Bush lied, people died. Even Powell knew

In one of the most spectacular leaks in my sentient lifetime, a "secret transcript" reveals that Powell and Jack Straw knew the case against Iraq was bogus:

Mr Powell shared the concern about intelligence assessments, especially those being presented by the Pentagon's office of special plans set up by the US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz.

Mr Powell said he had all but "moved in" with US intelligence to prepare his briefings for the UN security council, according to the transcripts.

But he told Mr Straw he had come away from the meetings "apprehensive" about what he called, at best, circumstantial evidence highly tilted in favour of assessments drawn from them, rather than any actual raw intelligence.

Mr Powell told the foreign secretary he hoped the facts, when they came out, would not "explode in their faces".

It's funny that while we anti-war folk had been talking about this very topic for a long, long time (I was on the beat as early as October 25, 2002), two specific items set off the latest firestorm:

1. Wolfowitz bragging in Vanity Fair that the WMD selling point was a "bureaucratic" decision; and

2. Rumsfeld admitting that Iraq may have gotten rid of its WMDs before the war.

In other words, had they kept to the script, they would probably still be in the clear. It is their hubris that will be their undoing. Rather than savor their victory in silence, they have to brag about it.

And the truth spewing from their mouths is so twisted, so revolting, that the press has no choice but sit up and take notice. Bush can claim his three trucks are justification enough for $200 billion and over 200 allied lives (and counting) -- not to mention Iraqi lives. But no one outside Dittoland is buying it. It doesn't pass the laugh test.

We went to war without clear evidence of WMDs. Bush claimed the opposite.

Bush lied.
People died.

'Nuff said. (For now.)

p.s. "Bush Lied" slogan courtesy of the message boards.

p.p.s. I just noticed that in that October piece on Rumsfeld's intelligence heist, I concluded in the post "The gods save us from this cabal." Thus it's funny to read:

A key target is a four-person Pentagon team that reviewed material gathered by other intelligence outfits for any missed bits that might have tied Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to banned weapons or terrorist groups.

This team, self-mockingly called the Cabal, "cherry-picked the intelligence stream" in a bid to portray Iraq as an imminent threat, said Patrick Lang, a former head of worldwide human intelligence gathering for the Defense Intelligence Agency, which coordinates military intelligence.

I can read tea leaves and palms as well!

Posted May 31, 2003 01:00 AM | Comments (130)