Here’s a story from page A17 of the Washington Post today, September 14, 2006:
U.N. INSPECTORS DISPUTE IRAN REPORT BY HOUSE PANEL
Paper on Nuclear Aims Called DishonestU.N. inspectors investigating Iran’s nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran’s capabilities, calling parts of the document “outrageous and dishonest” and offering evidence to refute its central claims…
“This is like prewar Iraq all over again,” said David Albright, a former nuclear inspector…
Here’s a story from page A18 of the Washington Post exactly four years ago this week, on September 19, 2002:
EVIDENCE ON IRAQ CHALLENGED
Experts Question if Tubes Were Meant for Weapons ProgramA key piece of evidence in the Bush administration’s case against Iraq is being challenged in a report by independent experts who question whether thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes recently sought by Iraq were intended for a secret nuclear weapons program…
Here’s the Washington Post’s Iraq mea culpa from August 11, 2004:
THE POST ON WMDS: AN INSIDE STORY
Prewar Articles Questioning Threat Often Didn’t Make Front Page…“The paper was not front-paging stuff,” said Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks. “Administration assertions were on the front page. Things that challenged the administration were on A18 on Sunday or A24 on Monday”…
In retrospect, said Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., “we were so focused on trying to figure out what the administration was doing that we were not giving the same play to people who said it wouldn’t be a good idea to go to war and were questioning the administration’s rationale. Not enough of those stories were put on the front page. That was a mistake on my part.”
Here’s the famous Dudley Moore-Peter Cook sketch “The Frog and Peach”:
INTERVIEWER: Do you feel you’ve learnt by your mistakes here?
SIR ARTHUR STREEB-GREEBLING: I think I have, yes, and I think I can probably repeat them almost perfectly.
(Edited for clarity.)