CBS thinks it has a blockbuster because a former State Department official thinks that Colin Powell puffed up his UN presentation on Saddam's badness. Again, rewritting history, without challenge:
Greg Thielmann tells Correspondent Scott Pelley that at the time of Powell’s speech, Iraq didn’t pose an imminent threat to anyone – not even its own neighbors. “…I think my conclusion [about Powell’s speech] now is that it’s probably one of the low points in his long distinguished service to the nation,” says Thielmann.No one ever said that Saddam did pose an "imminent threat" and President Bush said specifically that we should act before the treat becomes imminent (see more from Andrew Sullivan on imminence). Thielmann then complains that the intelligence that he analyzed and collected didn't define US policy, as though his little office is the clearinghouse for all information relevant to US foreign policy. What a joke. It's nice that 60 Minutes II is going to give him some airtime tonight to whine that he didn't have a veto on American national security policy.
