Bureaucratic Gripe, Innuendo Does Not Add Up to an Expose

"Here we go again: the New York Times tries to sex-up an already interesting story to score political points on its front-page. It’s the same stunt they pulled a couple of months ago by publishing that gossipy story about Senator McCain, and today they try to give the same treatment to Iraq’s Defense Minister.

The story, written by Solomon Moore, makes its first mistake by sensationalizing the arms deal between Iraq and Serbia as a “secret” sale in its headline. How can something be kept “secret” if the Iraqi Ministry of Defense put out two press releases—with pictures—about the Defense Minister’s two visits to Serbia during September and November of last year; then the Defense Minister held a press conference on December 9 announcing specifics about the deal; then the ministry put out a third press release announcing the formal signature of the deal and its total sum (230 million dollars) on December 24?

All this was amply reported on by the Iraqi press, and some of this coverage found its way into the Arab press. I’m sure that the Serbian media also covered it in some detail.

But the NYTimes still maintains that it was all hush-hush and adds:

…it was negotiated by a delegation of 22 high-ranking Iraqi officials, without the knowledge of American commanders or many senior Iraqi leaders.

It further adds that, according to “American military officials”, the “deal was signed in March”. Huh? But the Iraqi government announced it in December! I guess those American commanders are indeed clueless."
Talisman Gate