Wizblog

Not Showing Their Cards

Stephen Hayes says the Bush administration is running a great risk by sitting on the growing body of evidence linking Saddam's Iraq to Al Qaeda:

The Bush administration has thus far chosen to keep the results of its postwar findings to itself; much of the information presented here comes from public sources. The administration, spooked by the media feeding frenzy surrounding yellowcake from Niger, is exercising extreme caution in rolling out the growing evidence of collaboration between al Qaeda and Baathist Iraq. As the critics continue their assault on a prewar "pattern of deception," the administration remains silent.

This impulse is understandable. It is also dangerous. Some administration officials argue privately that the case for linkage is so devastating that when they eventually unveil it, the critics will be embarrassed and their arguments will collapse. But to rely on this assumption is to run a terrible risk. Already, the absence of linkage is the conventional wisdom in many quarters. Once "everybody knows" that Saddam and bin Laden had nothing to do with each other, it becomes extremely difficult for any release of information by the U.S. government to change people's minds.

Hayes catalogs the evidence convincingly, demonstrating that those who deny these links can only be willfully blind. For me, the message delivered by Hayes to his media colleagues is this; "Hey guys, it's called reporting. Do any of you remember what that is?" (I find the Weekly Standard in general to be particularly good at that "journalism" thing).

Smart money has the administration beginning to deliver the goods from investigator David Kay and others shortly after Labor Day, on or around the 9/11 observances. It's not a moment too soon. Supporters of the president's Iraq policies deserve the information, and the "pattern of deception" crowd deserves their dressing down.