Confirming a story that was broken here first by Mark Tinsley and others, most of Tony Blair’s damning dossier against Saddam Hussein did in fact come from magazine stories and an essay from a post-graduate student, whom readily admits that most of his information is outdated. Which means that if you want to knock out this part of Colin Powell’s presentation, you are still left with refuting the satellite photos and alleged conversations, none of which may not be dated or independently verifiable.

Aside from casting anything further said by Tony Blair on this issue into the wastebasket, it also calls into question the zeal with which the Bush Administration ran with such information without trying to see how up to date it was. But then this was probably approved by Don Rumsfeld’s standalone intelligence apparatus, and not the real intelligence apparatus we call the CIA (the same guys with close relations to British Intelligence-oops, never mind.)

It appears that Powell’s presentation hasn’t had the desired effect on China and France, and the Iraqis have started their counterspin campaign. On top of this, the Iranians are making noises that may stir things up worse than they already are.

Soto