Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Center for International Security and Cooperation Stanford University


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WMD: Weapons of Miller's Descriptions

Journal Article

Author
Herbert L. Abrams - Stanford University

Published by
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol. 60 no. 4, page(s) 56-64
July 2004


Spoon-fed information about Iraq's WMDs, New York Times reporter Judith Miller authored many stories later found to be misleading or downright false.

By June 3, 2003, according to a Harris Poll, 35 percent of Americans believed that weapons of mass destruction (WMD) had been found in Iraq, while 10 percent were not sure; in October, 30 percent were still persuaded, although six months of searching had failed to uncover any such weapons. How could so many have been convinced in the face of the total absence of evidence?

Selected comments from New York Times reporter Judith Miller's dispatches from December 2001 through June 2003 provide part of the answer.