Quote of note:

WHY THIS MATTERS: The Financial Times writes, "The evidence the administration produced to demonstrate the link was, at best, spurious, at worst, fabricated. This is not a small matter, especially in the context of the Bush team's case for its war of choice against Iraq." And the ramifications are huge. The Baltimore Sun writes, "The war in Iraq is proving to be a colossal blunder. Al-Qaida had no meaningful connection to Iraq before the war, but Washington has played right into Osama bin Laden's hands by blindly sending troops into the seething desert nation."

And they can't say they weren't warned it would turn out this way.

White House Caught in Web of Deceptions

Confronted with the 9/11 Commission's report this week, which stated there was no collaborative relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam, the White House refuses to admit  to misleading the public. President Bush said, "This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda. We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda." But he is playing semantic games which distort undisputable facts. Top officials in the Bush administration – including the president and the vice president – have repeatedly cited a collaborative relationship - not just contacts - between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda as a justification for invading Iraq. Now, after months of careful study, the bi-partisan commission investigating 9/11 says there is no credible evidence to support that claim. But instead of taking responsibility for their actions, the administration has continued to weave a web of deception. (See for yourself: Check out the American Progress Claim vs. Fact database for more statements the White House has made to push the misleading al Qaeda/Saddam theory.)

BUSH AND CHENEY TIED IRAQ TO 9/11: Time and time again, the administration did link Iraq and the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Vice President Cheney was still spinning the myth yesterday; asked if Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attack, he replied, "We don't know. You know, what the commission said is they can't find any evidence of that." On Meet the Press, Cheney said Iraq was the "geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." Announcing major combat was over in Iraq in May 2003, President Bush said, "the battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001." Even going into the invasion of Iraq, "Bush and Cheney…sought to tie Iraq specifically to the 9/11 attacks. In a letter to Congress on March 19, 2003 -- the day the war in Iraq began -- Bush said that the war was permitted under legislation authorizing force against those who 'planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.'"