Thank you Mr. Conason. It is certainly time someone comes out and speaks truth. I was a witness to the original Bush lie about Saddam "not letting in" the UN inspectors, which as been part of his talking points ever since. I was watching CNN and saw the entire press conference with Kofi Annan live after Bush's Africa trip. Poor Mr. Annan, as you say, maintained his diplomatic cool and didn't fall off his chair, but there must have been an internal struggle in the face of this bald-faced lie. Next day I eagerly scanned the US mainstream press for a headline on this. Nothing. As you mentioned, the only reference was a mild rather apologetic reference to it buried in the Washington Post. Nothing in the NYT. Nothing in any other main paper. So much for the traditional duty of the press, to act as watchdog for the public. But it's negation of this duty (apart from poor maligned Helen Thomas) is the theme song of the current Bush administration, isn't it? Or perhaps it is the policy of the (few) new corporate owners of most of the US press, where the bottom line is sacred and everything else, including in-depth reporting, is expendable.

The recent reiteration of the "inspectors were kicked out by Saddam" theme was similar to another double take I experienced very shortly after 9/11, when everyone knew who the perps of that atrocity were: again on CNN, there was a short interview with Wolfowitz who suggested invading...Iraq. Huh? There were no Iraqis involved and it was known that Saddam, a secular dictator, couldn't stomach Bin Laden and the feeling was mutual. I thought it quite off the wall at the time, and the admin must have hushed Mr. Wolfowitz (bad timing) because the tune smartly changed to Afghanistan and no more was heard about Iraq until some time later. But perhaps this was an early warning of the subsequent direction and policy of the admin, already set in stone even before 9/11 which served as an excuse.

cheers,

ncm