Cheney to truth: "Go fuck yourself"

Aw man, make it stop, already.

Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides "all confirmed" that Hussein's regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released yesterday.

The declassified version of the report, by acting Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble, also contains new details about the intelligence community's prewar consensus that the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda figures had only limited contacts, and about its judgments that reports of deeper links were based on dubious or unconfirmed information. The report had been released in summary form in February.

The report's release came on the same day that Vice President Cheney, appearing on Rush Limbaugh's radio program, repeated his allegation that al-Qaeda was operating inside Iraq "before we ever launched" the war, under the direction of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist killed last June.

"This is al-Qaeda operating in Iraq," Cheney told Limbaugh's listeners about Zarqawi, who he said had "led the charge for Iraq." Cheney cited the alleged history to illustrate his argument that withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq would "play right into the hands of al-Qaeda."

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), who requested the report's declassification, said in a written statement that the complete text demonstrates more fully why the inspector general concluded that a key Pentagon office -- run by then-Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith -- had inappropriately written intelligence assessments before the March 2003 invasion alleging connections between al-Qaeda and Iraq that the U.S. intelligence consensus disputed.

The report, in a passage previously marked secret, said Feith's office had asserted in a briefing given to Cheney's chief of staff in September 2002 that the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda was "mature" and "symbiotic," marked by shared interests and evidenced by cooperation across 10 categories, including training, financing and logistics.

Instead, the report said, the CIA had concluded in June 2002 that there were few substantiated contacts between al-Qaeda operatives and Iraqi officials and had said that it lacked evidence of a long-term relationship like the ones Iraq had forged with other terrorist groups.

"Overall, the reporting provides no conclusive signs of cooperation on specific terrorist operations," that CIA report said, adding that discussions on the issue were "necessarily speculative."

The CIA had separately concluded that reports of Iraqi training on weapons of mass destruction were "episodic, sketchy, or not corroborated in other channels," the inspector general's report said. It quoted an August 2002 CIA report describing the relationship as more closely resembling "two organizations trying to feel out or exploit each other" rather than cooperating operationally.

TPM Muckraker looks on at Dick Cheney with something approaching disbelief.

There are certain things, like death and taxes, that are certainties. One is that this war will not end until the Bush/Cheney criminal enterprise has been removed from office. Another is that until that happens, Dick Cheney will continue to lie about Iraq and al Qaeda's "pretty well confirmed" ties.

And a third is that young men and women will continue to die.

BAGHDAD, April 5 — Six American and four British soldiers were killed in separate attacks around Iraq, coalition officials said Thursday, while an American helicopter crashed south of Baghdad, wounding four soldiers.

Four of the Americans died Wednesday and four were wounded when their vehicles were hit by roadside bombs in southern Baghdad and north of the city, the American military command said.

Two soldiers were killed Tuesday and one was wounded in attacks by small-arms fire in eastern and southern Baghdad, the military said.

At least 18 American service members have been killed this month, according to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent Web site that monitors military and civilian casualties.

[...]

WASHINGTON, April 5 (AP) — Several National Guard brigades are expected to be notified soon that they could be sent to Iraq around the first of 2008, a senior Defense Department official said Thursday. If their assignment to Iraq is ultimately approved by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, it would be the first time full Guard combat brigades were sent back to Iraq for a second tour.

What can be said?