An official government website offered the world a virtual manual for nuclear bomb making, reports the New York Times.  Over the objections of John Negroponte, the website, "Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal," posted thousands of documents seized in the Iraq war.  Yesterday, following objections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the website was taken down.  According to the Times, the website was expected to advance the Bush administration's claims that Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction.

The campaign for the online archive was mounted by conservative publications and politicians, who said that the nation's spy agencies had failed adequately to analyze the 48,000 boxes of documents seized since the March 2003 invasion. With the public increasingly skeptical about the rationale and conduct of the war, the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees argued that wide analysis and translation of the documents -- most of them in Arabic -- would reinvigorate the search for clues that Mr. Hussein had resumed his unconventional arms programs in the years before the invasion. American search teams never found such evidence. (NYT, 11/3)

This isn't the first time.

The Bush Administration and supportive Republicans have been lying about alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction since time began. Amazingly, numerous bloggers were able to find and highlight these lies many months before a single U.S. troop hit the ground in Iraq.

But truth seems not to matter in politics -- only perceptions matter. And Rove, Santorum, Hoekstra, and the rest of the Republican jihadists are always quick to exploit that fact.

Their latest lie enlists the ongoing deception and betrayal of the American people birthed by this administration years ago.

As Fox News reports, "Top administration officials said today that chemical and biological weapons have indeed been found in Iraq and they now worry what this could suggest about other hidden weapons there and the possible dangers to US troops." US intelligence officials "believe the weapons were made prior to the Gulf War in 1991 and officials say they have seriously degraded over time. But the declassified report says they are still lethal and Secretary Rumsfeld said that is a concern for all those in Iraq."

The fact is that these relics of pre-'Desert Storm' history were lost to the sands of time and for Republicans to pretend these are somehow related to or justification for Bush's lie-pressed war is total and complete hokum. Even so, they can keep a straight face -- clearly desperate people in desperate times scraping for the justification of unjustifiable acts.

Now that Gen. Hayden has been confirmed as the next CIA director, let's take a look into our future.

We can assume the NSA's version of TIA will find a new home at the CIA.  For the sake of argument, let's assume everyone involved in this program is committed to the rule of law and seriously interested in protecting America from threats.

Even if that is all true, we still have a problem.  How do you demonstrate the program's value to the people who pay for it without sharing classified information?  It turns out, Ronald Reagan had a solution to that sort of problem; he called it "trust but verify."   We can apply that approach to solve this impasse while meeting the legitimate needs of all the stakeholders.  Here's the proposed test:

So yesterday the Washington Post reported that the "mobile biological weapons" touted to have been found in Iraq, giving the country the illusion of Bush's legitimacy, were in fact proven not to be so even before the President asserted that "we have found the weapons of mass destruction."

Today, Bush has sent his minion McClellan out to chastize the news world for "reckless reporting."

But shouldn't the administration be pointing the finger at themselves?

On March 25th, 2006, Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern, Faiza Al-Araji, and Medea Benjamin spoke to a crowd of about 300 people at the First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto. The title for the evening was Iraq: The Power of Truth in A War Based on Lies. It was an incredible evening, hearing from people with unparalleled experience in the events leading up to this war and the ongoing results. The attendees learned a lot, had many things they already believed to be true affirmed, got some provocative and controversial new perspectives, and heard some of the anger and frustration from the presenters and each other. At times fingers were pointed, tears were shed, hackles were raised, conspiracy theories were floated, objections were shouted, a few laughs were chuckled and some chords of Kum Ba Ya were sang.

In all, it was an amazing evening.

The following morning, during worship at First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, I shared a prayer for Scott Ritter. Because of that prayer, several people asked that I write up my reflections on the evening, and what prompted my prayer for Scott, so that others who had been there that evening could understand my interpretation of what happened. Plus, for those who were not there, a lot of important information and ideas warrant discussion.

The following represents my reflections on the Power of Truth In A War Based On Lies, and the people who made that evening come to life.

as bush starts yet another speechifying sales job on iraq to the american people, let's reflect on reality and truth, commodities not in evidence in the current presidential administration... scot lehigh's boston globe editorial discusses the difference between "lying" and "misleading" and cites a valuable research document from the carnegie endowment for international peace..."

The latest rat to jump the sinking ship of Iraq is Congressman Norm Dicks of Washington. He admits that he was mislead and that Bush had doctored intelligence in the leadup to the war with Iraq.

Dicks' reversal comes as the steady drumbeat of revelations continues about the extent of the Bush plan to fix facts around the case for war in Iraq. He is the congressman for Washington's Sixth District, which includes Tacoma.

(originally posted at Hoot at the Dark.)

Daily Press has a must read Special Report:

"The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels."