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O'Reilly eats words on WMD claims by T M DeFrank & C Siemaszko New York Daily News - 
O'Reilly eats words on WMD claims By THOMAS M. DeFRANK in Washington and CORKY SIEMASZKO in New York DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Wednesday, February 11th, 2004 Fox News flamethrower Bill O'Reilly shocked fans and foes alike yesterday by apologizing for accepting President Bush's claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. "I'm sorry," O'Reilly said on ABC's "Good Morning America" in a stunning mea culpa. "I think all Americans should be concerned about this, for their families and themselves, that our intelligence isn't as good as it should be," he said. O'Reilly was one of the loudest voices calling for Saddam Hussein's ouster at the "We report, You decide" network and called him a "killer with huge stocks of anthrax and other deadly weapons." Now, O'Reilly said he has become "much more skeptical about the Bush administration" since weapons inspector David Kay voiced doubt that Saddam had any weapons of mass destruction. O'Reilly, who had promised last year he would publicly apologize if the weapons were not found, was not happy to eat crow. "What do you want me to do, go over and kiss the camera?" he said. Liberal commentator Al Franken, who skewered O'Reilly in his book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," said the Fox News fulminator did the right thing. "I thought O'Reilly's apology about misleading the country on weapons of mass destruction on the eve of war was uncharacteristically gracious," he said. O'Reilly's ABC apology riled the Republican ranks but was not considered a big enough tsunami to spark defections to the Democrats. "There are other conservatives who did not support the war in Iraq, so O'Reilly is not necessarilly unique," said GOP strategist Allan Hoffenblum. "The majority of Republicans still believe the U.S. is a safer place because Saddam is no longer in power." A Bush strategist said the White House was not overly concerned and called O'Reilly, whose column runs in the News, "an iconoclast, not a movement conservative." The host of the top-rated "O'Reilly Factor" cut the President some slack, saying he did not believe Bush intentionally lied. Instead, he blamed CIA Director George Tenet for providing faulty intelligence. "I don't know why Tenet still has his job," he said. Bush has said Tenet's job is safe. The President has been battered by criticism because the stated reason for going to war - Iraq's purported WMDs - were not found. That failure will lead to a close election this fall, especially if Vietnam war hero Sen. John Kerry is the Democratic candidate, O'Reilly predicted. |