Our Almost President

"We are never so easily deceived as when we imagine we are deceiving others."

  - Francois La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680), French moralist

In an emotionally charged speech reported on Thursday by the Associated Press, Al Gore rebuked President Bush, accusing him of lying about an Iraq - al Qaeda connection and refusing to admit his error because of the potential political fallout:

"They dare not admit the truth lest they look like complete fools for launching our country into a reckless, discretionary war against a nation that posed no immediate threat to us whatsoever."

Gore went on to accuse Bush of deliberately ignoring intelligence warnings that the claim of a link between al Qaeda and Saddam was false:

"So, when the bipartisan 9/11 commission issued its report finding no 'credible evidence' of an Iraq-al-Qaida connection, it should not have come as a surprise. It should not have caught the White House off guard."

Funny, what the commission actually said was they "found no credible evidence of a link between the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and Iraq," not that there were no links at all. Funnier still, John Tabin, writing for The American Spectator, tells us that back in 1998 when you-know-who was vice-president, the Justice Department's indictment of Osama bin Laden included these words, which were the position of the Clinton administration of which Mr. Gore was a part:

"Al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq."

1998 was also the year that Clinton bombed an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant (thought to be producing VX nerve gas) in Sudan in retaliation for the Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. He and his security advisers believed the Iraqi government's chemical weapons programs were connected to the Sudanese facility, and knew the Sudanese were in bed with al Qaeda. They feared that chemical weapons would find their way into the hands of al Qaeda because of the connections between the three parties.

And this wasn't the Clinton administration's first brush with Saddam:

"Indeed, the Clinton administration's experiences with Saddam's penchant for terrorism go all the way back to Clinton's first term, when it was confirmed that the Iraqi Intelligence Service had attempted an assassination of former President George H. W. Bush. Clinton ordered a missile strike on the IIS headquarters in June, 1993, in retalitation."

 One of Clinton's top officials gave a speech shortly after the retaliatory attack was ordered:

"The suffering inside Iraq can come to an end when Saddam Hussein's regime is replaced. And I hope--and most of the world hopes--that this regime based on terrorism and atrocities against his own people will be replaced. Over time, we hope to achieve that result."

The official? Vice-President Albert Gore. I guess you can have it both ways--especially if you're Al Gore.

Update: Andrew C. McCarthy has more on the Iraq - al Qaeda connection over at National Review Online. McCarthy has some unkind words for the manner in which the New York Times has handled this story.

Update: Scott W. Johnson at Powerline has more on Gore's contradictions.