Administration speaks on Iraq/Al Qaeda link:
* In July 2002, Donald Rumsfeld told a news conference that Iraq had "a relationship" with Al Qaeda but declined to be more specific. The following month, the Los Angeles Times reported an interview with yet another unnamed "senior Bush administration official" who said evidence of an Atta meeting in Prague "holds up," adding, "We're going to talk more about this case."
* In September 2002, defense department advisor Richard Perle was quoted in an Italian business publication, saying that Atta met personally with Saddam Hussein himself. "Mohammed Atta met Saddam Hussein in Baghdad prior to September 11," Perle said. "We have proof of that, and we are sure he wasn't just there for a holiday." (Since then, nothing whatsoever has been heard about the alleged "proof.")
* On September 8, 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney was interviewed on Meet the Press. "There has been reporting," he said, "that suggests that there have been a number of contacts over the years. We've seen in connection with the hijackers, of course, Mohammed Atta, who was the lead hijacker, did apparently travel to Prague on a number of occasions. And on at least one occasion, we have reporting that places him in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official a few months before the attack on the World Trade Center."
* "We know that Iraq and the Al Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy," Bush himself said in an October 7, 2002 speech to the nation. In the same speech, he also mentioned "one very senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year." However, he did not mention that the terrorist in question, Abu Musab Zarqawi, was no longer in Iraq and that there was no hard evidence Hussein's government knew he was there or had contact with him. At an election campaign rally a week later, Bush said that Saddam was, "a man who, in my judgment, would like to use Al Qaeda as a forward army."
Clearly, Bush was more cautious than the others, simply implying a link. Rumsfeld, Perle, and Cheney were not so cautious, however, each asserting a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda; Perle and Cheney even asserted evidence of alink between Iraq and the 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta.
On WMDs:
We did not invade Iraq because they had WMDs and destroyed them. We invaded because they were a supposed threat to the US. How? By possessing WMDs that they would either use, or give to terrorists.
Yes, I can see it now:
"My fellow Americans, we want to invade Iraq. Not because they were involved in 9/11; they weren't. Not because they have WMDs; although they did (right, Rummie?), but they destroyed them. No, we're going to war to create a Democracy to stabilize the Middle East, and to help the poor people of Iraq. Forget about the people who live under despots in other countries: China, North Korea, Burma, Saudi Arabia. The Iraqis are the lucky recipients of our 'Invade a Despot' drawing..." |
