Things I Learned Today
By Matthew Yglesias
According to Bart Gellman's review of Ron Suskind's new book the following things are true:
- Al-Qaedist Abu Zubaydah was captured in March 2002.
- Zubaydah's captors discovered he was mentally ill and charged with minor logistical matters, such as arranging travel for wives and children.
- The President was informed of that judgment by the CIA.
- Two weeks later, the President described Zubaydah as "one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States."
- Later, Bush told George Tenet, "I said he was important. You're not going to let me lose face on this, are you?" and asked Tenet if "some of these harsh methods really work?"
al-Zarqawi also was, in a sense, "invented" by the Bush administration PR machine. Bush pumped him up into the
greatest, er, ah, second greatest (after Bush) terrorist in the world. He was introduced to the world by name by Colin Powell during his infamous WMD dog-and-pony show at the UN. Isn't it amazing how he managed to avoid being obliterated from the impact of two 500-pound bombs dropped on his ass? The house was reduced to rubble, but al-Zarqawi (his head at least) was harder than concrete.For a man who once was described as having one leg, he was remarkably resilient.