The Brits have it, again. The British papers, specifically the online SundayHerald, seem to have scooped us once more on the true story behind the 'intelligence" manufactered for the walk-up to war.

In a two-parter in the current issue, SundayHerald reporters analyze what the reports claimed and how it was ultimaely shown not to be so. They then ask the question US reporters won't: "Who cooked America's intelligence books in order to facilitate a dubious war?"

The got an answer. And get this, a sourced answer. Remember back in the old days when we used to get those, too?

So, if 'firm' evidence linking the Iraqi regime and al-Qaeda seems at the least flawed, just who was responsible for its compilation and dissemination?

According to veteran CIA analyst Melvin Goodman, now professor of national security at the National War College in Washington, a cabal of CIA hawks working in conjunction with neo-conservatives in the US administration are the main perpetrators. 'Low level CIA analysts from the Iraq task force and the counter-terrorism section provided politicians working through the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans (OSP) with the 'intelligence' they needed to justify hostilities against Iraq,' he says.

Numbering no more than a dozen, this cabal has been the driving force behind the disinformation utilised in the run-up and during the war in Iraq.

So can we now say "cabal" in public and not get the "Area 51" roll-of-the-eyes treatment?