The AP “newswire”:

WASHINGTON (AP) — In asking Americans to accept his account of Iraqi misdeeds Tuesday night, President Bush issued a kind of promissory note: allegations now, evidence later.

Not for the first time — but certainly in front of his biggest U.S. audience as well as those paying heed around the world — Bush stated flatly that Iraq is hiding banned weapons and has had dealings with the al-Qaida terrorist network that conducted the Sept. 11 attacks. As before, he did not lay out the supporting facts.

In his State of the Union speech, Bush left Americans to take those points on faith, or to choose not to, at least a while longer. Officials say new evidence is coming soon.