Look who Bush gave the Presidental Medal of Freedom to:

In a White House webpage devoted to telling "The Rest of the Story: Iraq's Links to Al Qaeda" (does Paul Harvey approve of this?) the president is defending himself from a report in the Washington Post that he falsely claimed links between Iraq and Al Qaeda. As part of that defense, the White House takes issue with the Post: (emp orig)

The Washington Post Says That A CIA Report From Late September 2002 Claimed That Saddam Did Not Have Links To Al Qaeda. "The CIA learned in late September 2002 from a high-level member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle that Iraq had no past or present contact with Osama bin Laden and that the Iraqi leader considered bin Laden an enemy of the Baghdad regime, according to a recent Senate Intelligence Committee report." (Walter Pincus, "CIA Learned in '02 That Bin Laden Had No Iraq Ties, Report Says," The Washington Post, 9/15/02)

And how is that rebutted? Not by challenging the Washington Post story. But by highlighting Tenet's misleading testimony before Congress. Here are the three bolded bullet points made:

• In February 2003, CIA Director George Tenet Testified That Iraq Had Links To Al Qaeda.
  
  
• Tenet Testified That Iraq Was Providing Safe Haven To Al Qaeda.
  
  
• In March 2002, Tenet Testified On Iraq's Links To Al Qaeda.

So here we have a defense being made based on the incompetence (or worse) of the guy Bush gave one of the highest civilian awards to.

posted by Quiddity at 9/19/2006 09:41:00 AM