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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rick McDougall who wrote (487931)	11/6/2003 1:23:40 AM
From: DavesM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

re:". Can you refer me to a url that confirms that Bin Laden hand picked Saudis?" "Mohammed said the hijacking teams were originally made up of members from different countries where Al Qaeda had recruited, but that later bin Laden chose to use a large group of young Saudi men. Mohammed learned "there was a large group of Saudi operatives that would be available to participate as the muscle in the plot to hijack planes in the United States." foxnews.com "Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, has told American interrogators that he first discussed the plot with Osama bin Laden in 1996 and that the original plan called for hijacking five commercial jets on each U.S. coast before it was modified several times, according to interrogation ...Mohammed told his interrogators the hijacking teams were originally made up of members from different countries where al-Qaida had recruited, but that in the final stages bin Laden chose instead to use a large group of young Saudi men to populate the hijacking teams." msnbc.com Rick, IMO the reason that Saddam was not removed after the first Gulf War, was done for political reasons to keep certain members of the original coalition on the team (for domestic political reasons or business relationships with Iraq). In hindsight, it was clearly a mistake to allow Saddam to continue on. As far as WMDs are concerned, it seems that even Iraqi military leaders (commanders in field not ) BELIEVED they had WMDs "American and British interrogators have asked dozens of generals who served in high-ranking command roles in Iraqi army divisions during this year -- some imprisoned, some living freely -- why Hussein did not use chemical weapons to defend Baghdad. A number of these generals have said that they, too, believed chemical weapons would be deployed by Hussein for the capital's defense. Yet none of the officers admitted receiving such weapons himself. "The only consistent pattern we've gotten -- 100 percent consistent -- is that each commander says, 'My unit didn't have WMD, but the one to my right or left did,' " said the senior U.S. official involved. This has led some American interrogators to theorize that Hussein may have bluffed not only neighboring governments and the United States, but his own restive generals"-Washington Post, Nov 3 Should the United States have waited for the UN, wait for the French and the Russians to change their minds? The answer is unclear...from the same article: "Aziz has told interrogators that French and Russian intermediaries repeatedly assured Hussein during late 2002 and early this year that they would block a U.S.-led war through delays and vetoes at the U.N. Security Council. Later, according to Aziz, Hussein concluded after private talks with French and Russian contacts that the United States would probably wage a long air war first, as it had done in previous conflicts. By hunkering down and putting up a stiff defense, he might buy enough time to win a cease-fire brokered by Paris and Moscow."