June 22, 2004
The Weakest Link
An allegation that a high-ranking al Qaeda member was an officer in Saddam Hussein's private militia may have resulted from confusion over Iraqi names, a senior administration official said yesterday.
Former Navy secretary John Lehman, a Republican member of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said Sunday that documents found in Iraq "indicate that there is at least one officer of Saddam's Fedayeen, a lieutenant colonel, who was a very prominent member of al Qaeda." Although he said the identity "still has to be confirmed," Lehman introduced the information on NBC's "Meet the Press" to counter a commission staff report that said there were contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda but no "collaborative relationship."
Yesterday, the senior administration official said Lehman had probably confused two people who have similar-sounding names.
Oh, and we found thousands of missiles in Iraq yesterday.
Wait a minute...thousands of things were misfiled in Iraq. Heh...my bad.
Posted by Jesse Taylor at June 22, 2004 10:19 AM | TrackBackComments
There's clearly a pattern of making a claim, letting it hang in the news for a day or two, then quietly correcting it later.
I think we should have a name for this: I suggest
"ERECT! and (correct)"
Posted by: Bryguy at June 22, 2004 10:55 AMThat wouldn't be bad, Bryguy -- especially since the publisher nixed it as a title for Clinton's memoirs.
(Sorry, couldn't resist the juvenile fun of it.)
Posted by: FlipYrWhig at June 22, 2004 11:01 AMWell people do fire off memos now and then.
Posted by: tcfkac at June 22, 2004 11:03 AMPost a comment