Nadine, who is this "we" who is paying for anything. How specifically are we acting against our own interests. In fact, the evidence is coming out that there is no solid evidence linking Iraq with al Qaeda. Bush and company are making unsubstantiated claims.Thursday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeated the charges but made them slightly more vague. He said Iraq "provided unspecified training relating to chemical and/or biological matters." we don't go to war or should not jeopardize this country because of some vague suggestions something is going on.
09/26/2002 - Updated 10:41 PM ET
Experts skeptical of reports on al-Qaeda-Baghdad link
By Barbara Slavin and John Diamond, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has intensified efforts to link al-Qaeda terrorists with Iraq, charging that senior al-Qaeda members were in Baghdad recently and received training in chemical and biological warfare.
But several intelligence experts, including some within the U.S. government, expressed skepticism about the reports.
A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the new assertions an "exaggeration." Other intelligence experts said some of the charges appeared to be based on old information and that there was still no "smoking gun" connecting Iraq with the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there was "solid evidence" that al-Qaeda terrorists were in Baghdad in recent "days or weeks" and "credible evidence" that al-Qaeda leaders have sought Iraq's help in acquiring weapons of mass destruction. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said much of the information came from captured al-Qaeda fighters.
Though the administration has long suggested a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, it has had trouble making a strong case. Wednesday, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, "There are some al-Qaeda personnel who found refuge in Baghdad." She also said information from al-Qaeda detainees indicates Iraq provided "some training to al-Qaeda in chemical weapons development."
Thursday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeated the charges but made them slightly more vague. He said Iraq "provided unspecified training relating to chemical and/or biological matters." He said there are al-Qaeda members in Iraq, but he refused to say whether the Iraqi government is providing them safe haven.
Intelligence officials referred inquiries to the White House, then changed their stance later in the day. One official said there is credible information about discussions of safe haven between Iraq and al-Qaeda.
Vince Cannistraro, former CIA counterterrorism chief, said the only known discussion of that kind occurred in 1998 when Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Turkey and reputedly a top Iraqi intelligence official, went to Afghanistan after al-Qaeda bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa. Hijazi offered al-Qaeda sanctuary in Iraq, but terrorist leader Osama bin Laden turned it down, Cannistraro says, because he did not want to become a tool of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Cannistraro said it is possible some al-Qaeda members changed their mind after U.S. and Afghan forces overthrew Afghanistan's Taliban regime. But he accused the Bush administration of overstating uncorroborated information from al-Qaeda detainees. "They're cooking the books," Cannistraro said.
A small number of al-Qaeda members are known to have found refuge in northern Iraq in a Kurdish area outside Saddam's control. If al-Qaeda members are also in Baghdad, they could not be there without Saddam's knowledge and consent, experts say.
A U.S. official familiar with the interrogations of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said the intelligence on the recent presence of al-Qaeda members in Baghdad is "solid," but information about Iraqi training of al-Qaeda members came from a single detainee and has not been corroborated independently.
The official said detainees might be lying to U.S. interrogators to encourage a U.S. invasion of Iraq, the better to make the al-Qaeda case that the United States is the mortal enemy of Muslim countries.
Paul Anderson, spokesman for Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the senator, who has access to highly classified reports, has seen nothing that would connect al-Qaeda with Saddam's regime.
Anna Perez, a spokeswoman for Rice, said the administration is not trying to overstate the case against Saddam, who is being targeted primarily because of his efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. "We had dots before," she said. "Now we have a higher density of dots. Have we connected those dots? No."
Contributing: Dave Moniz |
