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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (9635)	6/21/2004 5:30:11 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

New Bush Tactic When Caught In Lie, Repeat it Often Bush repeats there was an Iraq, al-Qaeda alliance Fri Jun 18, 6:13 AM ET By Judy Keen, USA TODAY President Bush (news - web sites) repeated his assertion Thursday that there was a relationship between Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and the al-Qaeda terrorist network. The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said Wednesday that Iraq (news - web sites) and Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s group did not collaborate on the attacks. Before the war, administration officials cited links between Iraq and al-Qaeda as part of their justification for removing Saddam. Bush maintains that there was an alliance that posed a threat even if there was no working partnership. "There was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda," Bush said Thursday after a meeting with his Cabinet. "There were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda." The commission said there is "no credible evidence" that Saddam helped al-Qaeda plan and train for attacks against the United States. In its preliminary report Wednesday, the commission said bin Laden sought Iraq's help in obtaining weapons and setting up terrorist training camps a decade ago. But Iraq "apparently never responded" to that request, the report said. "This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al-Qaeda," Bush said. But last September, Vice President Cheney said on NBC's Meet the Press that "it's not surprising" that the public would believe Saddam was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. "We don't know," Cheney said. "We've learned a couple of things. We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s." A Washington Post poll taken last September found that 69% of Americans said they believed Saddam was personally involved in the attacks. A CBS News/New York Times poll in April found that 39% said they believed he was. Three days after Cheney's comment, Bush said, "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in Sept. 11." The White House, already embarrassed that no chemical or biological weapons have been found in Iraq, is fighting suggestions that another element of the case it made for war was overstated. White House spokesman Scott McClellan insisted that the commission's conclusion was consistent with what the administration has said all along. "There is no wedge there between what the Sept. 11 commission said and what the facts are," he said. Lee Hamilton, a former Indiana congressman who is the top Democrat on the commission, said he doesn't disagree with Cheney's assertions of bin Laden contacts with Iraq. "I have trouble understanding the flap over this," Hamilton said. A commission official said the panel did not intend for its conclusions to be interpreted as a denial of any contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraq. The official said the commission concluded only that there was no connection between Saddam and Sept. 11. The comments were made to reporters on the condition that the official not be named. The official also said the commission hoped its findings would not set off a partisan storm. But the issue already is part of the election-year political debate. The Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) put out a news release Thursday charging Bush with continuing a "pattern of deception."