The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is the Washington Times newspaper. They get the award for the following.

Fort Huachuca, the nation’s largest intelligence-training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility.

Fort officials changed security measures after sources warned that possibly 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were to be smuggled into the U.S. through underground tunnels with high-powered weapons to attack the Arizona Army base, according to multiple confidential law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Times.

[…]

According to the FBI advisory, each Middle Easterner paid Mexican drug lords $20,000 “or the equivalent in weapons” for the cartel’s assistance in smuggling them and their weapons through tunnels along the border into the U.S. The weapons would be sent through tunnels that supposedly ended in Arizona and New Mexico, but the Islamist terrorists would be smuggled through Laredo, Texas, and reclaim the weapons later.

Dr. Taylor at Poliblog made several good points when questioning this news on Monday.

Several things struck me as I read this. First, if there was evidence of a terrorist plan to attack a military base in Arizona, it would be all over the media. The 24/7 cable news nets live for this sort of thing. Second, and along the same lines, if such a plan had been found and halted, the Bush administration would be letting us all know of its success (not to mention the fact that Republican candidates for president would be jumping all over the story as proof that what we need is a strong defense and sealed borders). Third, why in the world would a Mexican cartel do business like this for a mere $20,000? That strikes me as chump change for even a low-level drug lord.

Terrorists getting help from drug cartels has been a subject of much fiction and Dr. Taylor is dead on perfect when saying what cartel would do this kind of business for $20,000? Especially since it would have negative ramifications for the drug smuggling business when uncovered or when the method of the attacks was discovered.

As we find out, the story is hogwash.

A plot by dozens of foreign terrorists who purportedly planned to attack Fort Huachuca with rocket propelled grenades and mines has proved unfounded, an FBI spokesman said Monday.

The threat, detailed by a local television station and The Washington Times after information was recently leaked to them, involved Iraqi and Afghan terrorists working with a Mexican drug cartel to smuggle themselves and weapons across the U.S. border.

*****

But the attack never occurred and was the result of bad information, said Manuel Johnson, an FBI spokesman based in Phoenix.

“A thorough investigation was conducted and there is no evidence showing that the threat was credible,” he said.

The Washington Times deliberately or accidentally published a fabricated story. A few conservative bloggers fell for it, Captain Ed(Granted Ed was skeptical to start with) for one, but since the truth came out no one is going after the Times. Rest assured if the NYT did this, there would be a mass gang tackle by conservative bloggers. No such thing is happening now, why is that? Could it be that the Washington Times is a conservative publication?

For perpetuating a journalistic hoax, The Washington Times is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Note- A columnist at the Times is a candidate for tomorrow's award too. For this piece of work.

Linked to- Adam, Big Dog, Bright & Early, Commonsense America, Leaning Straight Up, Morewhat, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson, Pirate's Cove, Populist, Right Voices, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary, Third World County, The World According to Carl, Yankee Sailor,