the World Tribune:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Iraq and Syria discussed WMD cooperation, including the transfer of WMD out of Iraq, but that “firm conclusions on actual WMD movements” may never be known.

A U.S. intelligence report called for further investigation, and did not rule out unofficial efforts to move Iraqi WMD assets into Syria.

The Iraq Survey Group stated, in a report sponsored by the CIA, that it “was unable to complete its investigation and is unable to rule out the possibility that WMD was evacuated to Syria before the war.”

Again this wording comes directly from the final report, however as you can see the two news agencies decided to focus on a different part of the same report. The problem with these two accurate yet uncomprehensive articles is that they are presented to their readers who will take only what is actually in the article as the truth.

Sure, we see this time and time again throughout almost every single news story including several different aspects of the war in Iraq, however such a report demonstrating what happened to the WMD program that the CIA as well as other intelligence agencies and Saddam’s own military believed was active in Iraq needs to be clarified in order for the actual news to be revealed.

Interested-Participant linked with Slanting The News
Hyscience linked with Morning quick take on the blogosphere