Powell: "Yes. Wait... No. Yes and No. No. Yes."

Powell has done a hypocritical about-face on the issue of Osama bin Laden and his connections with Iraq. In October, 2001, he said:

"And we cannot let Usama bin Laden pretend that he is doing it in the name of helping the Iraqi people or the Palestinian people. He doesn't care one whit about them. He has never given a dollar toward them. He has never spoken out for them. He has used them as a cover for his evil, criminal, murderous, terrorist acts. And he has to be seen in that light."

This is an obvious conclusion that bin Laden had no connection to Iraq. Then, yesterday, Powell said exactly the opposite:

"This morning, it was brought home to me once again when I read the transcript of what bin Laden, or who we believe to be bin Laden, will be saying on Al-Jazeera during the course of the day -- and you'll be seeing this as the day unfolds -- where once again he speaks to the people of Iraq and talks about their struggle and how he is in partnership with Iraq. This nexus between terrorists and states that are developing weapons of mass destruction can no longer be looked away from and ignored. As the President has said, 9/11 changed things. And so we have a regime led by Saddam Hussein who has not accounted for all the weapons of mass destruction they've had in the past, who continues to pursue them, and we have non-state terrorist actors such as al-Qaida, led by Usama bin Laden, that would do anything to get their hands on this kind of material. And as I tried to demonstrate before the United Nations last week, there are linkages. They are not as firm as some would like to see in order to conclude that it is actually happening, but they are firm enough to give us every indication and sufficient evidence that if allowed to continue, if this regime was allowed to continue to develop weapons of mass destruction, it is just a matter of time before coincident interests between the Iraqi regime and organizations such as al-Qaida will raise the likelihood that these kinds of weapons could fall into their hand. And it is that nexus, especially in the post-9/11 environment, that persuades us even more that this is the time to deal with this regime once and for all."

So, which is it, General?

"All Truths are Half-Truths." ---Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)