Senate: No Prewar Saddam-al-Qaida Ties
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer, via SF Gate

Snips in red

There's no evidence Saddam Hussein had ties with al-Qaida, according to a Senate report on prewar intelligence. . .

Bush administration officials have insisted on a link between the Iraqi regime and terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Intelligence agencies, however, concluded there was none.

It discloses for the first time an October 2005 CIA assessment that prior to the war Saddam's government "did not have a relationship, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates."

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the report was "nothing new."

end snips

Well, Snow and his masters at The White House are certainly correct that there is "nothing new" in the senate report. It is old news that Saddam was in no way connected with the events of 9/11. Just as it is old news that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that the Bush Administration had Iraq on its agenda long before the invasion began. Which brings us to even more old news - that pesky little Downing Street Memo, which clearly illustrates that war was not a last but a first option for Bush. Snip from The Downing Street Memo:

Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD.

Until Bush responds (or perhaps I should say, until we get the truth) to the Congressional letter submitted to him on the subject of The Downing Street Memo (which he has failed to do for more than a year now), the lack of WMDs in Iraq, the lack of a connection between The Iraqi Government and al-Qaida, and the complete fabrication of the case for war will remain the freshest and most relevant of "old news".