[Poundstone]

So Michael Maloof and David Wurmser are the two jokers to blame for the massive intelligence screw-up prior to the invasion of Iraq? They did some "butcher paper" analysis that told the President there were WMDs in Iraq?

These two gomers should be drawn and quartered on the front lawn of the White House.

[Miss Marple]

Re-read the article. You are misunderstanding it.

[Peach]

Huh?

#1. Surely you know the president did not rely on the word of TWO staffers.

#2. Iraq's connections to AQ go back nearly 14 years. In their own state run newspaper they talked in July 2001 about what was coming to America. I doubt OBL told Saddam just to gossip. As well, Saddam went into a bunker in August and didn't emerge until October. His troops were put on military alert, the highest since the Gulf War, at that time as well.

Less than two months before 9/11/01, the state-controlled Iraqi newspaper “Al-Nasiriya” carried a column headlined, “American, an Obsession called Osama Bin Ladin.” (July 21, 2001)

In the piece, Baath Party writer Naeem Abd Muhalhal predicted that bin Laden would attack the US “with the seriousness of the Bedouin of the desert about the way he will try to bomb the Pentagon after he destroys the White House.”

The same state-approved column also insisted that bin Laden “will strike America on the arm that is already hurting,” and that the US “will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra every time he hears his songs” – an apparent reference to the Sinatra classic, “New York, New York”.

#3. We know Saddam had WMD. He used them. Every intelligence agency in the world, bar none, knew Saddam had WMD. It's hard to blame two guys who agreed with the rest of the world!