« Beginnings Of A Bump | Main | Peaking Now »

09 Jun 2008 02:30 pm

Bush Lied?

Eli Lake has an admirably fair assessment of some aspects of the Senate report on pre-war Iraq intelligence. Some spooks did indeed worry about al Qaeda-Saddam links, although none posited what might be deemed a solid relationship:

When Mr. Cheney said in September 2002 that he did not know if Al Qaeda and Iraq cooperated on the September 11, 2001, attacks, the CIA and FBI believed at that point there was no connection.

Also, most intelligence agencies did not think the Iraqi dictator would share unconventional weapons with terrorists. President Bush believed the nation could not take the risk that they could. But on the question of meaningful links between Al Qaeda and Iraq, something the anti-war movement believes never existed, the evidence suggests a more nuanced picture than Mr. Rockefeller has portrayed.

I'm not sure 'Bush Lied" has ever been a good way to look at what happened. Bush Misjudged. Bush Ignored Important Evidence. Bush Massaged The Truth. And so on. "Lied" isn't right - but the truth, not much better, doesn't fit on a poster.

Permalink :: Trackback (0) :: Sphere It! ::

Share This