With help from readers I’ve been able to track down what was said by John Lehman, Senator McCain’s foreign policy advisor, to Wolf Blitzer during a recent interview on CNN with regards to Iran…

“They trained some of the 9/11 conspirators. They gave them free passage to al Qaeda.”

Rather than simply discarding this for the nonsense that it is, let’s examine two fundamental questions regarding this statement.

First, where did Lehman get his information? Obviously it’s not something that the current administration is willing to promote, which speaks to its validity given the administration’s overtly anti-Iranian agenda. One could argue that the administration won’t touch it in fear of comparisons to past falsehoods employed to justify military action, but the question still has to be satisfied – from which of the nation’s sixteen intelligence agencies did Lehman glean it? And if the US intelligence community is not the source, then who is?

Second, if Lehman has no reasonable source, and is simply spewing conjecture, then why wasn’t he called on it during the interview? Further to that, why hasn’t CNN, or any other news agency, criticized the McCain camp for the promotion of such information?

One has to seriously wonder when it became allowable to go on national television and claim the sky green and not be called on it. Even more, to tie a nation to a terrorist attack and not provide substantial evidence while those that are supposed to be vigilant with regards to factuality don’t question it.

In conclusion, John McCain’s foreign policy advisor openly claimed on national television that Iran was complicit in the attacks of September 11th and got away with it. That said; given that he did, will we hear it again? And if we do, how many more times will it take before it becomes the ‘truth’.

I woke up this morning feeling like I’d run a marathon after which I was hit by a bus, dragged four blocks, and then set upon by wolves. Rehearsals are one thing; the real deal is something altogether different. Being that I haven’t played with a band for more than two years, and put out that sort of energy during a performance, it’s safe to say that I am completely and utterly out of shape. Something else I’d forgotten is how much more difficult it is to sing with a full band with regards to vocal longevity. We played for just under two hours last night and my voice is rather angry with me this morning. That too is something that I’m going to have to get used to again. Nonetheless, it was fun, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.

I’ve been pretty lax with regards to documenting things photographically. I’ll do my best to correct that over the next few days and post a few photos to the flickr set for the tour.

Looking For Some Information

Information found. Thanks for the help everyone.