Embarrassing - Just how pathetic is our nation's intelligence capability? Like most people, I've been following this whole controversy about whether Saddam and Osama were in cahoots. (The 9-11 Commission says no, the Bushies say yes.) Then on Sunday there's buzz about some "new revelation" of a high ranking Iraqi being connected to Al Qaeda. Less than a week after releasing its no-connection report, a commission member claims the panel was told that "a very prominent member" of al Qaeda served as an officer in Saddam Fedayeen militia. The Commission's stock drops, Bush's skyrockets.

Or does it? As Wonkette herself noted in a rare serious moment, it appears that two men are completely different people, not just because they have different though vaguely similar names, but also because the Qaeda guy seems to have been a lackey footsoldier, while Saddam's man was quite senior. Oops. (Too bad the correction by an administration official -- "who would speak only anonymously because of the matter's sensitivity" -- came too late to save James Taranto, who crowed about having published a report on the missing link back on May 27.)

Of course, the public statements by everyone involved have by now completely obfuscated the issue, and the administration's belated semi-retraction, which was buried by the news media, will never be remembered (even by attentive observers) as well as Sunday's inaccurate revelations. Thus do perceptions become reality in Washington.