After a day of investigating the great outdoors, Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Watson headed back to their campsite to get a good night's rest.

Looking up from where Holmes and Watson had set up their cots, the cloudless night sky appeared as if every visible star in the galaxy were sparkling in all of their cosmic splendor.

As Holmes and Watson lay on their backs, Holmes turned to his assistant and asked: "Watson, do you notice anything right now?"

"I certainly do. The starry sky is absolutely awe-inspiring," Watson said.

"No. Look closer, my dear Watson."

"Oh, I see it. The Big Dipper is very prominent this evening."

"For the love of Pete," Holmes said in frustration. "It's quite elementary, Watson. Someone stole our tent!"

If it weren't so frightening it would be hilarious that Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz and President Bush are pointing to the stars (hoping to get a few ahhs and ohhhs from the American public) - as if it weren't obvious someone has stolen the tent.

First, we had Scott Ritter, a former Marine intelligence officer and a Republican who voted for Bush in 2000, warning us long before the U.S. invasion of Iraq that Saddam's government didn't represent a regional threat, let alone a global threat because UNSCOM had disarmed Iraq 85 to 90 percent in the 1990s.

As Ritter was ignored by prewar congressional commissions, Bush neo-con henchmen launched a character assassination campaign against Ritter. He published two books on Iraq, but when I ask Bush supporters if they've read either one, the answer is always no.

Then there was former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's memoirs, "The Price of Loyalty." The Bush response to O'Neill's revelations? Discredit him. And don't forget Kevin Phillips' book "American Dynasty."

Bush Jr.'s "restoration, with its dependence on family and inheritance, necessarily promotes attitudes that, in a political system like that of the United States, undercut popular sovereignty," Phillips writes. "Democratic legitimacy is necessarily drawn into question when succession via dynasty is accepted."

And now we have Richard Clarke's book "Against All Enemies." During the 9/11 commission hearings last week, Republican commissioner James Thompson tried to paint America's recently resigned top counterterrorism guy as someone who has changed his story.

Republican commission members attempted to coax Clarke into saying 9/11 happened because of Clinton's incompetence. You know the canard: Democrats are "weak on defense," which invites terrorists to attack. I guess they didn't even give Clarke's book a cursory glance. In the book's preface, we find these stark facts:

• "Ronald Reagan, who did not retaliate for the murder of 278 United States Marines in Beirut ... violated his own terrorism policy by trading arms for hostages in what came to be called the Iran-Contra scandal." (Hey, Ollie, why isn't that considered "appeasement?")

• "George H.W. Bush, who did not retaliate for the Libyan murder of 259 passengers on Pan Am 103 ... did not have an official counterterrorism policy; and ... left Saddam Hussein in place, requiring the United States to leave a large military presence in Saudi Arabia."

• "Bill Clinton, who identified terrorism as the major post-Cold War threat and acted to improve our counterterrorism capabilities; .... (and) - little known to the public - quelled anti-American terrorism in Iraq and Iran and defeated an al Qaeda attempt to dominate Bosnia; but ... was weakened by continued political attack (and) could not get the CIA, the Pentagon, and FBI to act sufficiently to deal with the threat."

• "George W. Bush, who failed to act prior to September 11 on the threat from al Qaeda despite repeated warnings and then harvested a political windfall for taking obvious yet insufficient steps after the attacks ... launched an unnecessary and costly war in Iraq that strengthened the fundamentalist, radical Islamic terrorist movement worldwide."

An old inside joke on black America is that if you want to keep something secret from black folks, hide it in a book. Apparently, it's also the way you keep a secret from those who still think the Bush administration has brought honor and integrity back to the White House.

Copyright © Cape Cod Times

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