ADMINISTRATION
The Iraq Forgery

On Dec. 14, 2003, the London Sunday Telegraph published an explosive front-page story headlined, "Terrorist behind September 11 strike 'was trained by Saddam.'" The proof was a July 1, 2001, letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence, Tahir Jalil Habbush, stating that 9/11 terrorist Mohammed Atta had trained for his mission in Iraq. War supporters touted this story as further justification for the Bush administration's war. That same day, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly proclaimed, "Now, if this is true, that blows the lid off al Qaeda/Saddam." However, as the 9/11 Commission proved, there were no pre-war ties between Saddam Hussein's regime and the al Qaeda organization. So what happened? Pulitzer-Prize winning author Ron Suskind argues in his new book, "The Way of the World," the White House fabricated this letter and paid Habbush $5 million to stay quiet. Additionally, officials ignored Habbush's warnings that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Suskind's reporting provides the latest bit of evidence that the Bush administration deliberately misled the public to launch its war.

IGNORING UNWANTED EVIDENCE: In January 2003, Michael Shipster, the head of Iraqi operations for the British intelligence service MI6, began secret talks with Habbush. According to Nigel Inkster, a former senior British intelligence official, Habbush confirmed that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Hussein was "more concerned with threats from regional enemies like Iran than a US invasion." Senior White House officials were well-informed about these discussions. The British intelligence services prepared a final report on Shipster's meetings with Habbush, which then-CIA director George Tenet used to brief President Bush and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. "The report stated that according to Habbush, Saddam had ended his nuclear program in 1991, the same year he destroyed his chemical weapons stockpile. Iraq had no intention, Habbush said, of restarting either program," Suskind writes. "The White House then buried the Habbush report. They instructed the British that they were no longer interested in keeping the channel open." But as Suskind told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann yesterday, Bush administration officials became worried that Habbush might go public with his revelations after Amb. Joseph Wilson published his infamous op-ed on July 6, 2003. "Everyone was terrified that Habbush would pop up on the screen," former CIA agent Rob Maguire told Suskind. The CIA paid Habbush $5 million in hush money in October 2003 to lay low and stay quiet. Ironically, the State Department's "Rewards for Justice" website still lists Habbush as a "wanted" man, offering a $1 million reward.

THE BOGUS LETTER: Around the time that it hushed Habbush, the White House decided to use the Iraqi's name to forge the bogus letter, backdated to July 2001. The letter was meant to show "that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice President's Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq," writes Suskind. According to Suskind's CIA sources, officials remember seeing the forgery order on "creamy White House stationery." Furthermore, they concluded that the letter must have come from the "highest reaches of the White House." The fake letter was then strategically leaked to Telegraph reporter Con Coughlin. Coughlin noted that in the memo, Habbush said that Atta "displayed extraordinary effort" and would be able to attack "the targets that we have agreed to destroy." The second part of the memo, headed "Niger Shipment," detailed an unspecified shipment -- presumably uranium -- that was allegedly shipped to Iraq via Libya and Syria. In his article, Coughlin wrote, Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document." Dr. Ayad Allawi, then a member of Iraq's Presidential Committee, nevertheless "said the document was genuine."

GUTTER ATTACKS: Current and former Bush administration officials wasted no time in excoriating Suskind's work. "There was no such order from the White House to me nor, to the best of my knowledge, was anyone from CIA ever involved in any such effort," said Tenet. He also questioned whether Suskind was a "serious journalist." White House spokesman Tony Fratto went further, telling Politico, "Ron Suskind makes a living from gutter journalism. He is about selling books and making wild allegations that no one can verify." The White House told NPR that the claims in the book were part of the "bizarre conspiracy theories that Ron Suskind likes to dwell in." Yesterday in a Washington Post online chat, media reporter Howard Kurtz disputed the White House's characterization of Suskind, stating, "Gutter journalism is certainly not a phrase I'd associate with Ron Suskind." Moreover, Suskind is standing by his work. He said that many of his sources "felt that at the end of this Bush era it is imperative to be truthful about this issue -- going to war under false pretenses so that we settle accounts and people understand what occurred and what the truth is. So we can get past this as a country." He also called the White House's reaction "regrettable" but "expected." "If they reacted any other way they would have to answer questions that might have some legal consequences," he told ABC News.

Under the Radar

ADMINISTRATION -- SEVEN YEARS AGO TODAY, BUSH RECEIVED 'BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN U.S.' MEMO: Today marks the seventh anniversary of the day President Bush received a President's Daily Brief entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." (See the memo here.) At the time, Bush was vacationing at his ranch in Crawford, TX; he stayed on vacation fpr the rest of August 2001. According to the 9/11 Commission report, Bush "did not recall discussing the August 6 report with the Attorney General" and there was "no indication" that there was "any further discussion before Sept. 11 among the President and his top advisers of the possibility of a threat of an al Qaeda attack in the United States" after Bush received the memo. The day after he received the memo, "Bush seemed carefree as he spoke about the books he was reading, the work he was doing on his nearby ranch, his love of hot-weather jogging, his golf game and his 55th birthday," the Washington Post noted. The President has since admitted that he "didn't feel that sense of urgency, and my blood was not nearly as boiling" in the months before 9/11. Today -- 2,557 days later -- bin Laden still remains free and "determined to strike in U.S."

GUANTANAMO -- HAMDAN FOUND GUILTY, FACES LIFE IN PRISON: The Department of Defense announced today that a six-member military panel has found Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver, guilty of "providing material support for terrorism." He was acquitted of a related conspiracy charge. Hamdan "now faces up to a life sentence after the 10-day trial, which provided the first demonstration of a special tribunal system for prosecuting alleged terrorists." The sentence, however, will be set in a separate proceeding later today. The New York Times writes, "the conviction was a singular victory for the [Bush] administration not only because it was the first in a legal system that has been the subject of bitter debate for years, but also because a case brought on behalf of the same accused detainee reached the Supreme Court in 2006." Yesterday, Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell revealed that Hamdan would have been detained by the United States, regardless of the verdict. "Even if he were acquitted of the charges that are before him, he would still be considered an enemy combatant and therefore would continue to be subject to continued detention," said Morrell. 

CONGRESS -- HOUSE CONSERVATIVES TRY TO CREDIT POLITICAL STUNTS FOR DROP IN GAS PRICES: Yesterday, as House conservatives engaged in a third day of political stunts on the floor of the House, they claimed that gas prices across the nation had dropped in response to their offshore oil drilling theatrics. "I think the market is responding to the fact that we are here talking," said Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) in a press conference. Shadegg claimed that "gas prices have gone down" because of the "pressure" coming from pro-drilling conservatives talking in the dark. But actual experts don't believe the political stunts have anything to do with the drop in prices. In fact, oil and gas prices are down because of simple economics as the high energy prices and the weak economy are "curbing consumer demand" for gas. One analyst told the Los Angeles Times that demand had "finally hit a wall," while another put it more bluntly to the AP: "$4-a-gallon gasoline has clearly killed demand." As evidence of this decreased demand, the Transportation Department recently reported that Americans drove nearly 10 billion fewer miles in May 2008 than May 2007. Conservatives have previously tried to give credit for lower prices to President Bush's call for offshore drilling, but even the White House rejected that logic. Though they're crediting their theatrics for the drop in prices, conservatives refused to "answer questions about whether they would take the blame if gas prices go up again," The Hill reported yesterday.

Think Fast

Former Olympic gold medalist speedskater Joey Cheek had his visa revoked by Chinese authorities, just hours before "he was set to travel to Beijing to promote his effort urging China to help make peace in the war-torn Darfur section of Sudan." In 2006, Cheek contributed his $25,000 gold medal award to help refugees from Darfur.

Six conservative senators are skipping the GOP convention. "Sens. Ted Stevens of Alaska, Gordon Smith of Oregon, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine all face tough re-election campaigns. Two others, Wayne Allard of Colorado and Larry Craig of Idaho, are retiring."

Today, President Bush "said North Korea could leave the 'axis of evil' and shed its pariah state status if dictator Kim Jong Il came clean on his country's nuclear weapons programs and ended human rights abuses. "It's his choice to make," Bush said, adding, "My hope is that the 'Axis of Evil' list no longer exists. That's my hope, for the sake of peace. And it's my hope for the sake of our children."

A bipartisan group of four senators plans to "announce a proposal to reset the charitable mileage deduction to 70 percent of the corporate deduction." Currently, "the deduction for use of a personal car while performing volunteer services for charities" is "14 cents a mile," compared to "58.5 cents a mile for corporate employees who use their cars for business purposes."

In a new poll from the National Women's Law Center, "59 percent of women said they were ‘worried and concerned about achieving [their] economic and financial goals over the next five years,' compared with just 33 percent who called themselves 'hopeful and confident.'"

Freddie Mac reported a loss of $821 million in the second quarter, following a $151 million loss in the first quarter and bringing its cumulative loss over the last four quarters to more than $4.6 billion. "To help preserve capital, Freddie said it would slash its quarterly dividend" by 80 percent, to five cents a share.

And finally: Bob Novak wishes the AP had a copy editor. On Monday, the Associated Press made a "deplorable error" when writing about columnist Novak's decision to retire and his diagnosis of a brain tumor. The Washington Post's Al Kamen pointed out the AP's "terrible gaffe." "Novak has been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades," the AP wrote. "He announced late last month he has a brain."

Good News

Congress is poised to approve a federal apology for slavery. The Senate is expected to take up the issue in September and "address a centuries-old wound."

State Watch

CALIFORNIA: "San Francisco has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent from 1990 levels and is on track to meet its goal of a 20 percent reduction in four years."

ILLINOIS: Illinois's political reform movement "is one signature away from its biggest victory: a law to end a prevalent form of campaign donating that some say looks an awful lot like bribery."

CONNECTICUT: New study shows nearly 3,000 business closures "in the second quarter of the year, the highest number for any quarter since the state started compiling such statistics eight years ago."

Blog Watch

THINK PROGRESS: Army offering six-figure bonuses for Arabic speakers, after kicking out dozens under Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

WONK ROOM: America's auto makers tell Congress to inflate its tires, not its rhetoric.

DEMOCRACY ARSENAL: War hawks offer plan for Iraq that's short on details and leaves large amounts of troops in Iraq for a long time.

MEDIA MATTERS: Michael Savage: "Illegal aliens" have "raped and disheveled" the Statue of Liberty.

Daily Grill

"I would take issue with the characterization that there's anything desperate about the situation in Afghanistan, anything urgent or precarious about the situation in Afghanistan."
-- Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, 8/5/08

VERSUS

"It is urgent. It is one where the violence is growing."
-- Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, 7/22/08