What a headline!

The Washington Post has this at the top of one of their reports:

Bush and Rumsfeld Defend Use of Prewar Intelligence on Iraq
Despite Use of False Information, Bush Says He is 'Absolutely Confident' in His Actions

Using false information? In the readers' minds, it may not be confined to foreign policy. Perhaps, one might speculate, false information is being used to determine tax policy. Or to build support for faith-based programs. Or to justify legislation like the PATRIOT act. The possibilities are endless.

But back to the original story. Here is the segment about Rumsfeld's comments to a congressional committee:

On Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the United States did not go to war with Iraq because of new evidence of banned weapons but because it saw existing information on Iraqi arms programs in a new light after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"The coalition did not act in Iraq because we had discovered dramatic new evidence of Iraq's pursuit" of weapons of mass destruction, Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We acted because we saw the evidence in a dramatic new light -- through the prism of our experience on 9-11."

They saw 5, 10, and 15-year old evidence in a "new light".

Hey, Don! Better take another look at those old Enigma intercepts. There might still be U-boats patrolling off of New Jersey, torpedoes armed, ready to cripple our merchant fleet. Put on your special "prism" goggles, and everything becomes clear.

posted by Quiddity at 7/09/2003 01:53:00 PM