Josh Marshall noted that James Woolsey, the former director of the CIA and an enthusiastic supporter of Bush’s alleged anti-terrorism efforts, was on CNN last night sharing some highly unusual (read: false) ideas. Marshall hadn’t seen the transcript, so I checked it out for myself. Not surprisingly, it’s just as bad as advertised.
Keep in mind, Woolsey has been on a bizarre tear for a while now. As I noted last month, Woolsey went on NPR and repeated the obviously false claim that Saddam Hussein denied U.N. weapons inspectors entry into Iraq before our invasion began.
“In fact, the [U.N.] inspectors were not there just as the war started; the inspectors got kicked out in ’98 by Saddam,” Woolsey insisted. When a listener called in to insist he was completely wrong, Woolsey added, nonsensically, “What happened is they were trying to get back in. The real inspectors stopped in ’98 and they were trying to arrange a restart and they were unsuccessful.”
Someone who treats the truth with such casual disregard can’t be expected to be taken seriously. But there was Woosley on CNN yesterday, sharing all manner of foolishness. As Marshall accurately noted, it was definitely a “through-the-looking-glass performance.”
First, Woolsey still wants us to believe that there was a link between Saddam Hussein and al Queda.
I think that one very important issue here, Lou is whether there had been any ties between Iraq and al Qaeda back in the 90s…. So although there are a number of people, some of who served at senior levels in the Clinton administration, who don’t want there to have been any contacts of any kind and don’t want to admit it between al Qaeda and Iraq, I think including Dick Clarke, because then they would be charged with not having done enough to lean on Saddam.
Next, Woolsey implies Saddam was involved with the attacks of 9/11.
There may not have been Iraqi ordering of 9/11. The contacts going back a long time are clear.
The whole interview was bizarre. I can’t imagine how there’s anyone left who considers Woolsey a credible source.