Freddie Andrews

Freddie Andrews is a civic activist and anti-war activist.

It has been 10 long years since "Shock and Awe" – the opening bombardment of Baghdad – lit up the skies above the Tigris. A decade later, we know far more about the case the Bush administration made to the world to justify its war of choice to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Books like Hubris by David Corn and Michael Isikoff have catalogued the extent to which intelligence was misused to mislead the public.And most recently, investigative reporter Murray Waas has been pullling together a compelling narrative about how President Bush and his top aides contrived their bogus case for war in Iraq.

What emerges in Waas's stories is a consistent White House modus operandi: That time and time again, Bush and his aides have selectively leaked or declassified secret intelligence findings that served their political agenda.

The latest entry in Murray Waas's saga came yesterday: "Karl Rove, cautioned White House aides that Bush's re-election prospects would be damaged if it was disclosed that he had been warned that a key rationale for going to war had been challenged within the administration." The aluminum-tube allegation was perhaps the strongest.