Daily Rotten Archives January 23, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 David Kay quits, says Iraqi WMDs never existed New York Times | Submitted by: anyone other than Bush in 2004 "David Kay, who led the American effort to find banned weapons in Iraq, said Friday after stepping down from his post that he has concluded that Iraq had no stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons at the start of the war last year... Dr. Kay said he now thought that Iraq had illicit weapons at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, but that the subsequent combination of United Nations inspections and Iraq's own decisions 'got rid of them.' Asked directly if he was saying that Iraq did not have any large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the country, Dr. Kay replied, according to a transcript of the taped interview made public by Reuters, 'That is correct.' ... Mr. Bush and other top administration officials repeatedly cited Iraq's possession of chemical and biological weapons as a threat to the United States, and the lack of evidence so far that Saddam Hussein actually had large caches of weapons has fueled criticism that Mr. Bush exaggerated the peril from Iraq. Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said the administration stood by its previous assessments that Mr. Hussein had both weapons programs and stores of banned weapons. 'Yes, we believe he had them, and yes we believe they will be found,' Mr. McClellan said. 'We believe the truth will come out.'" Read article... and This article... Desmond Tutu urges confession London Telegraph | Submitted by: anyone other than Bush in 2004 "The US-led coalition should admit the war in Iraq was wrong, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said... 'I think the coalition would show considerable magnanimity if it was, in fact, to acknowledge that in the first place the assault on Iraq was wrong... The fact that the coalition has returned to the UN underscores precisely what people kept saying: that if the war was going to be legitimate, it needed to be declared by a legitimate authority, in this case the UN.'" Read article... Las Vegas coroner revamps website San Francisco Chronicle | Submitted by: Nekura "Several coroner and medical examiner Web sites around the United States publish information about so-called 'cold cases,' and some even accompany the blurbs with artists' renderings or clay-model representations that approximate what the deceased looked like when alive. But at accessclarkcounty.net, a prominent box beseeches visitors to 'help identify human remains.' A few clicks - and a couple of warnings about graphic content - later, the screen is filled with thumbnail-size pictures that can be enlarged to show actual shots of dead people... Jerry Nance of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, based in Washington, D.C., expressed concern that the photos could appeal to online fetishists who are excited by viewing such material." Read article... Pentagon general enthused over terror threats BBC | Submitted by: anyone other than Bush in 2004 "General Schoomaker said the attacks on America in September 2001 and subsequent events had given the US army a rare opportunity to change. 'There is a huge silver lining in this cloud,' he said. 'War is a tremendous focus... Now we have this focusing opportunity, and we have the fact that [terrorists] have actually attacked our homeland, which gives it some oomph.'" Read article... More Columbine material due out soon Rocky Mountain News | Submitted by: Janey G "An independent investigation into a mysterious 1997 report about Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold is expected to be released next month, along with videotapes and other evidence that have never been made public. Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar on Tuesday announced his plan to try to answer lingering Columbine questions in one sweeping release on Feb. 26." Read article... Incarcerated racist mulls another run for Congress Times-Picayune | Submitted by: Oh Johnny Boy "Imprisoned former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke is considering a run for the U.S. House when he gets out of prison later this year, his secretary said... Duke - who was not barred by his plea agreement from running for a federal office - is pondering a shot at the seat of U.S. Rep. David Vitter, R-Metairie. In 1999, Duke finished third in the primary for that same seat... Duke, whose telephone privileges are limited in prison, could not be reached for comment." Read article... Clothing retailer assailed for loving Jewish girls Canoe | Submitted by: Abe Foxyman "B'nai Brith Canada urged Urban Outfitters Inc. yesterday to immediately order all Urban Outfitters stores in Canada to stop selling clothing it said is offensive to Jews. The demand followed reports that an Urban Outfitters store in Montreal was selling shirts with the statement Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl, surrounded by dollar signs, as part of what the store calls its line of 'ethnic clothing.'" Read article... Jethro Tull keyboardist receives sex change Mirror | Submitted by: BostonKat "Former Jethro Tull rock star David Palmer has become a woman called Dee. The 66-year-old keyboard player with the legendary 70s group proudly revealed yesterday that he's had a sex-change... She said her desire to change sex had been an 'open secret' in the music business for years. But it was only since the death of wife Margaret nine years ago that she felt at liberty to pursue it." Read article... Atkins widow upset with mayor Bloomberg Newsday | Submitted by: jackie "On Tuesday, the mayor found himself recorded at a Brooklyn firehouse news conference telling pasta-chomping firefighters, 'Atkins is dead. I don't believe that - that he dropped dead slipping on a sidewalk. Yeah, right.' He said he had met Atkins and the late doctor was 'fat.' ... Veronica Atkins went on ABC's Good Morning America, where she said, 'I was very, very hurt, and I was angry.' She said she was 'sick and tired of my husband being always maligned and his life's work being trivialized.' ... Robert Atkins, whose controversial diet stresses eating meat, eggs and cheese over pasta, bread and vegetables, died last year at 72 from head injuries sustained from a fall on an icy Manhattan sidewalk. Veronica Atkins noted that her husband died from 'severe trauma to his head.'" Read article... Internet assfucks rigged poll Wired | Submitted by: Nick Jones "When the American Family Association posted an online poll last month asking its constituents their position on gay marriage, it thought it was engaging in a straightforward exercise... once the URL to the poll escaped its intended audience, everything went haywire. As of Jan. 19, 60 percent of respondents - more than 508,000 voters - said, 'I favor legalization of homosexual marriage.'... the AFA had hoped Congress would take the numbers it planned to produce as exactly that kind of evidence. Now, Smith says, his organization has had to abandon its goal of taking the poll to Capitol Hill." Read article... Strict McDonald's diet deemed unhealthy New York Post | Submitted by: KEXP "Morgan Spurlock decided to become a gastronomical guinea pig. His mission: To eat three meals a day for 30 days at McDonald's and document the impact on his health... the formerly strapping 6-foot-2 New Yorker - who started out at a healthy 185 pounds - had packed on 25 pounds. But his supersized shape was the least of his problems... His liver became toxic, his cholesterol shot up from a low 165 to 230, his libido flagged and he suffered headaches and depression... 'He was an extremely healthy person who got very sick eating this McDonald's diet,' Dr. Isaacs told The Post. 'None of us imagined he could deteriorate this badly - he looked terrible. The liver test was the most shocking thing - it became very, very abnormal.'" Read article... Why Wal-Mart won't sell you 5 camera batteries MetroWest Daily News | Submitted by: b.goode "Wal-Mart, it seems, has a master list of items for which there are limits. And these limits are programmed right into the cash register... camera batteries contain lithium. It is an ingredient used in the illegal manufacture of the drug methamphetamine, or crystal meth. The fact that addicts were cooking up their own crystal meth became such a problem that federal officials went to Wal-Mart in 1997 asking for help. The giant retailer responded by putting the batteries in the so-called 'register prompt system,' or master list. The limit on lithium batteries is four packages for all Wal-Marts except those in Missouri, where the limit is three." Read article...