Kristol: If The White House Manipulated Intel, “It Might Well Be An Indictable Offense”

Even Bill Kristol admits that fabricating intelligence for a war is wrong. From Kristol’s Weekly Standard column, posted 11/5/05:

Last Tuesday, Harry Reid took to the floor of the Senate and asserted that the Bush administration had “manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions.” This is a serious charge; if it were true, it might well be an indictable offense. But it is, in reality, a slander.

Kristol calls it “slander,” but it looks like he spoke too soon. The day after Kristol posted his column, the New York Times reported on an al Qaeda official in U.S. custody, who was, according to a February 2002 report, “intentionally misleading the debriefers.” Months after the report, the administration continued to use his evidence as “credible.”

Check your next Weekly Standard for Kristol’s principled call for indictments.