You Can't Get Away With Lying ... Unless You're A Democrat or a Media Man ... but I Repeat Myself.

Central Argument? [Jonah Goldberg]

From a reader:

Jonah:

Much of the press (ABC, CBS, CNN) were stating yesterday that a "central argument" made by the White House for removing Saddam Hussein from power was the alliance or links between Iraq and al-Qaeda.
Granted, the White House has made the claim that al-Qaeda and Iraq has some sort of "relationship."

But was it a "central argument" for the war?

Remember the Iraq war resolution that Congress voted on? A resolution that the press, in reporting on this story, didn't mention?

Here:

http://hnn.us/articles/1282.html

Nowhere in the resolution does it say that one of the reasons, much less a central or key reason, for liberating Iraq was the cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaeda. The only reference to al-Qaeda in the resolution reads:

Whereas members of al-Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq;

So, the actual law authorizing force never states that al-Qaeda and Iraq were allied.
Curious omission by the members of the Fourth Estate.

UPDATE:

From the Weekly Standard via FreeRepublic, Steve Hayes:

NEARLY TWO YEARS AGO, in the introduction to an hour-long PBS documentary called Saddam's Ultimate Solution, former Clinton State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said:

"Tonight, we examine the nature of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. Ten years after the Gulf War and Saddam is still there and still continues to stockpile weapons of mass destruction. Now there are suggestions he is working with al Qaeda, which means the very terrorists who attacked the United States last September may now have access to chemical and biological weapons."

The documentary, broadcast on July 11, 2002, laid out in exhaustive detail alleged Iraqi connections with al Qaeda. Rubin noted in his introduction that the report contained "disturbing allegations, some of which are hard to prove." But, he added, such allegations "are important enough to be fully explored and investigated...

Later that spring, the Clinton Justice Department prepared an indictment of Osama bin Laden. The relevant passage, prominently placed in the fourth paragraph, reads:

Al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq.

And Christopher Hitchins in Slate asks - and answers - the question:

Guess who used to believe in the Iraq/al-Qaida connection?