Now, here's what should happen

Cursor directs us to the MSNBC coverage of Colin Powell's press conference in response to the Carnegie Endowment's report on Iraq. (I discussed Powell's performance here).

Washington - Secretary of State Colin Powell reversed a year of administration policy, acknowledging Thursday that he had seen no "smoking gun [or] concrete evidence" of ties between former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. ...

Powell's observation marked a turning point in administration arguments in support of the U.S. invasion of Iraq last spring. The assertion that Saddam and the terrorist network led by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden were working in concert was a primary justification for the war.

As recently as September, President Bush declared that there was "no question" that Saddam had ties to al-Qaida.

Powell himself made the case most strongly in February, when he urged the U.N. Security Council to back U.S. military action in Iraq. "Iraqi officials deny accusations of ties with al-Qaida," Powell said then. "These denials are simply not credible."

Right in the lead. Right where it damn well should have been. Good for them. (And for me to say something good about anything associated with Microsoft is going some.)

Footnote: Powell defended his UN comments.

He said that at the time, he was referring specifically to the presence of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Baghdad for medical treatments.

The United States has accused al-Zarqawi of being a close associate of bin Laden's, but intelligence agencies in France and other European countries that opposed the U.S. war argued that al-Zarqawi was an independent operator.

So someone who may or may not have been an associate of Osama bin Laden gets medical treatment in a Baghdad hospital and this proves an operational link between al-Qaeda and the regime of Saddam Hussein?

Powell's standard of proof continues to be something we all can admire.