Democrats.com

Just go this from Bob Fertik this morning:

EXPOSED! Bush's SOTU Big Lie

On the eve of Bush's State of the Union, five different news organzations (ABC, the New York Sun, Reuters, FOX News, and CBS) all revealed the stunning tale of a plot by Al Zarqawi to send 10-20 terrorists to the United States using student visas.

The only problem? It's pure bullshit that was rejected by the entire intelligence community. And Karl Rove's fingerprints are all over it.

But the story will be the centerpiece of Bush's State of the Union and will dominate the news for days.

Will Congressional Democrats fall for the last-minute SOTU bullshit?

Or will they demand sworn testimony - and the original forged documents upon which the whole fantasy rests?

Keep track of the story over Democrats.com.

This comes from Bob Fertik, our friend at Democrats.com. Seems the media jumped on a story about terrorists coming into the US on student visas. This is expected to be something Bush focuses on in his misState of the Union message and is the latest attempt by Bush to boost his sagging popularity (now finally dipping below Nixon's lowest low) using fear. There are two problems with this. First, people aren't turning to him and trusting him when he whips up the fear machine. They actually realize that if they are still afraid, it shows he has failed. But more importantly, it seems the whole story is based on one single document that has been unsubstantiated. This is reminiscent of the use of false intelligence reports to claim that Iraq was getting enriched uranium from Africa which was used as a (false) excuse to justify invasion. That was also unsubstantiated rumor.

So here, in Bob Fertik's words, is the scoop:

The incomparable Joseph Cannon has once again scooped the media by discovering the Big Lie that will be the centerpiece of Bush's SOTU: the fictional tale of an Al-Zarqawi plot (under direct written orders from Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri) to send 19 terrorists into the U.S using student visas.

After reviewing the three published versions of this story [see Fertik's diary for his review of each version], it's perfectly clear there are no credible facts - no independently verified documents, no identified witnesses, and no suspects. The whole story hinges on a single document, which was not seen by any of the reporters and probably does not exist.