Shock and Awe Page #6

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But Saddam is looking to acquire

nukes, right?

Yeah, and I'm trying to f***

Jennifer Lopez, but I have...

a sinking feeling that neither

of those things is gonna happen.

So, we won't use your identity,

but can we get a quote?

Sure.

Have you found anything to

support the administration's...

theory that Saddam is close to

or has acquired nuclear weapons?

We've searched every cave...

and looked up every camel's ass

in Iraq.

So, here's your quote,

"no f***ing way."

Might have to clean

that up a bit.

Quite colorful, though.

LANDAY:

Uh, honey, I think someone...

is stealing our New York Times.

VLATKA:
I canceled it.

Why would you do that?

It's propaganda.

I need that for my work.

It's packaging press releases

from the White House...

the State Department, and the

Pentagon.

Sorry, that's not a real

newspaper.

How was your day?

Warren and I met with some

gentleman...

from the intelligence community

who confirmed that...

there's no real evidence

to support...

the administration's

claim on WMD.

What have I been telling you?

Well, unfortunately, I can't use

your gut as a reliable source.

You know, this is what they do.

They lie.

Yeah, and we try to hold

them accountable.

I hope I'm wrong. I really,

really do.

But the Bush Administration,

they don't care about the truth.

They don't even respond to your

articles.

If they want a war, they're

gonna get one.

And there's nothing that you

or the first amendment...

is gonna do to stop them.

Extra, extra, read all about it.

"Over the past 14 months, Iraq

has tried to buy thousands...

"of specially design aluminum

tubes, which American...

"officials believe were intended

as components...

"of centrifuges to enrich

uranium."

Well, one thing's for sure.

What's that?

We can't both be right.

Who're you calling?

Loose Nukes.

If she wouldn't talk to you

about going into Iraq...

what makes you think she's gonna

go on the record on WMD?

Charm Offensive. Watch and

learn, son.

Landay.

- It's Joe Galloway.

- Wow.

Man even walks like he has

a Bronze Star.

LOOSE NUKES (OVER PHONE):

Hello.

Oh, hi, yeah, it's Landay.

Hello, Jonathan.

Hi. Crazy weather we're having,

huh?

You're calling me to chat

about the weather?

No, no, yeah. Actually, I wanted

to ask you about WMD.

It'll be deep, deep background.

Goodbye, Jonathan.

No wait, don't hang up.

That Charm Offensive...

that's formidable.

Listen, we need you here.

You've developed sources over

the years that have access...

that Landay and Strobel

just can't get.

I'll make it easy on you.

I'll give you a column...

and your name doesn't have to

appear on anything else.

Whatever else you want to write

on the side, you can...

and of course, there won't be

any glory, but...

Glory's for young men.

Let me percolate on it.

Let me turn to the issue

of Iraq.

You have said that it poses...

a mortal threat to the

United States.

How? Define "mortal threat."

Well, this'll take some time,

but it's important for us...

as I mentioned earlier...

to remember that the world

has changed, that prior to...

I'd forgotten the world

had changed.

So did I. I'm so happy he

mentioned that.

What, specifically, has he

obtained that you believe...

would enhance his nuclear

development program?

Well, in the nuclear weapons

arena...

you've got specifically

aluminum tubes.

There's a story in The New York

Times this morning...

this is and I want to attribute

to The Times.

I don't want to talk about,

obviously...

specific intelligence sources,

but it's now public that...

in fact he has been seeking to

acquire, and we have been...

able to intercept and prevent

him from acquiring...

through this particular

channel...

the kinds of tubes that are

necessary...

to build a centrifuge.

And the centrifuge is required

to take low-grade uranium...

and enhance it into highly

enriched uranium...

which is what you have to have

in order to build a bomb.

Lucky for him, someone leaked

that to The Times.

Avoids the pesky nuisance

of being arrested...

for revealing classified

information.

One can only wonder how Judy

Miller and Michael Gordon...

got that information.

Does it bother you, bug you...

that you have not captured

Osama bin Laden in over a year?

I'd like to see him on

television in handcuffs...

if I can put it

into those terms.

I think all of us would.

But I don't lay awake at night

concerned about that.

There's one school of thought

that says he's already dead.

We haven't heard anything

of him in many months.

RUSSERT:
What do you think?

I don't know, I really

don't know.

I can argue it round or flat.

I didn't know we were still

debating the shape of the earth.

I've got sources on both sides.

But the U.S. military would be

enormously effective...

in this circumstance.

And I don't think it would be

that tough a fight.

That is, I don't think there's

any question...

that we would prevail and we

would achieve our objective.

Landay.

Yeah?

We are right, aren't we?

Everybody, listen up.

We're not NBC.

We're not ABC. We're not CBS.

We're not FOX. We're not CNN.

We're not The New York Times.

We're not The Washington Post.

We are Knight Ridder.

We have readers who live in

towns with military bases.

Fort Benning, Fort Bragg,

Fort Jackson...

and over 40 other military bases

throughout this country.

If every other news organization

wants to be stenographers...

for the Bush administration,

let them.

We don't write for people who

send other people's kids to war.

We write for people

whose kids get sent to war.

So, when the government

says something...

you only have one question

to ask.

Is it true?

I'm through percolating.

Let's get to work.

Administration officials spanned

out on the Sunday talk shows...

to make the case for an invasion

of Iraq.

Who else is involved in

The Office of Special Planning?

Wolfowitz, Feith, couple others.

Instead of listening to people

who have spent their careers...

evaluating threats, they're

streaming questionable intel...

from unreliable sources and

taking it...

directly to the White House.

George Tenet, Director

of Central Intelligence...

told Senators, he could not

rule out cooperation...

between Osama bin Laden

and Al Qaeda.

I've seen the specs on those

aluminum tubes.

They're too small to be used

for enriching uranium.

What does that mean?

They can't be used

for a nuclear bomb.

REPORTER:
The President

of the United States...

said we're not going to permit

nations to develop...

weapons of mass destruction...

as they're gonna supply those

weapons to a network...

of terrorism that could attack

the United States.

Cheney is trying to shut

out Powell.

Where'd you get this stuff?

Old friend.

REPORTER:
We're starting to

see a consensus from within...

the administration for the

removal of Saddam Hussein.

COMMENTATOR:
The

administration has pointed...

to a secret meeting in Prague

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