Rummy and "the Dick" just can't help themselves. Yesterday Rummy said the Poles had found WMD and Dick had a new AQ-Saddam connection. It took AFP 24 hours to debunk Rummy's claim and WaPo only waited for a new paragraph to debunk Dick.
Money quotes and links in the extended copy box.
From today's WaPo
"Cheney, Bush Tout Gains in Terror War"
Countering the staff of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, which found no "collaborative relationship" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda, Cheney renewed his accusation that they had "long-established ties." He listed several examples and stated: "In the early 1990s, Saddam had sent a brigadier general in the Iraqi intelligence service to Sudan to train al Qaeda in bombmaking and document forgery."
Senior intelligence officials said yesterday that they had no knowledge of this.
And...
Returning to the main justification for the Iraq war, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in an interview released by the Pentagon, said forbidden chemical weapons were found in Iraq in recent days. Rumsfeld said the Polish defense minister told him this week "that his troops in Iraq had recently come across -- I've forgotten the number, but something like 16 or 17 -- warheads that contained sarin and mustard gas."
Rumsfeld added: "I have not seen them and I have not tested them, but they believe that they are correct that these, in fact, were undeclared chemical weapons."
But wait just a minute say AFP in a piece headlined "Warheads found in Iraq not chemical weapons, military says"
Washington had announced the find by Polish troops on Thursday, which was later confirmed by Warsaw.
The head of Poland's military intelligence service also said on Friday that "terrorist" groups were seeking to acquire the weapons.
But the 122mm warheads, found in late June, have been found not to contain the deadly chemicals, a statement from multinational forces here said.
"Those 16 rounds were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals," it said.