Friday, July 02, 2004

Jumping to conclusion

The Senate Intelligence Committee has proven itself an oxymoron. Today, it issued a statement decreeing that a global intelligence failure led to the conclusion that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction. Nice timing. This brilliant conclusion is issued one day after the Polish army detachment in Iraq found sarin-tipped warheads and just days after intelligence backed-up the claim that Iraq sought to purchase uranium from Niger.

Charles Duefler, who now heads the Iraq Survey Group, testified three months ago that it was too early to reach a conclusion. One reason: Iraqi scientists wouldn't talk. Why not? Because they were mysteriously disappearing. In addition, only a small percentage of the millions of documents regarding Iraq's WMD program have been translated.

Thus, the Senate Committee's conclusion is purely political. The politicians, 9-11 Commission and commentators need to stop saying that the negative has been proven before all the evidence has been examined.

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