About
	Contact Us
	Articles
	Topic Index
	Reports
	Quotes
	On the Web
	Links
	TW Tracker
	Support

Saddam Hussein

• October 19 -- Pro-Kerry Commentary in the Corrections Box
A Times correction goes beyond fixing the error to include pro-Kerry editorial commentary.

• October 12 -- Bush's "Hang Tough" Decision Echoes Vietnam
David Sanger tries to make a stark campaign issue out of Bush's alleged refusal to admit to mistakes, asserting the decision "has come to look far riskier than it did in the flush of handing Iraq back to Iraqis….Bush's decision to hang tough has echoes of the strategy used by another president from Texas. In the 1968 campaign, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey began edging back from the Johnson Administration's plan to admit no fault with its policy in Vietnam."

• October 11 -- Pity the Put-Upon French in Oil-for-Food Scandal
Steven Weisman looks at the U.N. scandal involving French involvement in the corrupt oil-for-food program as yet another Bush failure of diplomacy: "The Bush administration's handling this week of a report on Saddam Hussein's attempts to purchase weapons and buy influence has angered French officials and set back a year of American efforts to repair the rupture caused by the Iraq war, French and other European officials said Friday."

• October 7 -- "Prewar Assertions…Bore No Resemblance to the Truth."
Toning down Douglas Jehl's story on Iraq before it hit print?

• September 27 -- "Killings Were Rare" in Hussein's Iraq?
Alex Berenson misses a major point: "Before the fall of Saddam Hussein's government….Killings were rare, and gun violence rarer still, a testament to the monopoly that Mr. Hussein held on the use of force." What of Saddam's prisons and mass graves?

• August 13 -- Times Finally Takes on UN Oil-for-Food Scandal
The long-neglected United Nations oil-for-food scandal makes the Times front page. But will the networks notice?

• July 26 -- Downplaying Al Qaeda-Iraq Ties, Again
In a front-page story on the 9/11 Commission's final report, Times reporters again try to minimize proven ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq.

• July 26 -- Hussein's Downfall "Disillusioning" for Iraqi Artists?
Jeffrey Gettleman looks at Iraqi artists: "The war in Iraq has been especially disillusioning for young Iraqi artists, many of whom believed the American promises of freedom."

• July 9 -- The "Repressive," "Authoritarian" Iraqi Chief--Iyad Allawi?
A lead editorial describes an Iraqi strongman with "authoritarian tendencies" and "repressive reflexes." Former dictator Saddam Hussein? No--current prime minister Iyad Allawi.

• July 2 -- Iraqi Ambivalence Over "Former President" Hussein
Dexter Filkins' front-page story on Iraqi reaction to Hussein on trial focuses on Iraqi ambivalence over their "former president": "In that way, they said, Mr. Hussein looms like a father over an abused son. He may be a brutal man, the Iraqis said, but he is a father still."

• July 2 -- NYT's John Burns Faces Down Hussein
Reporter John Burns, one of the few journalists who succeeded in conveying the nature of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime, files a flavorful piece on the opening proceedings against Hussein and other high-ranking officials of Iraq's fallen dictatorship.

• June 28 -- "Everyone Lives In Fear" Now That Saddam's Gone
Somini Sengupta files a story on girls living in fear in Iraq--fear that has increased with the fall of Saddam Hussein: "Everyone lives in fear….Fear eats at everyone here, but in a conservative society where daughters are already governed by stricter rules than sons, adolescent girls find themselves particularly vulnerable." Apparently no one was "fearful" under Saddam.

• June 25 -- Now They Tell Us: NYT Confirms Iraq-Al Qaeda Ties
Thom Shanker has a scoop supporting the Bush administration's contention that there were in fact ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq (no matter what the paper's previous headlines have implied). But why didn't they tell us last week?

• June 15 -- Swiping at Cheney from Baghdad
In the middle of Edward Wong's story from Baghdad about the insistence by some groups that Saddam Hussein be charged with a crime, he takes a detour to Florida to critique a Dick Cheney speech.

• April 7 -- Bin Laden Capture Would Be No Boost For Bush?
Adam Nagourney tries to tamp down any boost Bush gets from a hypothetical capture of bin Laden: "And what if the capture of Mr. bin Laden brings with it disclosures that the United States had missed opportunities to seize him earlier, a finding that might lend some heft to Mr. Clarke's criticisms." Does Nagourney know something we don't?

• February 26 -- Mad Over Max
Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes former Sen. Max Cleland's life story up as a Hollywood story ruined by Republican tactics: "He called [the Senate] his 'dream job,' but the dream ended abruptly in November 2002….President Bush traveled to Georgia five times to campaign against him. But the low point, Mr. Cleland said, came when Republicans ran an advertisement juxtaposing his face with those of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein."

• January 14 -- Iraq "Staggers" Through Another Hussein-Free Day
The mission in Iraq has gone to hell since Saddam's capture, judging by Edward Wong: "A month after Saddam Hussein was pulled from his spider hole, and with the transfer of sovereignty looming, Iraq staggered through another disturbing day of violence and instability."

• January 2 -- Saddam's Capture: OK, But What About Those Funerals?
Editor Richard Berke puts the best anti-Bush spin on the good news out of Iraq: "But before Saddam was caught, not long ago, we were talking about casualties. We were talking about a situation where the president did not want to go to the funerals of a lot of the--the--the killed soldiers in Iraq, because why bring attention to the tragedy of--that was going on day after day there."

• December 19 -- Was Hussein's Capture a Good Thing? Chris Hedges
Anti-war reporter Chris Hedges greets Hussein's capture with a sniff: "I don't think the resistance movement in Iraq has very much to do with Saddam Hussein at all. And I think it obscures the fundamental issue, which is that Iraqis are chafing against U.S. occupation."

• December 17 -- Open Wide and Say "What?"
Was showing Saddam Hussein's checkup a violation of the Geneva Conventions? Reporter Edward Wong thinks so.

• December 16 -- After Saddam's Capture: Beating Around the Bushes
Todd Purdum personalizes the capture of Saddam Hussein as the Bush family settling scores with an ancient enemy (Dana Carvey is cited). Spying a potential wedge between the Bushes, Purdum takes up Bush Sr.'s side: "There were ample reasons for the first President Bush not to go after Mr. Hussein."

• December 16 -- Joy Already Fading in Iraq
"The joyous bursts of gunfire that echoed throughout parts of Iraq on Sunday are already a distant memory."

• December 15 -- Frank Rich's Exquisite Timing
Columnist Frank Rich equates the war in Iraq with the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy--and truly breaks a leg: "In the final installment, the pre-eminent heavy of the first two parts, the evil wizard Saruman has vanished--as out of sight, if not mind, as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein." Readers who had the TV on that morning knew otherwise.

• November 20 -- The Times Finally Checks Out Pentagon Memo
After several days, the Times finally weighs in on a story regarding the leaked memo alleging ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.

• November 6 -- Giving Saddam a Chance
The Times plays up James Risen's story on Iraq's alleged "back-channel" attempt to avoid war. But a Slate writer says don't get too excited about the Times scoop just yet.

• September 22 -- Their Own Personal Vietnam
A Times editorial leaps into the Big Muddy: “The Bush administration always bristles when people attempt to draw any parallels between the quagmire in Vietnam and the current situation in Iraq.”

• September 22 -- An Anti-Wolfowitz Whopper
Reporter Eric Schmitt’s story on a talk by Paul Wolfowitz includes this whopper: “‘Iraq did have contacts with Al Qaeda,’ Mr. Wolfowitz insisted, momentarily silencing the audience with an accusation even President Bush now says is unsubstantiated." But Bush said last week “There's no question Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties.”

• August 8 -- I Am Bush, Destroyer of Worlds
…says the latest op-ed by Paul Krugman. Stuck in permanent smarm mode, Krugman writes on the ruin of ancient Mesopotamia’s environment and concludes: “Will we avoid the fate of past civilizations that destroyed their environments, and hence themselves? And the answer is: not if Mr. Bush can help it.”

• July 30 -- Yankee Come Here!
After lamenting the “rush to war” in Iraq, the Times wants U.S. troops in Liberia yesterday. The headline to Somini Sengupta’s story from Monrovia is headlined: “Oh, if Only the G.I.’s Would Come Marching In.” She also suggests the U.S. wasn’t wanted in Iraq.

• July 2 -- “Guilty Or Not…”
Did the U.S. deliberately fire a missile into an Iraqi mosque, killing nine? The evidence says no, but some local Hussein fanatics say yes. So a Times headline splits the difference.

• June 27 -- Kristof’s All Ears In Iraq
Columnist Nicholas Kristof went to Iraq and is shocked to find some people there really like George Bush.

• June 10 -- Randy Cohen’s Impeachment Proceedings
When Times ethics columnist Randy Cohen was asked by CNN’s Aaron Brown about possible Bush administration intelligence lapses, Cohen sounded armed for impeachment: “If you are so wrong about all three causes [for war], I wonder if you can honorably hold -- continue to hold your office.”

• June 5 -- Hussein Overthrow Cripples the Fake Passport Industry
“Thriving Kurdish Trade in Fake Passports Slumps as Fewer Choose to Flee the Region” is Sabrina Tavernise’s story from Northern Iraq. Isn’t that a good thing?

• May 20 -- Likes Long Walks, Sunsets, Dancing On Mass Graves
Patrick Tyler’s profile of the Hussein-supporting leader of Iraq’s police force opens like a personal ad: “Maj. Gen. Hameed Othman, a man who loves poetry and landscape painting, ran the national police force in Iraq from 1997 to 2001.”

• May 5 -- Bush, Saddam Scorn International Justice
Times columnist Bill Keller can’t resist getting his digs into Bush’s Iraq attack: “In their scorn for international justice, Mr. Bush and Saddam Hussein were in full agreement.”