Reply #100: None Of This, Mr. Rice, Comes Close To Establishing The Claim Made Above Commencing This Side-Track

[The Magistrate]

The most that could be taken from it with much solid ground under the step is that the identification with Zarqawi could be false, and that name appended to someone else within the jihadi ranks in Iraq. That a good many statements by the U.S. government concerning hostilities in Iraq, then and now, contain distortions and falsehood is hardly something we disagree on. It is on the degree of such twistings that we differ. They do not rise to the level claimed by some here, on any evidence presented in support of that claim. This sort of thing remains discrediting to any attempt to do justice regarding real crimes by the Bush administration. It allows the opponents of that effort to blend it in with claims that will be received as outlandish lunacy by the people at large, and so operates to assist those who fight against deserved prosecution.