Bush accused of undermining investigation

But Mr Bush was unapologetic yesterday. "We do know that Saddam Hussein had the intent and capabilities to cause great harm," he said. "We know he was a danger. And he was not only a danger to people in the free world, he was a danger to his own people. He slaughtered thousands of people, imprisoned people."

Yes, but there are hundreds of other despots around the globe who fit the bill as well, but we're not starting wars over them, now are we. And why not? Because it's not worth it. Just like it wasn't worth it to go to war against Iraq. Also, didn't we just hear Condi Rice say this same thing, almost word for word, last week?

(Bush) told reporters, he favoured a sweeping investigation into the failings of US intelligence agencies on the entire issue of nuclear proliferation, from Iraq to North Korea, Iran and Libya, and as far back in time as the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests in 1998, which the CIA failed to anticipate.

So, he intends to bury his failures leading up to 9/11 by attempting to distract everyone with anything even remotely related to intelligence failures. Hell, why not demand an investigation into the intelligence failures which led to our being attacked, defenseless, in Pearl Harbor half a century ago. That's the real issue here!

"We also want to look at our war against proliferation and weapons of mass destruction, kind of in a broader context," he said.

How about starting with having a look a your own proliferation policies, Mr. Bush? I seem to recall you pissing all over treaties outlining anti-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Mini-nukes were what you called them, I think. Low-yield precision nuclear (now there's an oxy-moron: a precise nuclear explosion) weapons. Oh, you meant the war against other people's nuclear proliferation. Oh, okay.

The scale of those ambitions has caused widespread dismay, and led to accusations that the White House had set tasks for the commission so broad as to be unworkable. "This should be an inquiry focused on the intelligence failure to understand what went wrong and how precisely to fix it. The president's proposal tries to bury that as simply an element in a broader effort," said Joseph Cirincione, director of the non-proliferation project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Hey, that's what I said! Okay, maybe not quite so eloquently. But still...can I have a job at CEI, now? Pretty please? Wait, this would be a well-paying job, yes?

Mr Cheney's reported involvement in the formation of the commission has already been the subject of concern. The commission is not expected to report until mid-2005 preventing any political fallout from the inquiry during this election year.

The Boy pResident has nothing to worry about. Oily Uncle Dick has everything under control. The commission will not issue any findings until after the Dim Son is re-installed and it'll never find anyone in the maladministration guilty of anything.