Reality Bites

Same old, same old: once again the Bush administration believes whoever is willing to tell them what they want to hear, and once again, that practice bites them in the ass:

A captured Qaeda commander who was a principal source for Bush administration claims that Osama bin Laden collaborated with Saddam Hussein's regime has changed his story, setting back White House efforts to shore up the credibility of its original case for the invasion of Iraq. The apparent recantation of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a onetime member of bin Laden's inner circle, has never been publicly acknowledged. But U.S. intelligence officials tell NEWSWEEK that al-Libi was a crucial source for one of the more dramatic assertions made by President George W. Bush and his top aides: that Iraq had provided training in "poisons and deadly gases" for Al Qaeda.

HERE'S a novel idea for the Bushies: how about making your opinions conform to reality, instead trying to force reality into conforming to your opinons?