Posted 10:25 AM by Steve
The most important news of the day comes from the Pentagon and the C.I.A. both have "leaked" stories to address the Democrats rabid attacks on President Bush over WMD in Iraq:

CIA went on the offensive. The C.I.A. report indicating al-Qa'ida's readiness to use chemical, biological and radiological or nuclear (CBRN) weapons. The report, entitled "Terrorist CBRN: Materials and Effects," states that al-Qa'ida's "goal is the use of CBRN to cause mass casualties," adding that Islamic terrorists, including and linked to al-Qa'ida, "have a wide variety of potential agents and delivery means to choose from for chemical, biological and radiological or nuclear attacks." The report confirms that several al-Qa'ida chemical weapons attacks against European leaders and population centers have been intercepted and suggests that the terror group could produce an "improvised nuclear device" or a radiological dispersion device -- a so-called "dirty bomb."

For its part, the Pentagon also came out swinging against critics of the Iraq-al-Qa'ida connection, as Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy (contact), announced the findings of a special intelligence team which has concluded that al-Qa'ida's religious ideology does not prevent the group from cooperating with state sponsors of terrorism. The team, commissioned in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, concludes that "groups and states were willing to cooperate across philosophical, ideological lines." The intelligence report debunks popular myths about Islamic terrorists, says Feith, showing that "Sunni and Shi'a groups cooperated, or religious-based groups cooperated with secular groups or states." Amid the growing storm of accusations ranging from "tweaked" intelligence to outright lies, the undersecretary concluded unambiguously, "From our perspective, it's pretty clear that the intelligence community's judgments concerning Iraqi weapons of mass destruction did not undergo a major change between the Clinton and Bush administrations."