A US Senate Committee has just released a very interesting report on the pre-war intelligence about Saddam Hussein's non-existent WMD provided by the Iraqi National Congress.

The report by the committee specifically criticized a decision by the National Security Council in 2002 to maintain a close relationship with the Iraqi National Congress, headed by the exile leader Ahmed Chalabi, even after the C.I.A. and the Defense Intelligence Agency had warned that “the I.N.C was penetrated by hostile intelligence services,” notably Iran. (New York Times)

The whole episode is a remarkably apt illustration of Machavelli's warning in the Discourses on Livy, How Dangerous it is to Believe Exiles: