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http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2004/02/02_402.html
President Bush misled the nation about the threat Iraq posed. But he wasn't the first to do so.
By Seth Ackerman
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.weapons20feb20,0,24420.story
The paper chase
By Seth Ackerman
February 20, 2004
NEW YORK -- Why have U.S. political leaders and intelligence agencies turned out to be so wrong about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction? Despite years of warnings from the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA that Saddam Hussein was hiding an illicit arsenal, no weapons of mass destruction have been found. The weapons failure has become the top political issue in Washington, and a blue-ribbon panel has been formed to come up with answers. Was the intelligence failure an honest, unavoidable mistake or was information manipulated to serve a political agenda?
No answer to that question can be complete without looking at the astonishing tale of Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel, the highest-ranking defector to leave Iraq. His story leaves no doubt that Washington misled the American public for years about Iraq's WMD. And it also suggests something unexpected: The pattern of lying began not under President Bush but during the Clinton administration.