The Bush Administration: no lie left untold

From The Washington Post, February 5th:

North Korea has reprocessed 8,000 spent fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium and appears to have exported nuclear material to Libya, U.S. officials informed Asian allies this week.

Two senior officials on the National Security Council, Michael J. Green and William Tobey, told key officials in Asia about the alarming intelligence, a U.S. official said last night. He said the "sole reason" for the trip -- officially billed as consultations about possible talks with North Korea about its nuclear program -- was to brief Japan, South Korea and China about the information.

From The Washington Post, March 20th:

In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earlier this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.

But that is not what U.S. intelligence reported, according to two officials with detailed knowledge of the transaction. North Korea, according to the intelligence, had supplied uranium hexafluoride -- which can be enriched to weapons-grade uranium -- to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with its own nuclear arsenal, that sold the material to Libya. The U.S. government had no evidence, the officials said, that North Korea knew of the second transaction.

Can't we go back to the good old days when the worst thing the President lied about was where/when/if he got his last blowjob? It is much more difficult to stomach the leader of the free world sending his minions around the globe to spread lies about countries that have nukes in their garage.