It's Official

The Pentagon finally confirms what we already know: there was no link between Saddam and al-Qaida before 9/11. However, it also confirms what many of us also already knew: there were tons of links between Saddam and other terrorist groups.

An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

If anyone is still interested in this, Regime of Terror has fairly exhaustively cataloged Saddam's terrorist ties. They have also compiled evidence of cooperation between the remnants of the Ba'ath Party (of which Saddam was a chief member) and al-Qaida post 9/11. In other words, it's not that Saddam's ideology was incompatible with al-Qaida's (or other terrorists'), but rather that they just hadn't hooked up together quite yet.

That said, it's still a pretty damning indictment of the competence/integrity of the Bush administration.

Condi Implicated in Oil for Food Scandal?

It sure looks like it.

Either that, or she's a terrible leader:

According to the Volcker report, surcharges on Iraqi oil exports were introduced in August 2000 by the Iraqi state oil company, the State Oil Marketing Organization. At the time, Condoleezza Rice, now secretary of state, was a member of Chevron’s board and led its public policy committee, which oversaw areas of potential political concerns for the company.

In any case, people are starting to call for Condi's resignation, and Chevron's complicity hasn't even been officially announced yet.