Integrity Publishers Clearing ShitHouse

In the previous post, I discussed the bias in blogging about the NY Sun's story about General Georges Sada claims that Saddam Hussein had shipped WMDs to Syria during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Sada's claims were, as pointed out, hearsay. The right wing seized the story, the left ignored it. I cautioned the claims of Sada but noted that, for something this significant, no one was picking up the Sun piece. I further suggested some investigation.

First to be noted is the author of the NY Sun piece, Ira Stoll. Stoll is a known right wing crackpot who has championed the Iraq war since the beginning:

Seth Lipsky and Ira Stoll assembled their staff for a Champagne toast to mass death on the commencement of hostilities against Iraq. Stoll called it "my war."

And a cursory look at Stoll's blogroll would certainly confirm this quality.

As was also discussed, Sada is now closely linked with Terry Law's World Compassion organisation and is the president of the National Presbyterian Church in Baghdad and chairman of the Assembly of Iraqi Evangelical Presbyterian Churches. He was also tossed into to prison by Hussein, so he would conceivably have a bone to pick, despite vengence being reserved for the Lord.

But things get interesting when looking at the publisher of Sada's book, Saddam's Secrets. Integrity Publishers is a Christian imprint. One of the things that will strike oddly is how out of sorts Sada's book appears next to Pat Robertson's Miracles Can be Yours Today. (Admittedly, Saddam's Secrets might not look as conspicuous next to Robertson's highly anticipated future tomes, Bring Me Chavez's Head! and the sure-to-be-harrowing Smite Dover!) Indeed, that a book containing the "major revelations" brought forth by Sada appear courtesy of a Christian imprint is nothing, if not strange.

But the integrity of Integrity has, heretofore, been called into question. Dr. Gary Adams of edresearch.com documents a run-in with Integrity that occurred in 2003. Integrity published a book called Discover Your Child’s DQ Factor by a one Greg Cynaumon. In the promotion of his book, Cynaumon had claimed many titles and that he was many things, chief among them psychologist, marriage and family therapist, and radio talk show host. He was and still is none of those. In other words, the author of the Integrity Publishers' proud treatise in child psychology was a fraud. Adams called the publisher, told them this and was assurred that they would look into the issue. Adams called back after some months to ask why the book was still on the shelves and the Joey Paul, senior vice president of Integrity, told Adams to bug off, he had nothing to say. Adams named Integrity Publisher to his Hall of Shame.

All of which is enough to give enormous pause regarding any of Sada's claims, possibly even those about himself.

Though I may have expressed some ire regarding the lefties for ignoring this, if for no other reason than the fact that it should have been brought down swiftly, it seems likely that many of them were probably just shaking heads at this latest attempt by Ira Stoll to further agitate the players in his war. He'd like nothing better than for the US to invade Syria looking for all those tonnes of WMD that surely must be there. And the invasion of Syria would then be the product of yet more faulty intelligence delivered by yet another singular voice, crying out from the wilderness. Just like Chalabi. But it should have been obvious from the first moment this came out that, for the White House not to jump all over it, it had to be some pretty bad fiction. Weren't the righties wondering why the White House ignored this? This is something the White House has been trying to claim all along, so for them to studiously ignore Sada ... well, like I said, something stinks.

Of course, fellow blog mate and the ever trusty Cernig at Newshog hammered on Sada and his claims, pounded them into submission and left them a dangling, bloodied mess.