Is the media ingnoring good evidence of Iraq-terrorism link?

[AP]

I want to preface this by saying, I don't think there was good evidence to justify invading Iraq, but I do suspect that the media and the Bush administration have intentionally been playing up the crappiest most outrageious, easily-debunked evidence of WMD's so to (1) focus media attention on war, and away from domestic problems, and (2) to encourage the selection in the primaries of a candidate who will focus on war, and the Republicans will pull the rug out from under that candidate with the, well, "better" evidence next fall.

That's been my theory for a while. Now, I have been reading through some things quickly this morning, and I see TPM has a different theory synthesizing the same set of facts at http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/ today, and that the Feith memo (which I'm not following) is one of the facts.

Now, I'm not following this debate, and I don't presume to have even 1/10th the insight into American politics that Joshua Micah Marchall has, however, I thought, considering this recent interest in this issue, it might be time to revive my theory, even if it just sinks like a stone off this front page.

Again, I should note that I haven't been following these stories (and only scanned the TPM today), and that I formed my opinion on this months ago.

[LoneStarLiberal]

1. Could Be A Prelude; Then Again...

This could be a prelude to bigger, more concrete evidence offered later on down the road (kind of like the Novak column blowing up later on into Yellowcake Gate), but I agree with Marshall's assessment in his article in The Hill:

<http://www.hillnews.com/marshall/111903.aspx>

You have to consider the source of the Weekly Standard memo: Doug Feith, one of the leading proponents of the Attack Iraq school from way back in the day. Feith was also leader of the Pentagon's in-house intelligence shop set up specifically to get around the filter of the National Intelligence Community which was catching and discrediting most of the garbage that the Attack Iraq crowd was trying to push upstairs to the Chickenhawk in Chief.

Reasons for war aside, the real issue now is the abject failure and incompetence of the postwar moves made by the Bush administration. No memo from some slimeball hack like Feith or Kristol or Wolfowitz can cover up the administration's failure to cope with post-invasion Iraq.

[AP]

4. Yeah, I agree with that. After posting this, I went back and read

TPM, and if I had read it as closely the first time, I don't think I would have posted this.

I was only posting this for the purpose of discussion, and to keep minds open to the possibility. However, I don't think there's enough evidence to support my theory yet (and there may never be -- we'll have to see what happens between now and next fall).

[madfloridian]

2. Sounds like he is rather debunking it.

SNIP..."So that’s the main reason, I think, that people haven’t picked up the story. No liberal media conspiracy. Sorry. Rather, the people who are following the intel story know that this is raw intelligence which the people in a position to know, and with access to all the information, say is either unreliable or doesn’t amount to anything...."

[AP]

5. I was offering my opinon as a contrast to TPM's

I think it would be a conservative conspiracy to play down good evidence of a bad Iraq at this point. My theory is that they'd wait until next fall to release that information.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. "Pentagon Questions Reports on Osama-Saddam Ties"

Several newspapers and other media outlets had egg on their face Monday after reporting or endorsing a Weekly Standard story revealing new evidence of an "operational relationship" between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.

Several outlets, including the New York Post, The Washington Times and FOX News, ran with the story. There was just one problem: On Saturday, the Pentagon issued a press release stating that "news reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq ... are inaccurate."
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2030480

Just FYI.

[redqueen]

6. So, in other words...

it's the same old same old...

Lots of publicity for 'evidence'... then backpage corrections (if any).

How shocking.

[papau]

7. Ani meets with Arab student is all that they have for Prague - plus

fact that waiting room camera locations were known to Ani so he is not on camera. Slate has a write-up that lays out the "evidence" - and there is not much to lay out. Hell - Ani is in our custody, so what the heck - if Bush could get "Iraq proof" out of him, he would have by now.

The rest is bull - guessing.

The Florida car and Hotel proof for Atta not being "found" now -as in this months search for the file - either means Bush took care of that like he took care of his drug conviction on his Texas license, his military record of his AWOL, and the record of his getting the 15 year old prego and aborted -

or the FBI lied when they said they had proof.