Well, well, well......

Once again, Analog Kid asks a rather important question regarding a few facts from Richard Clarke's book. As usual, all emphasis is mine.

The media are fascinated with the parts of former White House terrorism czar Richard Clarke's book that trash President Bush as being out to lunch on the al-Qaida threat before 9/11.

But reporters aren't talking about the chapter of "Against All Enemies" that describes how Osama bin Laden cooperated with Iraqi scientists to make weapons of mass destruction - a development that, if true, would more than justify President Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq.

In his book, Clarke describes how the Clinton CIA determined in 1996 that Sudan's Shifa chemical plant, which was allegedly bankrolled by bin Laden, was producing the chemical EMPTA.

"EMPTA is a compound that had been used as a prime ingredient in Iraqi nerve gas," writes Clarke. "It has no other known use, nor had any other nation employed EMPTA to our knowledge for any purpose."

"What was an Iraqi chemical weapons agent doing in Sudan?" the terrorism authority asked.

So, was Clarke lying then, or is he lying now? And more to the point, if the Barking Moonbats are going to take this book at face value, doesn't that automatically prove the Al-Queda/Saddam link? Do we no longer have to listen to ignorant twits scream that Iraq and Al-Queda were separate?