Cheney lied us into Iraq.

I know, that's not news, but the mechanisms are. How can a VP run the foreign policy? And what kind of president abrogates these responsibilities? This is from Slate and it's got a whole lot of new stuff in it regarding Cheney's interference with normal intelligence processes.

(excerpt note: Acronym OVP stands for Office of the Vice President)

Although the Libby indictment might lead some to believe that OVP was running an apolitical enforcement operation, it was doing much more than that. Cheney's team was producing the basic justification for going to war.

News accounts have placed the origin of much of the bad intelligence in the Office of Special Plans, which was run by Abram Shulsky, a graduate-school pal of former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. In fact, the bad intel came largely out of something called the Counterterrorism Evaluation Group, which reported to Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith. This group consisted of just two people: Michael Maloof, a controversial former aide to Richard Perle whose security clearances were eventually suspended, and David Wurmser, a longtime neoconservative advocate of toppling Saddam Hussein. (Since late 2003, Wurmser has worked in OVP.) ....

Dick Cheney was CTEG's patron. He had the group present its material at OVP and the National Security Council. He made frequent public remarks, drawing on CTEG conclusions, alleging an al-Qaida/Saddam connection.....


It's a little thick reading, especially in the small type I use, but definitely worth it. Click through to Slate for more easy reading.