The new documents, released today by the Bush administration, are maybe, but maybe not, real Iraqi government documents that we found in Iraq. The Bush administration can't vouch for the documents' authenticity or the accuracy of the translations from Arabic, but they're releasing them anyway in the hopes that - get this - right-wing blogs can help them prove their case that Saddam had WMD and ties to Al Qaeda.
Yes, it's come to that. Bush is now relying on Michelle Malkin's keen intelligence skills to prove the case for war in Iraq.
Anyway, my favorite part of the document dump is the following "find" that shows the Iraqi government wasn't working with Al Qaeda at all - in fact, Iraqi intelligence was trying to get a handle on what, if any, Al Qaeda presence there might be in the country:
One synopsis described a series of Iraqi documents as "Iraqi intelligence correspondence concerning the presence of al Qaeda members in Iraq," adding there were exchanges between intelligence service members about a suspicion that was later confirmed of the presence of an al Qaeda group in the country.Did you get that? The documents don't show Saddam working with Al Qaeda. On the contrary, they prove (if they're even real) that Saddam had no clue if Al Qaeda was even hiding inside Iraq at all, and he was trying to find out. Not at all unlike our own government trying to determine if there are likely Al Qaeda operatives inside the US at this very moment.
If that's the standard for convicting someone of working with Al Qaeda, simply determining that there may operatives hiding in the country, then George Bush is as guilty as Saddam Hussein, since Al Qaeda is hiding in the US, and how many, 65 or so, other countries as well? Should we invade western Europe too? What exactl does this document dump prove, other than extreme desperation by a dangerously incompetent president.
Hey, it worked! Bush released the documents and a blogger figured them out!
Thanks GWB.
