Oh, give it up!

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld...told Congress that he believed that the U.S.-led team still searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq might eventually find them despite comments last month by David Kay, the group's former leader, that no stockpiles of such arms existed in Iraq at the time of the U.S.-led invasion in March.  article

They're still there looking?! I thought they pulled out. I just cannot keep up.

I really wouldn't be surprised if one day - somewhere near November - they came up with something, and then we'll see (well, you'll see - I can't stand to watch him) the Smirking Chimp come on TV with his best sincere but determined face and remind us that he never gave up. He "stayed the course" in spite of all the odds against him, because he (and God) knew that he was right - and America will not give up, no matter how many evil forces are out to "weaken our resolve."

This should be interesting:

After months of silence, George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, has decided to mount a strong public defense of the prewar judgments made by U.S. intelligence agencies about Iraq and its illicit weapons stockpiles, intelligence officials said Wednesday.

I happened to turn on the tube last night (something I very rarely do) as CBS' 60 Minutes II was coming on. There was a piece on the South Carolina high school police raid that showed the whole appalling video. And then there was a piece called "The Man Who Knew".

Greg Thielmann, told Correspondent Scott Pelley last fall that key evidence cited by the administration was misrepresented to the public.

Thielmann should know. He had been in charge of analyzing the Iraqi weapons threat for Powell's own intelligence bureau.

"I had a couple of initial reactions. Then I had a more mature reaction," says Thielmann, commenting on Powell's presentation to the United Nations last February.

"I think my conclusion now is that it's probably one of the low points in his long, distinguished service to the nation."

There's also information on the alleged nuclear weapons use aluminun tubes from an expert at the lab where they were investigated a year before Powell's UN speech.

Houston Wood was a consultant who worked on the Oak Ridge analysis of the tubes. He watched Powell’s speech, too.

"I guess I was angry, that’s the best way to describe my emotions. I was angry at that," says Wood, who is among the world’s authorities on uranium enrichment by centrifuge.

...Thielmann reported to Secretary Powell’s office that they were confident the tubes were not for a nuclear program. Then, about a year later, when the administration was building a case for war, the tubes were resurrected on the front page of The New York Times.

"I thought when I read that there must be some other tubes that people were talking about. I just was flabbergasted that people were still pushing that those might be centrifuges," says Wood.

Read the transcript. There's info about the aerial photos that allegedly revealed the presence of "decontamination vehicles", and more.

Powell wouldn't be interviewed for the piece, of course, but...

Powell told The Washington Post this week that he doesn't know if he would have recommended invasion if he'd know then that there were no stockpiles of weapons.

But Tuesday, he added this: "The bottom line is this. The president made the right decision. He made the right decision based on the history of this regime, the intention that this terrible leader, terrible despotic leader had the capabilities on a variety of levels. The delivery systems there were there, and nobody's debating that, the infrastructure that was there, the technical know-how that was there. The only thing we are debating are the stockpiles."

Really? That's the only thing?

These people don't quit, do they? Nope. Our resolve will not be weakened.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.