From dawkins:

It seems Condoleezza Rice has finally wearied of dodging blame on behalf of her boss for 9/11 and trying to pass it off solely on President Clinton. Now she's hoping her charges will stick to a new pair of scapegoats: Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr.

Said Rice last night in New York City:

"It is now undeniable that the terrorists declared war on America and on the civilized world many years before Sept. 11, 2001," she said in remarks delivered to the legal center at the Waldorf-Astoria. "The attack on the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, the hijacking of the Achille Lauro in 1985, the bombing of Pan Am 103 in 1988, the World Trade Center in 1993, the attacks on American installations in Saudi Arabia in 1995 and 1996, the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in 2000: These and other atrocities were part of a sustained, systematic campaign to spread devastation and chaos. Yet until Sept. 11, the terrorists faced no sustained, systematic and global response."

Much credit must be given to the New York Times' David Sanger for injecting factual information into his story that goes (wow!) beyond merely quoting what Condi had to say, and also pointing out stuff she didn't say.

Sez Sanger:

Ms. Rice's comments make no reference to what the Bush administration itself did between Mr. Bush's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2001, and the Sept. 11 attacks.

In the past she has said that a detailed plan to counter Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups was on her desk, approved, when the attacks occurred. That plan became the basis for the decision to drive Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan and topple the Taliban.

But Mr. Bush himself made little reference to the threat of Al Qaeda, the need to topple the Taliban or other terrorism-related issues prior to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Kind of an important point to make.

Similarly, asked in an interview with The New York Times the week before his inauguration whether Iraq had "bedeviled" his father's administration, he said. referring to Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi ruler: "I wouldn't say it bedeviled the past Bush administration. I think the past Bush administration dealt with it very firmly and left a regime in place that isolated Saddam."

Ms. Rice appears to have a slightly different take on history. She said it had been clear for 12 years that Mr. Hussein was killing his own people, setting up torture centers and posing a threat to the Middle East.

"Let us be clear," she said. "Saddam was not going to go away of his own accord. For 12 years, he gave every indication that he would never disarm and never comply with the Security Council's just demands. In fact, he mocked those demands and made every effort to circumvent them through a massive program of denial and deception."

A "massive program of denial and deception," huh?

Is this last line possibly the first blow in a new Bushie history-revision PR campaign?

I can hear it:

"No, we never alleged that Saddam had a massive program to manufacture WMDs. The justification for war as always to dismantle his massive program of denial and deception."

Maybe that's what Rumsfeld was helping Saddam set up back in '83.