Saddam's Tapes And Strange Bedfellows

What exactly is motivating the release of these tapes now? They seem to make the case that Saddam was interested in WMD's. If so, why is dedicated Bush-hater John Loftus one of the prime movers behind publicizing them?

...James Woolsey and John Deutch, have resigned from something called the Intelligence Summit, run by a former federal prosecutor named John Loftus.

...

[W]hat is missing from the story is some perspective on John Loftus. I first encountered his name in the fall of 2003, when I was working on a story about Bush hatred. I was looking at the people who claim that the Bush family got its wealth from financing the Nazis, and I discovered that one of the sacred texts of that particular worldview is a book, The Secret War Against the Jews, by the authors Mark Aarons and...John Loftus.

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Loftus has other interests. A visit to his website finds, among other things, a May, 2002 article by him entitled "What Congress Does Not Know About Enron and 9/11." In the article, Loftus reports that the now-defunct energy company had a contract with the Taliban to build a pipeline, and that Vice President Dick Cheney, determined to help out Enron, forbade U.S. intelligence sources from investigating the Enron/Taliban/al Qaeda connection in the months leading up to the September 11 terrorist attacks. After outlining this somewhat Fahrenheit 9/11-like theory, Loftus concludes, "The Enron cover-up confirms that 9/11 was not an intelligence failure or a law enforcement failure (at least not entirely). Instead, it was a foreign policy failure of the highest order. If Congress ever combines its Enron investigation with 9/11, Cheney’s whole house of cards will collapse."

Deutsch and Woolsey seem to have resigned because of concerns over one of the Intelligence Summit's financial backers:

The reason both men gave for their resignations was new information they received regarding one of the summit's biggest donors, Michael Cherney, an Israeli citizen who has been denied a visa to enter America because of his alleged ties to the Russian mafia.

Bush-hater Loftus continues making the case that Saddam was interested in making a sneak WMD attack on the US:

"There is a candid discussion between Saddam and his top aides to launch a sneak attack against the United States, whether to use a nuclear or germ weapon. It is discussed that maybe we would have the others do it, that is an unclear reference. It becomes very clear, though. Saddam thinks this is something the Iraqis should do."

So the Bush Administration, which would seem to be aided politically (and in terms of international standing) by these tapes, resists their release; Bush-hater Loftus, who believes that a full investigation of 9/11 would expose some nefarious doings in the Bush White House, pushes for their release.

Why? I have no idea.

Byron York at NR urges caution in reacting to the tapes, but apparently has no better idea what shenanigans Loftus may be up to, or else he'd speculate about it, presumably. It's just mystifying.

posted by Ace at 11:57 AM

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