Great journalism..this guy should be a national icon for revealing the true shock and awe of a president who lied to his people and comdemned a foreign country already punished by 12 years of sanctions to its knees. It only lacks a reference to Hans Blix (the UN weapons inspector) to prove a non_US centric version of events. Bush/Blair have shamed their own people and have brought back memories of Hitler/Mussolinie. The truth is almost being told here.

This is a dramatic story, but problematic journalistically. The two CIA sources are anonymous. Moreover, Blumenthal doesn't present interviews with any other sources opposing or otherwise.

A very well sourced and presented article. Wish more articles were this easy to verify. As an aside, this article meshes very cleanly with other insider information that has been brought to light over the last six years.

Just another piece of evidence, albeit well sourced evidence, that the motive for going into Iraq wasn't WMD.

Good journalism that quotes a variety of sources. Gives a very interesting perspective about the runup to Iraq. Even then, it seems Bush followed his own view of reality.

No discussion of mis-information from a gov't agent, no talk about complying with prior UNSC resolutions.

Along with Joe Conason and VERY FEW other columnists, Sidney Blumenthal is by far the very best of true journalistic commentators today. The Internet offers many valuable bloggers and commentators who have escaped from from the "mainstream" media, but their audiences are relatively small and easily drowned out or ignored by TV and newspapers, as compared to a Blumenthal writes cogent stories for both the Internet and European print media. His commentaries nearly always present ... More »

Bush / Cheny caused the death of more Americans than 9/11.

Consider the source- Sydney Blumenthal widely considered one of the more partisan Clinton operatives. Tellingly anonymous CIA sources and the "small" detail that the NIE report prepared just after this alledgedly explosive information was developed, did not "bother" to include the supposed "fact" that the CIA knew that Saddam did not have WMD. This story provides nothinbg more than fodder for those who have already made up their minds, based on other faulty reporting, that "Bush ... More »