The Test of America

To me, the greatest test America faces in the next few years in its struggle for greatness will be how we handle the truth about the lies that were use do lead us into the war in Iraq. The early efforts did not bode well, 9-11 commission made great efforts to minimize the fact that Iraq had no ties to 9-11; various senate and presidential commissions on the intelligence have blamed systemic failures and poor communications between the various intelligence apparati.

But the truth is out there percolating around. The forged Niger documents being the most concrete example, but there are others like the creation and practices of the Office of Special Plans, and Cheney's unprecedented hard pressure on the CIA to make intelligence match policy.

And it's little things like this whch give me some hope.

A former employee has charged the Central Intelligence Agency was told by an informant in the spring of 2001 that Iraq had abandoned a major element of its nuclear weapons program, The New York Times reported.

But the newspaper said the agency did not share the information with other agencies or with senior policy makers.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court here in December, the former CIA officer, whose name remains secret, said that the informant told him that Iraq's uranium enrichment program had ended years earlier and that centrifuge components from the scuttled program were available for examination and even purchase, the report said.

The paper said the officer, an employee at the agency for more than 20 years, was fired in 2004.

In his lawsuit, he says his dismissal was punishment for his reports questioning the agency's assumptions on a series of weapons-related matters, according to The Times.

He also charged that he had been the target of retaliation for his refusal to go along with the agency's intelligence conclusions.