Under the Radar

The best time to pay attention to the news out of Washington is on Fridays. That's when government agencies issue reports or statements that they don't want American citizens to know about.

Yesterday's release of a Pentagon internal investigation found that the Pentagon acted "inappropriately" when it sexed up the evidence in advance of the Iraq War. But the mainstream media has largely ignored the story, instead choosing to display Anna Nicole Smith's clevage.

Pentagon officials undercut the intelligence community in the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq by insisting in briefings to the White House that there was a clear relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, the Defense Department's inspector general said Friday.

Acting Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the office headed by former Pentagon policy chief Douglas J. Feith took "inappropriate" actions in advancing conclusions on al-Qaida connections not backed up by the nation's intelligence agencies.

This report offers further proof that the Bush administration pushed us into war with lies and deceipt. A war where a sixth US helicopter in three weeks was downed - another widely under reported story on Friday.

Thank God for the Internet! Otherwise, we would be forced to believe that the most important news in the world is that three men have claimed to be the father of Anna Nicole's baby.