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Getting into Iraq: A record of what Bush Administration said about reasonsTue, 10/31/2006 - 5:02pm
By: Letters to the ...
Mr. Hoffman cites his “unassailable logic” implying that Democrats are in agreement with the terrorists if they want to leave Iraq. Apparently he would want to remain there forever to avoid falling into the same trap. However, I was enjoying the letter until I got to the part where he wrote, “Critics selectively remember what the Bush administration said and did not say leading up to the war (there was never a claim of Saddam and al Qaeda being connected during that period).” Sigh. In a February 2002 weekly radio address, President Bush said, “Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training.” This information came from Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a captured terrorist who had been transferred from FBI custody to the CIA and taken to Egypt to be tortured, including water-boarding. The FBI strenuously fought the transfer, taking the case all the way to FBI Director Robert Mueller. It was later revealed in a Defense Intelligence Agency official intelligence report labeled DITSUM No. 044-02 from earlier in February 2002 that it was probable that because of being tortured, the prisoner al-Libi, “was intentionally misleading the debriefers” in making claims about Iraqi support for al Qaeda’s work with illicit weapons and that “al-Libi was in no position to know the information he was revealing.” Mr. al-Libi is currently in custody at Guantanamo Bay although the FBI has announced that due to the torture he underwent, they have no prospects for prosecuting him. In spite of the fact that the DIA had reported that the information was false, President Bush again referred to the al-Libi information in a major speech in Cincinnati in October 2002 when he said that “we’ve learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases.” On Aug. 20, 2002, at a Department of Defense news briefing, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said, “I have said for some time that there are al Qaeda in Iraq, and there are.” On Sept. 25, 2002, the Office of the Press Secretary released a statement in which President Bush said, “You can’t distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror.” Condoleezza Rice on Sept. 25, 2002, said, “There clearly are contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq that can be documented ... and there’s a relationship there.” Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA’s bin Laden hunting group described efforts to substantiate the claim including examining 75,000 pages of information before concluding, “There was no connection between al Qaeda and Saddam.” A U.S. Department of Defense news article issued by the American Forces Information Service Sept. 27, 2002, quoted a speech in Atlanta by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who said, “The link between al Qaeda terrorists and Iraq is accurate and not debatable.” In his Sept. 28, 2002, radio address to the nation, President Bush said, “The regime has long-standing and continuing ties to terrorist groups, and there are al Qaeda terrorists inside Iraq. This regime is seeking a nuclear bomb, and with fissile material could build one within a year.” On Feb. 8, 2003, the White House Web site posted a speech by President Bush in which he said, “Saddam Hussein has long-standing, direct and continuing ties to terrorist networks. Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and al Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s. Iraq has sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al Qaeda. Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training. And an al Qaeda operative was sent to Iraq several times in the late 1990s for help in acquiring poisons and gases.” Appearing on Meet the Press March 9, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell, referring to Iraq, said, “We have seen connections and we are continuing to pursue those connections ... and the fact that there is also an al Qaeda connection.” The same day on CBS Face the Nation, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said, “Now the al Qaeda is an organization that’s quite disbursed and —and quite widespread in its effects, but it clearly has had links to the Iraqis.” President Bush sent a letter to Congress on March 19, 2003 saying that the Iraq war was permitted specifically under legislation that authorized force against nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11. “Operation Iraqi Freedom” began March 20, 2003. The 9/11 Commission reported that it had found no “collaborative relationship” between Iraq and al Qaeda. I believe that reasonable people can disagree about Iraq. However, let’s not as Mr. Hoffman so eloquently put it, “selectively remember what the Bush administration said and did not say leading up to the war.” Jeff Carter 
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