9900 words since my last update, 60,170 since January 1. Still not where I want to be for the month, but doing much better.

In the period leading up to war in Iraq, the administration relied heavily on Iraqi defectors with a vested interest in Saddam Hussein's removal. Many of their claims have since been proven false. Some of their claims may have been part of a deliberate disinformation campaign. (LA Times link, free registration required.)

In many cases, the press unskeptically repeated information from those same sources, essentially replacing independent analysis with pro-war propaganda. The New York Times (free registration required) has published a lengthy discussion of its coverage. Worth reading as a cautionary tale.