More On the Wanta\Paulson Story

I have been getting a fair amount of incoming links on this story, with people asking whether it is true. In my humble, but informed, opinion, no it is not. Please read the extensive research on the Wanta story which this is based upon, it is not credible for a variety of reasons. Humorously one guy linked to me, only to add an edit that he had discovered I was not "reliable" because of my previous posts on Wanta. Yes, if you want me to uncritically accept any rumor printed over the Internet, I am not reliable.

Word Reports, the website run by a man named Christopher Story, has argued with quite hilarious circular logic that this story is true because he said it is. Others have argued that it is credible because Paulson was in fact in Germany last month. This is an entirely circular argument though, because the only reason they know that, was because it was easily searchable on the Internet anyway, this was not a secret.

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin today to discuss priorities for the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations, which Germany chairs throughout 2007.

They also argue that Paulson has not been seen in public recently. Well Story conveniently made up this story over the holidays, most of the government has not been seen in public recently. This proves nothing. When Paulson does show up after the holidays, we will hear all sorts of creative stories explaining his reappearance.

In addition to the Wanta part of it, there are several reasons why this story is not credible. First of all, the International Court of Justice, does not handle cases like this. They handle disputes between nations not individuals. Secondly, this has been reported by no other source than Story, who is using it to try and sell $525 subscriptions to his publication.

We are a UK commercial organisation and we will NOT provide free copies of these issues. We will accept and fulfil bona fide subscription/special issue orders.

I have searched every source available, not just Google News, but expensive databases such as Factiva, and Lexis/Nexis. This has not been reported by any other source. Conspiracy theorists will argue that this is a sign of a coverup, but it boggles the mind that a story of this magnitude could be withheld from every news source in the world, even in the country which managed to arrest him in the first place!

And lastly, Story's story is not even internally consistent. He says that Paulson was arrested on the 23rd or 24th (which is it) but then says he has already been sentenced, even before the witnesses have been called.

He has been sentenced to severe penalties [see below].

Yeah right, you try getting something done that quickly in Europe over the holidays.