Pentagon buries report showing no links between Saddam and al Qaeda
Up until yesterday, the Pentagon planned to release a landmark survey of over 600,000 seized Iraqi documents that showed conclusively there was no connection between al Qaeda and the regime of Saddam Hussein. At the last minute, the Pentagon decided to bury the study:
ABC News' Jonathan Karl Reports: The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention. This morning, the Pentagon cancelled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release and will no longer make the report available online.
The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the authors. No more. The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.
It won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online.
Asked why the report would not be posted online and could not be emailed, the spokesman for Joint Forces Command said: "We're making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we'll send it out via CD in the mail."
Another Pentagon official said initial press reports on the study made it "too politically sensitive."
And there you have it. The report is not being disavowed or contradicted, nor are its conclusions being denied. You'll simply have to request it by mail and receive it by mail. This attempt at obscurity through bureaucracy is almost comical in its inept handling of the matter; well, it would be comical if the subject matter weren't so serious.
Bush's lies can no longer be buried or denied, but proof of them can certainly be lost in the mail.