Paul Taveras

Paul Taveras is a foreign policy analyst and writer.

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 more about the case the Bush administration made to the world to justify its war of choice to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Slowly but surely, investigative reporter Murray Waas has been putting together a compelling narrative about how President Bush and his top aides contrived their bogus case for war in Iraq.

What emerges in Murray 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 agenda.

The latest entry in Waas's saga came yesterday in the highly respected National Journal. Waas writes: "Karl Rove cautioned other White House aides in 2003 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 -- that Iraq was procuring high-strength aluminum tubes to build a nuclear weapon -- might not be true.