An OpinionJournal editorial points out that the September 11 commission report contains extensive justification for the Bush doctrine of pre-emption, and even more evidence that partisan hatchetman Richard Clarke is a shameless liar.

Notably, the Commission performs a service by defining the threat we now face in refreshing fashion. “The enemy is not just ‘terrorism,’” it says. “It is the threat posed specifically by Islamic terrorism.” Bush Administration officials say the same thing privately, but they have been reluctant to state this publicly lest they offend the broader body of peaceable Islam. But it is hard to defeat an enemy without defining who it is. And the fact that Islam has a problem with its radical factions is something that Muslims themselves have to face up to.

This failure to speak candidly has ramifications at home, too, specifically in the Transportation Department’s continued failure to endorse racial profiling in airport security checks. The policy reduces the government’s credibility among ordinary Americans who understand that the policy defies common sense. Commissioner John Lehman noted at one hearing that any airline that set aside more than two Middle Eastern-looking passengers for secondary security clearing at any one time still faces large anti-discrimination fines.

The report also sheds new light on the issue of “state sponsors” of terror, especially Iran and Iraq. The Iran information—including pass-through rights without border stamps for al Qaeda—should give pause to those who think diplomacy alone will mollify the mullahs.

As for Iraq, the final report retreats from its interim judgment that there was no “collaborative relationship.” The Commission now says it found no “collaborative operational relationship” to attack the U.S., but it does record extensive and troubling contacts. This includes the news that Richard Clarke, the former NSC aide, himself believed that Iraq had ties to the chemical plant in Sudan that was linked to al Qaeda and bombed by Bill Clinton. The report quotes Mr. Clarke as speculating to a superior about an “Iraq-al Qida [sic] agreement” on the chemical plant. Our readers may recall that Mr. Clarke more recently said there was not a shred of evidence of such ties.

Here’s a page at Yahoo where you can download the Complete 9/11 Commission Report.