Every day now something comes up that further incriminates the Bush administration. Lies, offensive behavior, policy blunders, misinformation, and the occasional federal felony. If senior officials aren’t lying or handing out contradictory testimony, then a commercial or the president’s words offend a families of soldiers or 9/11 victims, or perhaps another improper business connection is revealed or, well, something. Today, it’s the administration’s claim that they were going after bin Laden hot and heavy before 9/11. No sirree, they were not asleep at the switch, not them.

At his 9/11 commission testimony, Colin Powell said:

Above all, from the start, the president by word and deed made clear his interest and his intense desire to protect the nation from terrorism. He frequently asked and prodded us to do more. He decided early on that we needed to be more aggressive in going after terrorists and especially al Qaeda.

However, look at this transcript from CNN, dated April 30, 2001:

The State Department officially released its annual terrorism report just a little more than an hour ago, but unlike last year, there’s no extensive mention of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. A senior State Department official tells CNN the U.S. government made a mistake in focusing so much energy on bin Laden and “personalizing terrorism.” Still, Secretary of State Colin Powell says efforts to fight global terrorism will remain consistent. “

Not exactly consistent, is it? But perhaps they were secretly going after bin Laden and al Qaeda.