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Undercutting the Bush's administration's rationale for invading Iraq (news - web sites), the final report of the chief U.S. arms inspector concludes that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) did not vigorously pursue a program to develop weapons of mass destruction when international inspectors left Baghdad in 1998, an administration official said Wednesday. AP Photo Reuters Slideshow: Iraq Latest headlines: · Report: Saddam Not in Pursuit of Weapons AP - 5 minutes ago · US to admit no WMDs in Iraq, but Bush unrepentant AFP - 15 minutes ago · Bush attacks Kerry over Iraq, economy AFP - 16 minutes...

America's former proconsul in Baghdad delivered a damning critique of the Bush administration's policy on Iraq yesterday, saying the US had made two grave errors of judgment in the early days of the war. Paul Bremer, who was America's most senior official in Baghdad until the handover last June, said the US committed two major blunders which compromised the course of events in Iraq: it went to war without enough troops and it did not contain the looting and violence after Saddam Hussein's regime fell. "We paid a big price for not stopping it because it established an atmosphere of...

The Bush administration is trying to quash a rumor that keeps cropping up in cyberspace. For several months now, e-mails from an unknown source have warned that President Bush plans to reinstitute the draft if he wins a second term. The rumor persists despite repeated denials from top-level administration figures. In Thursday's debate, Bush declared that the U.S. military will remain an all-volunteer force. Recently, Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that "President Bush has no plans for a draft, nor is a draft needed." And Congress would just as soon debate the revival of Prohibition, because...

He is the conservative bastion of the US supreme court, a favourite of President Bush, and a hunting partner of the vice-president. He has argued vociferously against abortion rights, and in favour of anti-sodomy laws. But it turns out that there is another side to Justice Antonin Scalia: he thinks Americans ought to be having more orgies. Challenged about his views on sexual morality, Justice Scalia surprised his audience at Harvard University, telling them: "I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged." It seems unlikely that this is what President Bush meant...

Funhouse Mirror Image Astute reader Daniel Aronstein draws my attention to a curious Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball Newsweek article concerning a Sixty Minute II item that was displaced by the now-infamous fraudulent Killian memo piece, with the displaced item resembling a funhouse mirror image of the displacing story. The displaced item was to have criticized the Bush Administration for its alleged reliance on forged documents - specifically, forged documents provided by Italian sources purporting to show Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium from Niger. I have not seen the displaced item, but Newsweek's description suggests it was to have falsely...

CBS’ Bush-Service-Disclosure Not Network’s Debut In Dalliance With Dishonesty "60 Minutes": Our Reply After the CBS weekly newsmagazine aired a story criticizing Illinois Power for cost overruns in construction of its Clinton nuclear power plant, the utility produced this now-classic response, which systematically analyzed and refuted points in the original story using footage recorded by the company during Harry Reasoner's on-site interview. (Produced by Illinois Power, 1979; 40 mins.) The above is from a website of Colorado State. This, and a brief comment, on an Accuracy In Media website (chiding, then head of CBS, William Paley) are all of the...

Mainstream Media: We Reserve the Right to Lie "For the Children," and We're Angry As Hell Some Dare to Challenge That Right Right-leaning bloggers uncovered a serious hoax perpetrated by the mainstream liberal media -- so serious, in fact, it might just be an actual felony. The mainstream liberal media insists it's 1) not liberal and 2) its politics (which, by the way, aren't liberal, but are straight-down-the-middle centrist moderate) had nothing at all to do with being so receptive to, and eager to republish, this libel by fraud. (See, e.g. Jack Shafer's "What Liberal Bias?" apologia in the amateur...

Sept. 22 - In its rush to air its now discredited story about President George W. Bush’s National Guard service, CBS bumped another sensitive piece slated for the same “60 Minutes” broadcast: a half-hour segment about how the U.S. government was snookered by forged documents purporting to show Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium from Niger. The journalistic juggling at CBS provides an ironic counterpoint to the furor over apparently bogus documents involving Bush’s National Guard service. One unexpected consequence of the network’s decision was to wipe out a chance—at least for the moment—for greater public scrutiny of a more consequential...

OP-ED COLUMNIST What I found most dispiriting over the last month of politicking was the sight of two senior statesmen in the Republican Party - yes, I mean you, George H. W. Bush and Bob Dole - climbing on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth bandwagon in its campaign to turn Mr. Kerry from war hero to craven braggart. Both former President Bush and Mr. Dole are honorable. And Mr. Bush has personal knowledge of such smears. The bomber Mr. Bush piloted was shot down in 1944. He bailed out, but the two others in the plane, Ted White and...

President Bush's United Nations address and John Kerry's foreign policy speech in New York were the two big campaign moments of the week, and it's a relief to see both the candidates and the electorate focusing on the major issues. For a while it seemed as if extricating the candidates from the morass of their military records was going to be as difficult as extricating American forces from Iraq. It was sad that Mr. Kerry's commendable war record was clouded by the more outrageous of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's attacks, and it was somewhat surprising that Mr. Bush's...

Elect George Bush, some Kerry surrogates said last week, and you or your children will be drafted to fight in Iraq. Inspiring fear in voters seems to be in political vogue this fall. (Cheney has since amended his comments to say he meant to argue that Bush has a more serious approach to deterring terrorists than does Kerry.) Some voters seem inclined to believe that Bush would attempt to revive conscription, which ended 31 years ago.