Christopher Hitchens: Saddam's Man in Niger

To summarize: The Senate report gives two versions of Zahawie's name without ever once mentioning his significant background. It takes at face value his absurd claim about the supposedly innocent motive for his out-of-the-way trip. It accepts similarly bland assurances made by the government of Niger. It is unaware of the appearance of A.Q. Khan in the narrative. It does not canvass the views of our allies, or of tried-and-tested experts like Ambassador Ekeus. It offers little evidence and no argument in support of its conclusions. It is a minor disgrace, but a disgrace nevertheless.

Stephen F. Hayes: How Bad Is the Senate Intelligence Report? Very Bad

According to a report released September 8 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Saddam Hussein "was resistant to cooperating with al Qaeda or any other Islamist groups." It's an odd claim. Saddam Hussein's regime has a long and well-documented history of cooperating with Islamists, including al Qaeda and its affiliates.

....

The mainstream press has treated the Senate report as the definitive word on Iraqi links to al Qaeda. It is not. It is worth remembering that while critics of the Bush administration have long since decided that there was no relationship at all between the Iraqi regime and al Qaeda, there are many observers who continue to hold a different view. If these individuals disagree on the extent of the relationship and its meaning, they agree that there was one.

There are a lot of "reporters" in the MSM who in reality are doing no reporting, they merely regurgitate the conventional liberal (anti-Bush) line on Iraq, and ignore any evidence that doesn't fit.

Is there not one professional journalist at ABC, NBC, CBS, The NY Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, et al, who is willing to address the questions raised by Hayes and Hitchens? Are they content merely to play make-believe toughguy reporter like David Gregory in the White House press room, and regurgitate reports from the Senate essentially verbatim, take their conclusions as definitive, ask no questions, and do no investigation?

There are but two possibilities - the MSM is grossly incompetent, being unable to fulfill the most basic requirements of their job, or they are openly and purposely placing a political agenda above the pursuit of the truth.