Demosophia

What Did He Say?

What's Powell doing, issuing a statement that includes the confusing answer to this rather obvious challenge:

QUESTION: On the subject of weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Secretary, one of the other conclusions of that report was that there was no evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida and that there was no evidence of a likelihood that he would transfer weapons to al-Qaida.

What do you think about that, looking back? And I know that, you know, hindsight is 20/20, but to think back --

SECRETARY POWELL: My presen --

QUESTION: Do you think that there were ways other than war to have handled this threat and that the -- that it was not an imminent threat to the United States?

SECRETARY POWELL: My presentation on the 5th of February when I talked to this issue made it clear that we had seen some links and connections to terrorist organizations over time, and I focused on one particular case, Zawahiri*, and I think that was a pretty solid case.

*Correction: "...and I focused on one particular case, Zarqawi,..."

There is not -- you know, I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection, but I think the possibility of such connections did exist and it was prudent to consider them at the time that we did.

Now, given that the press has been almost single-mindedly committed to ignoring any evidence of links between al Qaeda and the Hussein regime, is not a statement like the one above (especially with all the past tense) playing into the hands of those predisposed to a rather stifling "consensus view" about such links? And why would an administration official play into that perception, given the enormous significance of such a link to any justification for the war? The immediate impression sewn by the press was that Powell had finally admitted that there were no ties between al Qaeda and Saddam. I doubt that Powell intended such an admission, but if not isn't this a rather dull-witted and irresponsible response? What was he thinking?

Dan Darling has some thoughts. Key graf:

I agree with Pete that it looks like he's answering off the cuff, for example referencing Ayman al-Zawahiri rather than Abu Musab Zarqawi. However, I still don't think that it's remotely defensible for him to say what he said without immediately issuing a correction or a clarification, especially given what the press is doing with this.

I agree with Dan. This is a real pisser. Very good people have been busting their humps trying overcome what amounts to a widespread meme about the notion that a secular totalitarian would never kiss a religious totalitarian on the lips, which is a very dangerous meme to just let lie. And here Powell actually contributes to the confusion. How out of touch is that? I know he didn't attend any of the military academies, but if he had I'd be asking about his class rank right now.

Posted by Demosophist at January 12, 2004 12:13 AM | TrackBack