WP: Depiction of Threat Outgrew Supporting Evidence

[Qutzupalotl]

Fantastic, thorough article by Walter Pincus and Barton Gellman, for those who missed it. Sunday's Washington Post devoted three pages to this. They lay it all out, providing context for the spin from the WH, with refutations of each point.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39500-2003Aug9.html

"We now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons," he said. "Among other sources, we've gotten this from firsthand testimony from defectors, including Saddam's own son-in-law."

That was a reference to Hussein Kamel, who had managed Iraq's special weapons programs before defecting in 1995 to Jordan. But Saddam Hussein lured Kamel back to Iraq, and he was killed in February 1996, so Kamel could not have sourced what U.S. officials "now know."