The talk of the book world this morning pits another author's damaging allegations against the denials of the White House. (Ron Suskind v. Bush)

This time, that author is not a former Bush official. It's journalist, Pulitzer Prize recipient, Ron Suskind. In his new book, "The Way of the World," the D.C.-based author says the CIA forged a letter that falsely connected Iraq to Al Qaeda before the 2003 Iraqi invasion - on an order from the White House.

Forgery or no, the letter did exist and was reported by several media outlets, including The (London) Sunday Telegraph and Fox News, Politico reports. The White House has called the allegation of forgery "absurd."

Politico got the scoop after obtaining an early copy of the book, published today. Read more there.

How News is (Instantly) Manipulated into Partisan "Tactics" Insulating the Bush Administration from Accountability

Suskind On MSN http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26030877#26030877

Suskind In The News (More: Much More)

Why Americans Hate Journalism, Part 62

Ron Suskind's new book reports that in 2003, the White House ordered the CIA to forge a letter to "prove" that Iraq had a hand in 9/11 and that Saddam was buying yellowcake uranium from Niger for his WMD program with the help of Al Qaeda.

When this came up on MSNBC, moderator Chuck Todd asked Politico's Mike Allen whether this would lead "the anti-war crowd" in Congress to call for impeachment. Allen replied that it would "give the lefty blogosphere something to grab onto."

And so, in less time than it takes to say "Dick Cheney," the subject is changed from what would be one of the most outrageous violations of the Constitution in the history of the Republic to a left/right issue. Instead of taking a breath to consider the merits and consequences of Suskind's charges, MSNBC's.

It's-Always-Super-Tuesday-Over-Here reframing machine instantly transforms a shocking allegation about the abuse of power into a piece of political football, a tactic, an occasion for the players in the grand political theater that cable news says Washington really is to assume their designated roles, like a Punch and Judy show.

Only it's not that funny, is it? I don't imagine that the families of the tens of thousands of American soldiers killed and wounded in Iraq think that wanting to hold the president and vice president accountable for breaking the law means you're part of "the anti-war crowd" (meaning, the un-kewl kids). If the White House asked the CIA to cook up this disinformation aimed at the American people, why shouldn't the righty blogosphere, too, be up in arms? Why doesn't every American, regardless of political party, have a stake in the truth and the rule of law?

I know, I know: that's not Chuck Todd's or Mike Allen's jobs. Unfortunately, the closest that the MSM usually comes to weighing the evidence is saying: Ron Suskind charges X, and the White House denies it. This is what is now called reporting.

George Tenet And White House Admit Iraq Intelligence Chief Told Them Iraq Had No WMD

on Suskind was on NPR this morning to discuss his new book The Way of the World, which alleges Iraq's intelligence chief Tahir Jalil Habbush told the US before the war that Iraq had no WMD.

NPR asked George Tenet and the White House for comment, and, remarkably enough, they both essentially admitted this was true.

SUSKIND: What we now know from this investigation is that a secret mission was conducted in which a British manager, intelligence agent, met with the head of Iraqi intelligence in a secret location in Amman, Jordan. And what the Iraqi intelligence chief told the British—and essentially the Americans, because we're all in this together—is that there were no WMD in Iraq. And what that meant is that we knew everything that became so obvious by the summer after the invasion. And the president made a decision essentially to ignore that intelligence...

NPR: We have called key players in Ron Suskind's account...George Tenet says the Iraqi failed to persuade, and a White House spokesman adds that any information the Iraqi may have provided was, quote, "immaterial."

Further corroboration appears in a November, 2003 New York Times story by James Risen. Risen's article is about last-minute attempts by Iraq to avert war, using a Lebanese-American intermediary named Imad Hage who knew Richard Perle:

A week [after February, 2003 meetings in Beirut with the Iraqi Intelligence Service's chief of foreign operations], Mr. Hage said, he agreed to hold further meetings in Baghdad. When he arrived, he was driven to a large, well-guarded compound, where he was met by a gray-haired man in a military uniform. It was Tahir Jalil Habbush, the director of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, who is No. 16 on the United States list of most wanted Iraqi leaders. Mr. Hage said Mr. Habbush asked him if it was true that he knew Mr. Perle. "Have you met him?"

Mr. Hage said Mr. Habbush began to vent his frustration over what the Americans really wanted. He said that to demonstrate the Iraqis' willingness to help fight terrorism, Mr. Habbush offered to hand over Abdul Rahman Yasin, who has been indicted in United States in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Mr. Yasin fled to Iraq after the bombing, and the United States put up a $25 million reward for his capture.

Mr. Hage said Mr. Habbush offered to turn him over to Mr. Hage, but Mr. Hage said he would pass on the message that Mr. Yasin was available.

Mr. Hage said Mr. Habbush also insisted that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and added, "Let your friends send in people and we will open everything to them."

Mr. Hage said he asked Mr. Habbush, "Why don't you tell this to the Bush administration?" He said Mr. Habbush replied cryptically, "We have talks with people."

Mr. Hage said he later learned that one contact was in Rome between the C.I.A. and representatives of the Iraqi intelligence service. American officials confirm that the meeting took place, but say that the Iraqi representative was not a current intelligence official and that the meeting was not productive.

In addition, there was an attempt to set up a meeting in Morocco between Mr. Habbush and United States officials, but it never took place, according to American officials.

This can be added onto the pile:

• The CIA sent thirty relatives of Iraqi scientists to Iraq to ask them what WMD Iraq had, and they uniformly reported it had nothing.

• Iraq's foreign minister Nouri Sabri secretly told the US in 2002 that Iraq had no active WMD programs.

• Alan Foley, the head of the CIA's Weapons Intelligence Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Center, told an acquaintance just before the war that he expected we would find "Not much, if anything."

WHITE HOUSE ORDERED FORGED LINK TO AL-QAEDA AND 9/11
By MAG(MAG)
from AfterDowningStreet.org - Impeach Bush and Cheney Now! by davidswanson. By Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers. WASHINGTON — Environmental Protection Agency chief Stephen Johnson stunned his staff last month when he publicly opposed ...
Marco A Garcia - http://marcoagarcia.blogspot.com/

Another Bushevik Attempt To Create History That Never Was?
By Marshalldoc
Suskind reports that Bush initially told Cheney he had to "‘step back’ in large meetings when they were together, like those at the NSC [National Security Council], because people were addressing and deferring to Cheney. ...
Impeach Bush For Peace - http://impeachforpeace.org/impeach_bush_blog

Arrest Bush Cheney and Blair

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4466512.ece

When It Comes to the question of who do I believe on this one; there is no question! (Ed.)

Chemical Traces of High Explosives in WTC Debris

[Girder from the WTC. Note the neat diagonal cut indicating a pre-positioned cutter charge.] The standard way to demolish a steel-framed building is to apply cutter charges to the supporting beams. The cutter charges consist of finely-powdered aluminum mixed with iron oxide, with added sulfur. This mixture contains both fuel and oxidant – it needs no air – and it burns hot enough to melt steel.

The trade name for this product is Thermate. Many scientists and engineers have looked at the way the WTC towers fell and remarked that it had the appearance of controlled demolition. The buildings collapsed symmetrically, and fell straight down. The speed of the fall indicated that the buildings were collapsing unimpeded.

They must have had the “legs” simultaneously pulled out from under them, because a layered collapse from the top down would have taken several minutes, whereas the observed collapse took place in less than 20 seconds. Another anomaly in the WTC collapse was the violent explosions. Firemen reported earthshaking blasts from the basement before collapse, and the impact areas in the upper floors of the buildings exploded just at the onset of collapse.

Jet fuel burns but cannot explode.