The trickle out effect

I know, sounds like a personal problem but it aptly describes the way we're getting the truth about the regime of Saddam Hussein. Bit by bit.

We already know about the greased palms and slapped backs all over Europe to curry favor with UN dignitaries in an effort to get the resolutions removed. We know well his role in the Oil for Food scandal. A few days ago we learned of his feelings for the Saudis and Egyptians and his love for Ayman al-Zawahiri via released captured documents and tapes from his intelligence service. Today we've learned those same agents were allegedly paying for trips to Baghdad for sympathetic US Congressmen to help lobby the world against US military action:

An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a Michigan nonprofit group, of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary.

Surely Henry Waxman is penciling this on the top of his busy investigation calendar as we speak. Right after the hearing about why Valerie Plame lied to Congress.

But no need. The narrative on this one is easy--the courageous congressmen were right--there were no WMDs and war was not the answer, regardless of who paid. That such a position puts them squarely in line with the brutal dictator will not matter one little bit.