Via the NYT: ‘01 Memo to Rice Warned of Qaeda and Offered Plan.

I don’t see this story as being any different than the version that came out during Clarke’s testimony and in his book. (Indeed, it strikes me as the PDB all over again (all my PDB-related posts are here ).

Like any such memo, it looks different post-911 than it did pre-911. Unless they dig up a memo that states “al Qaeda plans to hijack a plane and fly it into the WTC in September of 2025, and here’s a list of names of likely hijackers” I don’t see how anyone can say that Dr. Rice, or anyone else, could have known what was going to happen. No one can argue that memos like these obviously demonstrate that someone should have figured out what was going to happen.

We already knew that Clarke wanted to attack Afghanistan, and we knew that he had sought a meeting with Rice and that he felt thwarted. Further, we know that similar recommendations were made during the Clinton administration. This latter fact is constantly ignored in these stories–and especially in commentary on the subject in certain quarters.

Joe Gandelman has numerous comments and Kos continues to demonstrate what it looks like to be a political activist, rather than a commentator or analyst, since everything that is blogged on is about points for his side–which is fine, but makes his site tiresome reading unless one is a partisan who simply wants confirmation of their worldview. Kos’ post is worth reading, however, as he has a (partial) scan of the memo. Of course he conclusion is that it proves “Condi lied.” However, again, the info is not new and it takes some mental gymnastics to reach the conclusion that anyone lied.

Really, I think it would be a great service to the universe if people would read the definition of “lie” and ruminate upon it for a while. And this applies to all sides of the debate. To wit: if Bush thought that there were WMDs in Iraq and said so, that wouldn’t be a lie. Further, if Ward Churchill actually believes that the US army gave smallpox-infected blankets to Indians in an attempt to kill then, that wouldn’t be a lie either. Being wrong is not the same thing as lying. If it is, I perpetrated a lot of lies over the years in various math classes that I took. For that matter, I lied back when I thought Dean would be the Democrat’s nominee. For Goodness Sake, could we please get a grip on what the language means?