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If President Bush suffers because it turns out he took the country to war on false pretenses, he might look back on stories by Walter Pincus for drawing first blood.
On March 16, the eve of war, Pincus wrote in the Post that “U.S. intelligence agencies have been unable to give Congress or the Pentagon specific information” about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
At the time, the Bush White House was telling the world that America had to invade Iraq to root out weapons of mass destruction. Pincus quoted sources saying that there was “a lack of hard evidence.” And they also said the White House had “exaggerated intelligence” to back up its drive toward war.
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Yet the Post buried Pincus’s March 16 story on page A17. It took help from Bob Woodward to get the story published at all.
The story goes on to quote someone puzzled that the editors of the Post don't recognize Pincus's value. Why are people so stupid? They recognize his value, they just didn't like the story he was telling.