James Wolcott takes a strange shot at me: “Or Coleen Rowley, the FBI whistleblower who sounded the alarm about Zacarias Moussaui, and for her audacity to write a follow-up memo about anti-terrorist strategy and tactics was called ‘a fool’ by National Review Online’s Ramesh Ponnuru.
“In fact, pause here and read Ponnuru’s entire post from March, 2003. Knowing what we know now about Iraq, WMDs, and the efficacy of the Bush doctrine of preemptive war, who’s the fool?”
(This is in the course of a diatribe about the Right’s alleged sexism in criticizing Rowley, Sheehan, etc.)
Wolcott’s criticism of me would make sense if I had taken issue with Rowley on WMDS or “the efficacy of the Bush doctrine of preemptive war.” But if you’ll read the entire post, as Wolcott recommends, you’ll see that I didn’t. I criticized her for, among other things, suggesting that making war in Iraq would reduce European cooperation on intelligence; suggesting that the FBI had learned lessons from Waco that would be helpful in dealing with Saddam Hussein; and complaining that most people detained after Sept. 11 were not terrorists. I criticized her also for her pretense that she was acting as a whistle-blower, or as an expert, in writing and leaking this memo. I don’t see how anything that has happened in Iraq discredits my criticisms.
As for whether I’m a fool–well, I do read James Wolcott’s blog sometimes.