That was an informative history you provided, and I appreciate the work you put into it. I was charmed by the Project Alpha story, and fascinated by the recently-declassified Corona imagery.

I think we're all speculating based on too-little information, and I'm willing to tone it down on the subject of compromising sources.

To an extent, anyway...your outline of the multiple sources available during the Cuban Missile Crisis has parallels today. Forty years later, surely we have a plethora of intelligence sources, some of which are safely based on remote sensing--the existence of such an asset could be compromised, but it can't be destroyed by disclosure. Satellite imagery can reveal a lot (forgive me for telling somebody who knows more about it than I!). Mounds of dirt whose volume is larger than the basement of the adjacent palace. IR signatures indicating underground power consumption. Electromagnetic leakage and radio traffic analysis, and signal intercepts. More speculative: Analysis of atmospheric samples obtained by drones, looking for radioactivity or traces of chemical agents. On the ground, but external: Shipping manifests for forbidden materials and equipment, movements and contacts of Iraqi officials and scientists outside the country....

Also, there are rumors and suggestions that our special forces teams are already in-country and moving about pretty freely. If Bush were to decide to disclose something obtained by an agent on the ground, couldn't we spirit him/her out of the country first? As for the idea that such an agent would need to remain in place for the indefinite future, I have to ask why it would matter if we win and destroy Saddam Hussein's regime?

Out of all that, how can there not be a few items of evidence that couldn't be safely disclosed? It's asking too much to expect me to take it on faith that there's absolutely nothing that Bush could disclose that would make a stronger case than he's made so far...which is to say, no case, just innuendo.

--Robert