WOLFOWITZ APPOINTED TO KEY INTELL POST

Does this make you feel warm and safe?

ADMINISTRATION -- WOLFOWITZ RETURNS TO BUSH ADMINISTRATION AS WMD ADVISER: Newsweek reports that Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz has been rewarded with a new position in the Bush administration that will allow him to oversee classified intelligence and inform policies on weapons of mass destruction issues. Wolfowitz will be chairman of the State Department's "prestigious" International Security Advisory Board, "which has access to highly classified intelligence, advises [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice on disarmament, nuclear proliferation, WMD issues and other matters." Prior to the Iraq war, Wolfowitz established the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon to skirt the intelligence community and peddle the most egregiously false claims of Iraqi WMD. In a Jan. 2003 speech, Wolfowitz referenced "Iraqi efforts to procure uranium from abroad," despite the fact that the claim had already been discredited by the CIA. A few months after the Iraq invasion, Wolfowitz admitted that claims of Iraqi WMD were used as political tools to achieve consensus for the war. Laura Rozen at Mother Jones notes that Wolfowitz's new position "doesn't require Senate confirmation."

--americanprogressaction.com