Follow-up to presentation

One thing that bothered me about Bush's speech to the UN of 12 Sep 02 about Saddam Hussein's scary, scary weapons of mass destruction was the complete lack of follow-up, the total absence of supporting details. We have here some indication as to why that was. Reporters attempting to get details about the scary, scary presentation of bomb fragments that supposedly proved something concerning Iranian involvement in the Iraq War were given the following:

Pressed repeatedly, [Press Secretary Tony] Snow answered, "Look, the Department of Defense is doing this. What I'm telling you is, you guys want to get those questions answered, you need to go to the Pentagon."

A call to the Defense Intelligence Agency brought a referral to the main Pentagon press office. That office referred a caller to the Washington office of the Multi-National Force-Iraq, which responded with an e-mailed copy of Sunday's briefing slides -- containing no mention of the "highest levels" allegation and a request for questions in writing. Written questions brought no response. An official from the Pentagon Joint Staff said last night that Pace had seen the briefing slides but had "no personal knowledge of any senior involvement by senior Iranian officials."

And they wonder why we lefties are so skeptical!