O'Reilly falsely claimed he "went on facts and facts alone" in his
 
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 18:49:47 -0400


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<p><b>O'Reilly falsely claimed he "went on facts and facts alone" in his
statements supporting Iraq war </b></p>
<p><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200704270011?src=item200704270011">http://mediamatters.org/items/200704270011</a></p>

<p>On the April 24 edition of Fox News&#39; <i>The O&#39;Reilly Factor</i>, host <a href="http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/people/billoreilly?src=item200704270011">Bill
O&#39;Reilly</a> denied the assertion by Marvin Kalb, lecturer
in Public Policy at Harvard University&#39;s Kennedy School of Government and a
senior fellow at the school&#39;s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics
and Public Policy, that prior to, and during, "the first year or even two after the
[Iraq] war got started, Fox and many other people associated with Fox ... said all kinds of things in support of the
war, which were not being borne out by the facts." O&#39;Reilly
replied: "No, I didn&#39;t. I went on facts and facts alone." In
fact, in the lead-up to, and following, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, O&#39;Reilly made several false claims
and misleading suggestions regarding the threat posed by Iraq. Notably, O&#39;Reilly
repeatedly suggested a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, despite numerous
reports undermining this claim.</p>

<p><b>Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi</b></p>

<p>Prior to the invasion, O&#39;Reilly frequently repeated the Bush
administration&#39;s <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/06/20040615-4.html">claim</a>
that Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was evidence
of a connection between Iraq
and Al Qaeda. Both claims -- that
Zarqawi had prewar connections to Al Qaeda and that Saddam had a relationship
with or harbored Zarqawi -- were discredited following the invasion. However, this did not stop O&#39;Reilly from continuing
to cite Zarqawi as proof of an Iraq-Al Qaeda link.</p>

<p>In the lead-up to war, O&#39;Reilly
frequently pushed the story that,
in 2002, Zarqawi had his leg amputated at a Baghdad hospital operated by Uday Hussein,
Saddam&#39;s son, as
evidence of the Iraqi government&#39;s complicity with Al Qaeda. (While O&#39;Reilly repeatedly claimed
that Zarqawi&#39;s leg was amputated in Baghdad,
that particular claim was later debunked. As <i>Newsweek</i>
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4524563/site/newsweek/">reported</a>
in March 2004, Zarqawi may have <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://web.archive.org/web/20050306191719/http:/www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9836140.htm">received</a>
medical treatment in Baghdad,
but he did not appear to have had his leg amputated.) For instance, during
the February 4, 2003, edition of the <i>Factor</i>,
he asserted: "If this guy Zarqawi
got injured in Afghanistan,
had his leg treated in Baghdad,
that&#39;s an Al Qaeda link right there." </p>

<p>The following day, Powell <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030205-1.html">addressed</a>
the United Nations Security Council and discussed Zarqawi at length, claiming
that Zarqawi had helped establish Al Qaeda "affiliates" in Baghdad. That evening on
the <i>Factor</i>, O&#39;Reilly
praised Powell&#39;s mention of Zarqawi, stating: "You know, look, I
mean if the guy&#39;s getting his leg amputated in Baghdad, you know, Saddam
Hussein is going to know about it. He&#39;s an Al Qaeda big shot coming off the
battlefield of Afghanistan.
Yes, maybe he made a stop in Tehran,
but who -- does that surprise anybody?"</p>

<p>But as <i>The Christian Science Monitor</i> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://helenacobban.org/Powell-csm-0203.html">reported</a> at the time,
several of Powell&#39;s claims about Zarqawi&#39;s connection to Saddam appeared not "to
be true." According
to the <i>Monitor</i>, the
"International Crisis Group (ICG), a research organization in Brussels
whose analysts are very familiar with the region, has cast serious <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&amp;id=1823">doubt</a> on
the US claims" because "when talking about the Zarqawi network, Powell was
referring to &#39;Ansar al-Islam,&#39; a Kurdish Islamic-extremist
group," of which "there is little independent evidence of links
between Ansar and Baghdad." Moreover, as <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/06/politics/06intel.html?ex=1254715200&amp;en=f9a0c7d11597918d&amp;ei=5090&amp;partner=rssuserland">numerous</a> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13150-2004Oct6.html">news</a> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1005-01.htm">outlets</a> reported in October
2004, a CIA report released to policymakers in August of that year found no
conclusive evidence that Saddam harbored Zarqawi or gave him aid. (The Senate
Intelligence Committee would later assert in a September 8, 2006, <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://intelligence.senate.gov/phaseiiaccuracy.pdf#page=112">report</a>
that Saddam&#39;s "regime did not have a relationship with, harbor, or
turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi." The report also noted that "postwar
information from an al-Qaeda detainee revealed that Saddam&#39;s regime &#39;considered
Zarqawi an outlaw,&#39; and blamed his network, operating in Kurdish-controlled
northern-Iraq, for two bombings in Baghdad.")</p>

<p>Further, as <i>Media Matters for America</i> has
<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/itembody/200410070007?src=item200704270011">previously</a> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200409240011?src=item200704270011">noted</a>, numerous reports
published in 2003 and 2004 undermined the idea of any meaningful association
between Zarqawi and Al Qaeda prior to the invasion: </p>











<ul style="margin-top: 0in"><li class="MsoNormal">In a June 22, 2003, <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19822-2003Jun21">article</a>,
     <i>The Washington Post</i> reported that by the
     time Bush referred to Zarqawi in an October 2002 speech urging Congress to
     support a resolution authorizing war against Iraq, "U.S. intelligence
     already had concluded that Zarqawi was not an al Qaeda member but the
     leader of an unaffiliated terrorist group who occasionally associated with
     al Qaeda adherents." </li><li class="MsoNormal">Citing interrogations of
     Zarqawi associate Shadi Abdallah<i>,
     Newsweek</i> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3067876/">reported</a>
     in June 2003 that "Zarqawi competed with bin Laden for trainees and
     members." </li><li class="MsoNormal">Roger Cressey, a former Clinton
     counterterrorism official at the National Security Council, was quoted in
     a June 25, 2004, <i>New York Times</i>
     <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2004/this_terrorist_is_bad_enough_on_his_own">op-ed</a> as
     saying that Zarqawi&#39;s training camp in Afghanistan operated "as much
     in competition as it was in cooperation" with Al Qaeda. </li></ul>

<p>Nonetheless, in 2004 and 2005, O&#39;Reilly continued to
claim that Zarqawi&#39;s presence in Iraq proved complicity between Al
Qaeda and Saddam&#39;s regime, as <i>Media
Matters</i> repeatedly noted. For instance:</p>























<ul style="margin-top: 0in"><li class="MsoNormal">On the May 25, 2004, edition of
     the <i>Factor</i>, O&#39;Reilly <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200410070007?src=item200704270011">stated</a>: "He
     [Zarqawi] has direct ties to Al Qaeda." Earlier that day on his radio
     show, O&#39;Reilly had claimed that "after [Zarqawi] was wounded
     in Afghanistan, [he]
     went to Baghdad.
     This is the second Al Qaeda big shot."</li><li class="MsoNormal">On the June 3, 2004, edition of
     the <i>Factor</i>, O&#39;Reilly <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200410070007?src=item200704270011">said</a> that
     "Zarqawi is what, second or third in command of Al Qaeda." The next day on his radio program, O&#39;Reilly
     asserted:
     "They&#39;ve [Europeans who opposed the Iraq
     war] never heard about Zarqawi, the third in command in Al Qaeda getting
     his leg amputated in Baghdad."</li><li class="MsoNormal">In his September 16, 2004, nationally
     syndicated column, O&#39;Reilly <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/itembody/200409240011?src=item200704270011">wrote</a>: "I mean,
     this guy [Zarqawi] is one of the most vicious Al Qaeda thugs in the world.
     ... In early 2000, Zarqawi traveled to Afghanistan to assume a
     leadership position in an al Qaeda training camp."</li><li class="MsoNormal">On the September 27, 2004,
     edition of the <i>Factor</i>,
     O&#39;Reilly asserted: "I&#39;m just going on what U.S. intelligence told my researcher face-to-face, that Zarqawi was a major Al Qaeda
     trainer in Afghanistan,
     was wounded on the Afghan battlefield, went then for treatment in Baghdad, where he
     remains, in Fallujah, beheading people. ... I want to make this clear.
     Zarqawi, according to U.S. intelligence -- and we spoke to them directly,
     this isn&#39;t taken from <i>The New York
     Times</i> or anything like that -- trained Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
     That&#39;s where he trained them from the year 2002-up, until the invasion of Afghanistan by U.S. forces. He was wounded on
     the battlefield, then he went to Iraq, where he was treated in a
     hospital run by Uday Hussein."</li><li class="MsoNormal">On the October 5, 2004, edition
     of the <i>Factor</i>, O&#39;Reilly <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200410070007?src=item200704270011">dismissed</a> the
     CIA&#39;s failure to find conclusive evidence that Saddam harbored
     Zarqawi as "a bunch of nonsense. ...There&#39;s no question he was in
     deep with Al Qaeda." That same day on his radio show, O&#39;Reilly
     was confused by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld&#39;s <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1005-03.htm">admission</a>
     that he had seen "no strong, hard evidence" linking Saddam to Al
     Qaeda because "the <i>Factor</i>
     did its own independent investigation and the smoking gun is this guy,
     Al-Zarqawi." </li><li class="MsoNormal">During the August 16, 2005,
     edition of his radio show, O&#39;Reilly again <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200508190006?src=item200704270011">claimed</a> that Saddam
     had "allowed Ansar Al-Islam, an Al Qaeda affiliate, to exist in
     Northern Iraq," when, in
     fact, Saddam had no control over the Kurdish region of Iraq.</li></ul>

<p><b>Other claims</b></p>

<p>O&#39;Reilly has also made numerous other false claims
relating to the Iraq
war, as <i>Media Matters</i> has
documented:</p>











<ul style="margin-top: 0in"><li class="MsoNormal">On the April 27, 2004, edition
     of the <i>Factor</i>,
     O&#39;Reilly falsely claimed that the <i>Paris
     Business Review</i> had documented the success of
     O&#39;Reilly&#39;s boycott against France
     for not sufficiently supporting the United
      States in its fight against terrorism and in Iraq. According to
     O&#39;Reilly, "they&#39;ve lost billions of dollars in France
     according to &#39;<i>The Paris Business Review</i>.&#39; " As <i>Media Matters</i> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200405020006?src=item200704270011">noted</a>, a <i>Media
     Matters</i> search found no evidence of a publication
     called the <i>Paris Business Review</i>
     at the time. Also,
     contrary to O&#39;Reilly&#39;s claim, U.S.
     imports from France
     actually appeared to have increased during the time in which
     O&#39;Reilly conducted his boycott. </li><li class="MsoNormal">On the September 27, 2004,
     edition of the <i>Factor</i>, in
     response to Sen. John
     Kerry&#39;s (D-MA) criticism of Bush&#39;s use of the phrase "Mission
     Accomplished,"
     O&#39;Reilly <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200409280006?src=item200704270011">falsely
     claimed</a> that Bush didn&#39;t say
     "mission accomplished" during his May 1, 2003,
     speech aboard the <i>USS Abraham Lincoln</i>,
     in which Bush
     declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq. In fact, during his speech, Bush said:
     "America
     sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an
     oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished."</li><li class="MsoNormal">On the July 12, 2004, edition
     of the <i>Factor</i>,
     O&#39;Reilly <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200407140003?src=item200704270011">falsely claimed</a> that
     the Senate Intelligence Committee&#39;s <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704270011&http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/iraqreport2.pdf">report</a>
     on prewar intelligence on Iraq
     "says he [Bush] didn&#39;t lie" about weapons of mass destruction
     in Iraq. In fact, the report did
     not address the accuracy of Bush&#39;s public statements regarding Iraq&#39;s
     WMD capabilities.</li></ul>

<p>From the April 24 edition of Fox News&#39; <i>The O&#39;Reilly Factor</i>:

</p><blockquote>

<p>KALB: What was true was that, when
the war was being set up, and in the first year or even two after the war got
started, <b>Fox and many other people associated
with Fox or the Fox point of view -- let&#39;s put it that way -- said all kinds of
things in support of the war, which were not being borne out by the facts that
the two of us --</b></p>

<p>

O&#39;REILLY: <b>No, I didn&#39;t. I went on facts and facts alone.</b></p></blockquote><table width="100%" style="background: #e8e8e8; 
border: 1px solid  #ffffff; font-size: 80%" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td style="border-right: 1px solid  #ffffff;" 
width="40%">
</b> Contact: <br />
<b>Bill O'Reilly</b></td>
<td valign="top"><a href="mailto:oreilly@foxnews.com">oreilly@foxnews.com</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" style="background: #e8e8e8; 
border: 1px solid  #ffffff; font-size: 80%" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td style="border-right: 1px solid  #ffffff;" 
width="40%">
</b> Contact: <br />
<b>Fox News Channel</b></td>
<td valign="top"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77538,00.html">FOX News Channel</a><br />1-888-369-4762<br /><a href="mailto:Comments@foxnews.com">Comments@foxnews.com</a><br />1211 Avenue of the Americas<br />New York, NY 10036</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" style="background: #e8e8e8; 
border: 1px solid  #ffffff; font-size: 80%" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td style="border-right: 1px solid  #ffffff;" 
width="40%">
</b> Contact: <br />
<b>The O'Reilly Factor</b></td>
<td valign="top"><a href="mailto:oreilly@foxnews.com">The O'Reilly Factor</a></td>
</tr>
</table>



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