THERE NEVER WAS A THREAT FROM IRAQ...BUT THEN, WE (AND THEY) KNEW THAT

I can't wait for Friday's debate to see what John Kerry makes of the Iraq Survey Group's report that Saddam posed no "gathering threat" to the U.S., but a diminishing one:

The government's most definitive account of Iraq's arms programs, to be released today, will show that Saddam Hussein posed a diminishing threat at the time the United States invaded and did not possess, or have concrete plans to develop, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The officials said that the 1,000-page report by Charles A. Duelfer, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, concluded that Hussein had the desire but not the means to produce unconventional weapons that could threaten his neighbors or the West. President Bush has continued to assert in his campaign stump speech that Iraq had posed "a gathering threat."