Remember earlier this week how the media reported - probably on the basis of false anti-Bush leaks from inside the Pentagon - that a new report cleared Saddam of ties to AQ? Turns out, not so much:

A new Pentagon report on Iraq and Terrorism has the news media buzzing. An item on the New York Times blog snarks, "Oh, By the Way, There Was No Al Qaeda Link." The ABC News story that previews the full report concludes, "Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda." How, then, to explain this sentence about Iraq and al Qaeda from the report's abstract: "At times, these organizations would work together in pursuit of shared goals but still maintain their autonomy and independence because of innate caution and mutual distrust"? And how to explain the "considerable overlap" between their activities which led not only to the appearances of ties but to a "de facto link between the organizations?"

At least the anti-Bush partisans sprinkled throughout the Pentagon are only politicizing intelligence about past conflicts. It would really suck if they intentionally manipulated something as important as Iran intel just to resentfully spite the Administration.

References:
* Saddam supported at least two al-Qaeda groups: Pentagon Update: What it means [Hot Air]
* The New Report on Iraq and Terror [Weekly Standard]
* WaPo: NIE Conclusions Were Engineered By Easily Identifiable, Hysterically Anti-Bush State Department Washouts [MR]

Previously:
* A Neoconservative Manifesto?
* Democrats Take a Brave Stand Against Israeli Self-Defense Israeli Self-Defense and Other Stuff Too
* Los Angeles Times Dishonest about Pentagon-Funded Report, Recommends Israel Disarm