The Associated Press reports that Dick Cheney is misleading the American people regarding the existence of al Qaeda in Iraq prior to the war:
The article helpfully links to today’s Washington Post story on the DoD report. What does the Post say?
Cheney’s assertion that al Qaeda existed in Iraq before the war is not contradicted by the Pentagon’s report; it is supported by the report. This will be news, of course, to readers of the Washington Post, since the Post seems to be unable to tell its readers that al Qaeda operated in Iraq prior to the war–or to get much of anything right about this story for that matter: the conclusions reached by Feith’s office and published by THE WEEKLY STANDARD were dated October 27, 2003 and appeared in the November 24, 2003 issue of the magazine, more than six months after the war. This an extremely bad job of fact-checking that a simple Google search could have easily solved. It also tells you just how eager some people at the Post are to push on this particular issue. But since the arrival of the Bush administration, the Post has never been interested in investigating the possibility of collaboration between Iraq and al Qaeda. This is a sampling of some of the headlines the Post printed from 2004-2006:
9/11 Credibility Gap; Hussein’s Ties to the Attacks? Show Us the Proof. (June, 2004)
As Rationales for War Erode, Issue of Blame Looms Large (July, 2004)
Newly Released Data Undercut Prewar Claims (November, 2005)
Bush Hails Al Qaeda Arrest in Iraq; President Defends US Intelligence (January, 2004)
War’s Rationales Are Undermined One More Time (October, 2004)
Al Qaeda Link To Iraq May Be Confusion Over Names (June, 2004)
During the Clinton administration, it was a different story: then the Post did report on the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. The paper ran this line–without qualification–in an article published February 14, 1999: “Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has offered asylum to bin Laden, who openly supports Iraq against the Western powers.” The Post also ran numerous stories about Iraqi support for al Qaeda linked chemical weapons facilities in Sudan. Did Dick Cheney and Doug Feith get to them back in the 1990s? Cheney is accurate in saying that al Qaeda and Zarqawi operated in Iraq prior to the war. Doug Feith and the Department of Defense reportedly perceived a relationship between AQ and the Iraqi government, which they characterized as ‘mature’ and ‘symbiotic.’ The CIA–whose prewar intel seems to be regarded as thoroughly discredited in all other areas of debate–said that ‘reporting provides no conclusive signs of cooperation on specific terrorist operations.’ The Defense Intelligence Agency said that “available reporting is not firm enough to demonstrate an ongoing relationship” between the Iraqi regime and al Qaeda. These are rather particular and narrow assessments; they leave plenty of room for acknowledgment of the fact that al Qaeda was in Iraq prior to the war–even if that fact is inconvenient for some.
