The latest spin on those mythical iraqi WMD goes something like this: Saddam believed he had 'em, so we believed he had 'em too.

That's pretty good; we spend $30 billion a year on intelligence so that Saddam could tell us what to believe.

For students of the problem who suspect that a more serious consideration of the source of all that disinformation is in order, a quick review of Victor Ostrovsky's comments on the problem may be helpful. Ostrovsky, you may know, is a former Mossad agent who grew disenchanted with the policies and practices of the Israeli spy agency, or at least one faction thereof, and subsequently wrote two books about his experiences, By Way of Deception and The Other Side of Deception.(review) (excerpt)

• ...by planting an unmanned radio of its own in Libya, Mossad broadcast fraudulent orders for terrorist attacks to Libyan embassies around the world. Although the orders were rejected as false by the Spanish and French intelligence services, they were picked up and accepted as real by U.S. intelligence.

• ...American intelligence has been "conditioned" to accept as true anything that Israel claims.

• "After the bombing of Libya, our friend Qadhafi is sure to stay out of the picture for some time. Iraq and Saddam Hussein are the next target. We're starting now to build him up as the big villain. It will take some time, but in the end, there's no doubt it'll work."

• The Mossad had all but saturated the intelligence field with information regarding the evil intentions of Saddam the Terrible, banking on the fact that before long, he'd have enough rope to hang himself. It was very clear what the Mossad's overall goal was. It wanted the West to do its bidding, just as the Americans had in Libya with the bombing of Qadhafi.

Toronto Sun columnist Eric Margolis chimes in:

But active and retired CIA officers kept warning the public and media (including this writer) that intelligence on Iraq had been deeply manipulated and politicized by a cabal of pro-war neo-conservative ideologues in the Pentagon and the vice president's office.

They were ignored.

A shadowy Pentagon intelligence unit was created by the neo-cons to whip up war fever against Iraq.

It fed either fake or wildly exaggerated reports about Iraq to the White House and Pentagon, which were then trumpeted by the neo-con media.

This column has maintained for the past 10 years that a campaign of lies and disinformation was being waged against Iraq.

A scandal greater than Watergate

Finally, it is instructive, I think, to bear in mind that the so-called War on Terror began with the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9-11-2001, and to ask the telling question cui bono??

And of course, there is the Israeli Lobby, better now called the Sharon-Settler Lobby. Most Jews would trade land for peace, but the lobby has been taken over by its most militant minorities. The attack on America gave them cover to re-invade and again destroy the Palestinian economy. Here we have been (sic) some astounding reports. One of the first, strangely enough, was on Fox News, about prior Israeli knowledge. Then it was removed mysteriously for weeks from its website, but later put back. The question of Israeli agents who were tracking al Qaeda terrorists and may have known of plans for attack has exposed their operations like nothing since the Pollard Case. To ask intelligence agents about possible Israeli spying brings knowing facial expressions and furtive glances around to see if anyone else has heard the question. One said to me, "We are told that Israel is an ally, that we are not to be concerned with their actions." It's off the table, career ending, not to be talked about, is what they will say in confidence. Most will only give non-committal answers but one can often sense their bitterness about it.

Finally, consider this Justin Raimondo article

It really wasn't such a hot idea for the Mossad to recruit Palestinians into a phony Al Qaeda cell in Gaza.

By way of deception...
S