Are we in Iraq because we tortured Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi ?

Deja vu all over again.

News is not always new. The latest is that the Defence Intelligence Agency correctly claimed that al-Libi was a fabricator before the Bush administration began reporting, as proven fact, his implausible claim that Iraq was teaching al Qaeda terrorists about chemical and biological weapons. The non news, reported by Michael Isikoff over a year ago, is that he was, indeed, a fabricator and that he probably fabricated his story because he feared torture.

I mentioned this
three
times
Most recently 15 months ago, when I mentioned that Douglas Jehl at the New York Times had finally picked up on that angle of the story. He has since dropped that angle as noted by Atrios. Mark Kleiman explains how the Bush administration is more Hobbesian than Hobbes, who explained very clearly why, aside from the imorality of it, torture is not a useful way to obtain information.

A big example and a small one of how that which was known must be rediscovered again and again.