I was on the road

most of the day with one of my daughters. We had the car radio tuned to music stations (listening to oldies and comparing our tastes in music), not news. Nonetheless, in the afternoon we started hearing every hour that the 9/11 Commission had “thrown cold water” on President Bush’s claim that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks. These reports, in turn, threw cold water on what was otherwise a lovely day. For one thing, President Bush, to my knowledge, never claimed that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks. For another, there turns out to be more to the Commission’s report about the existence or absence of links between Iraq and al Qaeda than was being reported on drive time music radio. Indeed, the report throws cold water on the notion that al Qaeda and Saddam could not have cooperated because Saddam was a secularist. To the contrary, it credits reports that the two groups were in contact, finding only an absence of evidence that they had yet collaborated. Again, the Bush administration didn’t argue that such collaboration had occurred. Thus, statements that the report refutes administration claims are bogus. Yet Americans listening to their radios (and, I imagine watching television and reading the mainstream press) are left with the impression tht Bush lied.
Glenn Reynolds provides links to the Commission’s staff statements.

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