Think back to where you were on the morning of the 11th of September. Of course you remember, likely very vividly. Now try to recall: where was Bush?

As you probably remember, Bush spent the day at Air Force bases in Louisiana and Nebraska before returning to Washington that evening. What you may not remember is that at the time, leaders in the administration claimed the president’s hiding was due to a “specific and credible” threat to Air Force One which involved a threatening call to the Secret Service using “secret code words” for the plane.

That claim was a lie. As we now know, there was no threat to Air Force One, and the fabrication of one appears to be an attempt to deflect criticism that Bush should have returned to Washington more quickly and spoken to the American public sooner.

And now, once again, we’re asked to believe without evidence.

First, Bush asserted that Iraq was connected to Al Qaeda in Prague or Kurdistan or somewhere, but offered no evidence and dropped it. Then he talked about a “nuclear mujahedin” with ominous aluminum tubes, but the International Atomic Energy Agency has said the tubes were not for nuclear use and that the United States has offered no intelligence that Iraq is even in the market for uranium. We’re told implausibly that Iraq’s failure to disarm as quickly as South Africa is reason to go to war immediately. And just last week, the administration insisted it couldn’t specify the Iraqi danger because it was classified. — ‘Trust Me’ Isn’t Good Enough, Jonathan Alter, Newsweek 03 Feb 03.

A previous president was fond of saying “Trust, but verify.” It may be the smartest thing he ever uttered.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 28th, 2003 at 11:39 pm and is filed under Law & Politics.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.