DOES ANYONE THINK THAT EVEN ABSENT 9-11 W WASN'T GOING AFTER SADDAM?:

Rockefeller’s Confession: What was the West Virginia Democrat doing as a freelancing prewar diplomat? (William J. Bennett, 11/14/05, National Review)

Yesterday, on Fox News Sunday, the following exchange took place between Chris Wallace and U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller, vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence:

WALLACE: Now, the President never said that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat. As you saw, you did say that. If anyone hyped the intelligence, isn't it Jay Rockefeller?

SEN. ROCKEFELLER: No. The — I mean, this question is asked a thousand times and I'll be happy to answer it a thousand times. I took a trip by myself in January of 2002 to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, and I told each of the heads of state that it was my view that George Bush had already made up his mind to go to war against Iraq — that that was a predetermined set course which had taken shape shortly after 9/11.

While Democrats in Washington are berating the White House for having prewar intelligence wrong, a high-profile U.S. senator, member of the Select Committee on Intelligence, who has a name more internationally recognizable than Richard Cheney's, tells two putative allies (Saudi Arabia and Jordan) and an enemy who is allied with Saddam Hussein (Syria) that the United States was going to war with Iraq. This is not a prewar intelligence mistake, it is a prewar intelligence giveaway.

More to the point, it was months before Colin Powell and Tony Blair insisted they be allowed to use the bogus WMD issue to try and get the UN and Labour Party to go along with the war.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 14, 2005 6:47 PM