On the basis of their recent pronouncements, the position of the Democratic Party seems to be that Saddam Hussein did not hit us on 9-11, but Halliburton did.

--Ann Coulter's column, 9/11/03

No, that's not a misprint. She said "Saddam Hussein." That's from her own site, and she hasn't made any effort to correct herself there, or at the other sites where her column appears -- here, or here.

Atrios spotted this first, but I think we ought to start piling on here.

Unless, of course, this isn't an embarrassing gaffe, but a deliberate escalation in the right-wing psywar that's already convinced a majority of Americans that Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11 attacks. Call me paranoid, but I can't rule that out. Bush and his underlings have been careful never to utter the Saddam-masterminded-9/11 lie in so many words, but Coulter's always been willing to take the "respectable" right's message and kick it up a notch. No "respectable" righty ever quite embraces her, but the best-known righties have never repudiated her either, even when, for instance, she's gleefully fantasized about a terrorist bombing of the New York Times building. I think it's perfectly plausible that she's taken on the task of saying what Karl Rove wants you to hear but Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz can't say.

Whatever's going on, this disinformation campaign has achieved such astonishing success that fin the near future I expect conservatives to become even more blatant in suggesting, and arguing outright, that Saddam toppled the Towers.