The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: The most underreported stories of 2005

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

The most underreported stories of 2005

1. Failure of the 9-11 commission to investigate "Able Danger." In November, former FBI chief Louis Freeh rebuked the 9-11 commission for ignoring revelations by "Able Danger," a secret data-mining operation that allegedly named Mohamed Atta as an al-Qaida operative a year before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.


2. Successes in rebuilding Iraq. The year began with President Bush congratulating Iraqis for defying terrorists and voting in their country's first democratic election in more than 50 years.

But a dispatch by a Marine Corps Reserve commander, Lt. Col. Mark Smith, was emblematic of the frustration expressed by U.S. troops who insisted that contrary to the mainstream media and it's emphasis on terrorist attacks, the U.S. is winning the war.

Last month, Iraq Interior Minister Bayan Jabir said terror attacks in the country decreased by 70 percent and no escapee has been arrested at Syrian borders for two weeks. The decrease is a big success, the minister noted, declaring that by the end of 2006 the Iraqi army could take over security.


3. Cover-up of David Barrett's probe of Clinton IRS and Henry Cisneros. Republican leaders joined with Democrats to squelch an independent counsel's final report on Clinton-era abuse of the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department � a document said to including damning evidence against the 42nd president and his administration.

4. The impact of illegal immigration on the U.S. and its security. At least 51 people from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Pakistan who crossed the border illegally have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism since such tracking began in October 2004, according to Department of Homeland Security figures.

5.The truth about Terri Schiavo and her death. Major media organizations painted the pitched battle over the life of Terri Schiavo as a clear-cut debate between pro-life and right-to-die advocates, bankrolled by big money activist organizations on both sides. But the case of the 41-year-old brain-injured Florida woman was anything but clear cut.

6. Sandy Berger's slap on the wrist for stealing classified documents. In September, President Clinton's former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, avoided prison time and paid a fine of just $50,000 for stealing classified documents from the National Archives.

7. The fact that WMDs were found in Iraq. While members of the U.S. Senate are suggesting once again that no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin reviewed the major discoveries, including more than 1.7 tons of enriched uranium.

A former intelligence analyst currently working as a civilian contractor recently said he will unveil publicly next month what he believes to be recordings of Saddam Hussein's office meetings discussing his program of developing weapons of mass destruction.

The highly confidential audio was overlooked when it was found in a warehouse along with many other untranslated Iraqi intelligence files, according to the contractor.

A 2004 report asserted key claims by the intelligence community widely judged in the media and by critics of President Bush as having been false turned out to have been true after all, but the news received little attention from the major media. In virtually every case � chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missiles � the United States has found the weapons and the programs that the Iraqi dictator successfully concealed for 12 years from U.N. weapons inspectors.

Charles Duelfer, an adviser to the CIA, did not rule out Saddam's transfer of Iraqi missiles and weapons of mass destruction to Syria. Duelfer agreed that a large amount of material had been transferred by Iraq to Syria before the war begin in March 2003.


8. Atrocities of radical Islam. Along with the front-page news of attacks in Western nations, radical Muslims continue to wage organized jihad worldwide in places such as Israel, Sudan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Chechnya and the Philippines as well as carry out frequent attacks on non-Muslims in Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries.

9. Islam's impact on French riots. The mainstream media downplayed the Islamic connection to unrest in France that began Oct. 27 with thousands of mostly French Muslims in impoverished Paris suburbs engaging in violent clashes with police as they torched cars and buildings. After 20 nights, officials gave a count of 8,973 vehicles burned, 2,888 arrests and 126 officers injured.

10. Good news about the economy. In the wake of the 2000-02 stock market plunge, the 9-11 terrorist attacks and skyrocketing energy prices, the economy has rebounded in a non-inflationary "Bush boom," fueled, many economists agree, by tax cuts.

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