Monday, November 22, 2004

The missing link
A certain conservative news publication is up in arms over Michael Scheuer's recent comment's on Hardball, which stated that the former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit (Scheuer) came up with "nothing" on the Iraq/al Qaeda link when looking through classified documents. He said that the basis for his 2002 book, which made the case for the link, was open-source reporting. While conservatives are crying foul, the Weekly Standard's articles seem to do the same at first, but eventually end on a more confused note - which makes sense, because Scheuer's statements are downright baffling, as they contradict previous writings. The conservative line becomes washy here. The far-right is just attacking Scheuer, the apparent traitor to their cause. The Weekly Standard, which I consider the most intelligent conservative publication available, seems to be asking for clarification. But at best, they point out hypocrisy because they don't know what else to do - if you can't find the sources to challenge Scheuer's implication, that there was no connection at all - call him a hypocrite, and let someone else sort it out.