Letters to the Editor
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@ Anonymous 6:50pm
"Isn't it possible that Bush et al were WRONG, without turning them into machiavellan war mongers?"
Unfortunately, no.
The White House dumped a boatload of intelligence data on the Senate Intelligence Committee when asking for authorization to attack Iraq. The committee reviews the same intelligence the President is seeing, within limits. The Senators were not shown this specific piece of intelligence which denied WMDs in Iraq, and not for any procedural or security reason. That is known as a "lie of omission."
Since the WH had provided incredible amounts of intelligence to everyone who was privileged to get it, there can be no suggestion that it was impractical for the WH to have shown others the information. The WH specifically did not include, amongst the mountains of intelligence shown to the Senate (or Powell, or who-knows-who-else), this one report. The WH did not provide this information even though it would have been procedurally trivial. In hindsight, we know the intelligence NOT shown to Senate was credible and accurate.
Here's the crux: hiding information from the people you are supposed to be "informing" so that they will make a decision which you favor.
This is not a sophisticated technical point. It's a basic and widely understood human value about honesty.