Media Views

That article, by Judith Miller and Michael Gordon, appeared on Sept. 7, 2002, six months before the invasion of Iraq.... Isikoff and...Corn assert that it was Gerson who conceived the “soundbite” that Iraq’s alleged nuclear program could not be proven but “the first sign of a smoking gun might be a mushroom cloud.” "The original plan had been to place it in an upcoming presidential speech, but White House Iraq Group members fancied it so much that when the Times reporters contacted the White House to talk about their upcoming piece, one of them leaked Gerson’s phrase—and the administration would soon make maximum use of it.” When the Miller/Gordon piece appeared, it was topped with the headline, “U.S. Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts.” It also included, as it turned out, numerous false claims from defectors about Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons. But [the "mushroom cloud"] phrase jumped out.... It then gained even wider currency when, the same day, Vice President Cheney appeared on Meet the Press, cited the Times story and the “very clear evidence” in it about Iraqi WMD....

Gerson also played a key role in inserting references to the now-discredited “Niger” uranium/yellowcake link in various Bush speeches, including (famously) in the State of the Union in 2003. He also played a part in preparing Secretary of State Colin Powell’s crucial, deeply misleading, speech to the United Nations a few weeks later.