They say you can judge a man by the company he keeps. If so, Stephen Hayes must not want us to take his new book, The Connection: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America, very seriously.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=7815

At a publicity event for the book held on June 3 at the American Enterprise Institute, epicenter of the crazy wing of conservative foreign-policy thought, Hayes found himself surrounded by some rather unsavory allies. Moderating the panel and supporting Hayes’ point of view was Michael Ledeen, advocate of an ultra-hawkish line on Iran who, rather awkwardly, is also a leading supporter of Iranian spy Ahmad Chalabi and possessor of some unexplained ties to the mullahs dating back to his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Another Hayes supporter on the panel was James Woolsey, the former CIA Director-turned-lunatic who's given to speculation that America could resolve its energy problems through a speedy invasion of Saudi Arabia.

And introducing the group was Danielle Pletka, ringleader of the AEI national-security clown show, who still feels comfortable expressing 2002-vintage derision toward the State Department despite 18 months' worth of revelations that State was completely correct -- and sadly ignored -- in its disputes with the Defense Department over Iraqi WMD and postwar planning.

During the question-and-answer period, a disheveled Christopher Hitchens rose to suggest that Abu Zarqawi was all the "connection" one needed to make the case. Hitchens' "evidence" is that Zarqawi leads a terrorist group that is in communication with, though not a member of, al-Qaeda and has collaborated to some extent with ex-Baathists after the fall of Hussein. (Similar logic would suggest that Hitchens' former editors at The Nation are, in fact, in league with his newfound neoconservative friends, but never mind.)

And this, of course, is exactly what Hayes' editors at The Weekly Standard are doing. The Standard has been calling for an invasion of Iraq since a December 1, 1997, article (written by Bush officials Paul Wolfowitz and Zalmay Khalizad, no less) in which al-Qaeda does not figure into the case.

Reuel Marc Gerecht went so far as to publish a July 30, 2001, Standard article calling for tougher actions against both Saddam and bin Laden without suggesting that links between the two existed.