"These cowards have no morals. They have no shame about lying"

-- Iraqi Information Minister Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf

I didn't find a confirmation of CSIS ( Canadian Security Intelligence Service ) stating Saddam had WMD.  If Harper said Iraq did he was likely ignoring the caveats that CSIS, along with all other intelligence agencies included with their assessments.

So, what's your point, willy ?

Oh, I don't have one - just ramblin'.  I did come across this in my poking about.

Intelligence is a tool, not a crutch for decision makers. Moreover, in this case, so what if the agencies and the decision makers were wrong? Saddam Hussein was still toppled, and this was all to the good anyway. His regime certainly won't have WMD now, will they? Problem solved, end of story.

It is from by John Thompson ( President of the Mackenzie Institute ) - 02/16/04

Now there is a voice of reason, eh ! <snark>

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Here are a couple of, abet dated, pieces from Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies (CISS)

Missing in Action: Weapons of Mass Destruction (July, 2003)

Lies, Damn Lies, and Intelligence (February, 2004)

Both by David Rudd

Almost all Western intelligence agencies concurred with a reports of suspicious activity in the weeks and months leading up to the war. While vehemently chastising the US for its haste in acting on incomplete information, former UN weapons inspection chief Hans Blix acknowledged that Iraq acted as if it had much to hide.
[...]
If he ( Saddam ) was successful in drawing an impatient America into an unnecessary war, and making his country suffer mightily for it, it will surely rank as one of the great tragedies of our time.

Rudd seems a bit of an apologist for Bush / Blair.  He does come around in his later article.

Did Bush and Saddam mislead each other and simultaneously mislead themselves? [snip]  Does it even matter, now that Saddam's butchery has ended and Iraq is lurching toward democracy?

Yes, it does. The war was conceived as a counter-measure to an allegedly thriving exotic weapons program. Among the results is the biggest intelligence failure since Pearl Harbour. [snip]

Saddam was held to account for his misdeeds and obfuscations. There must now be some sort of reckoning for the Bush and Blair governments.

The Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies (CISS) has these people as some of it's directors.           

• Senator Hugh Segal (Chairman)

• LGen (Retd) Donald C. Mackenzie ( He appears to have no connection to the Mackenzie Institute )

• MGen (Retd) D. Fraser Holman

• BGen (Retd) W. Donald Macnamara

Here's a golden oldie - Conserve Water / Shower with a friend

Ve haff vays...

Propaganda - a 1928 book by Edward Bernays. He used the term up until the time that Goebbels adopted it.

In his autobiography, titled Biography of an Idea, Bernays recalls a dinner at his home in 1933 where

Karl von Weigand, foreign correspondent of the Hearst newspapers, an old hand at interpreting Europe and just returned from Germany, was telling us about Goebbels and his propaganda plans to consolidate Nazi power. Goebbels had shown Weigand his propaganda library, the best Weigand had ever seen. Goebbels, said Weigand, was using my book Crystallizing Public Opinion as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me. ... Obviously the attack on the Jews of Germany was no emotional outburst of the Nazis, but a deliberate, planned campaign.

Bernays ('the Father of Spin'), Ivy Lee ('the physician to corporate bodies;), and Harold Laswell. The Tony Show has quite a heritage.

Yeah, I miss Baghdad Bob too. He would be great on those infomercial shows. Does Ron Popeil need a sidekick?

The Grasshopper Lies Heavy

Q: Are there any members of the Bush family or this administration in this war?

SNOW: Yeah, the President. The President is in the war every day.

Talk about spin.

Here's a golden oldie - Conserve Water / Shower with a friend

Canadian Republicans Suck