More Spin: "Rice Explains How Iraq Fits in Terror War"

[sabra]

http://www.blackanthem.com/World/military_2005101702.html

Rice Explains How Iraq Fits in Terror War

Critics of the Iraq War allege that there was no connection between Iraq and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice maintains the attack and actions in Iraq are linked.

...

"When we were attacked on Sept. 11," Rice said, "we had a choice to make: We could decide that the proximate cause was al Qaeda and the people who flew those planes into the buildings, or we could take a bolder approach, which would say that we had to go after the root causes of the kind of terrorism" produced in the Middle East.

The United States, Rice said, decided to take this bolder approach, which involves transforming the Middle East along freer and more democratic lines. A freer and more democratic Middle East, she explained, is far less likely to produce terrorists who will forever threaten catastrophic damage on the United States.

"There is no one who could have imagined a different kind of Middle East with Saddam Hussein still in power," she noted.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. she's banking on the stupidity of people

who think that the Middle East has always been the way it is now, and that everyone in the Middle East is exactly alike.

[wtmusic]

4. All those brown crazy people just need us

to show them the way, and put their natural resources to the full use which God intended

[sinkingfeeling]

2. "bolder approach" equals PNAC dream.

[cdb]

3. I want whatever she's smoking.... n/t

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. And that's what they sold the war on, "transforming the M.E.", right? Oh,

I forgot, there was that "smoking gun/mushroom cloud" thing too.

[Tamarin]

7. That's precisely what I was thinking...

I don't remember the overwhelming reason for invasion being *Transforming the Middle East* They had to scare the country into going along with their plans for transformation and that is what is pissing people off.

[Brotherjohn]

6. "A bolder approach... the root causes... of terrorism".

What she didn't say was they were going to ADD to the root causes of terrorism.

[Walt Starr]

8. This administration lacks imagination.

"There is no one who could have imagined a different kind of Middle East with Saddam Hussein still in power," she noted.

they can't imagine a lot of things.

[Avalux]

9. Whats she proclaiming is unconstitutional

and falls in line with PNAC's agenda. She's admitting with these statements the reason we attacked Iraq was nation building, not WMDs. I guess it's OK to say it now. She forgot to mention the oil.

[LynnTheDem]

10. So WHEN was Rice LYING??? THEN??? Or NOW???

LYING THEN? OR LYING NOW?

Rice: U.S. Never Said Saddam Was Behind 9/11

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday the Bush administration had never accused Saddam Hussein of directing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Her statement, made in an interview recorded for broadcast on ABC's "Nightline" program, came despite long-standing administration charges the ousted Iraqi leader was linked to the al Qaeda network accused of the Sept. 11 attacks. Those charges helped fuel a widespread U.S. public belief that Saddam had a role in the attacks.

"We have never claimed that Saddam Hussein ... had either direction or control of 9/11," Rice said.

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/983821/posts

LYING THEN? OR LYING NOW?

Rice and Powell Say that a Disarmed Saddam Could Stay in Power

Miss Rice also spoke of the goal of Iraqi disarmament instead of regime change.

"The goal here is to disarm Saddam Hussein. In order to do that, we are going to have to test his willingness to cooperate," she said. "This time it has to be a test of his willingness to disarm, because if he is not willing to disarm, then we‘re going to have to disarm him."

"All we‘re interested in is getting rid of those weapons of mass destruction."

http://www.intelmessages.org/Messages/National_Security/wwwboard/messages/2159.html

"To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."
-Rumsfeld, Monday, October 4, 2004
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,10975887-1702,00.html

BBC NEWS | Americas | Bush rejects Saddam 9/11 link
US President George Bush has said there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks.

"We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the 11 September attacks," Mr Bush told reporters as he met members of Congress on energy legislation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3118262.stm

Sky News (London): "One question for you both. Do you believe that there is a link between Saddam Hussein, a direct link, and the men who attacked on September the 11th?"

Bush: "I can't make that claim.'
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030131-23.html

Sept 17, 2003- Bush: No evidence Saddam Hussein involved in Nine-Eleven attacks
http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1447698

Sept 16, 2003- Rice: U.S. Never Said Saddam Was Behind 9/11
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/983821/posts

Sept 16, 2003- Rumsfeld sees no link between Saddam Hussein, 9/11
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-09-16-rumsfeld-iraq-911_x.htm

Aug 6, 2003- Wolfowitz: Iraq Was Not Involved In 9-11 Terrorist Attacks, No Ties To Al-Qaeda
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4372.htm

UN Panel Reports No al-Qaida-Iraq Ties
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/breaking_news/6176302.htm

Leaked Report Rejects Link Claims
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2727471.stm

Newly Declassified Intelligence Documents on Iraq-al Qaeda Relationship
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., today released documents recently declassified at his request that illustrate that some claims of a cooperative relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda made by top administration officials in support of the Iraq war were contrary to what U.S. intelligence officials believed to be true.
http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=236440

Sources: U.S. distorted Saddam-al Qaeda link - Senior U.S. officials now say there never was any evidence that Saddam's secular police state and Osama bin Laden's Islamic terrorism network were in league.
https://registration.dfw.com/reg/login.do?url=http://www.dfw.com%2Fmld%2Fdfw%2Fnews%2F8094015.htm

Spanish intelligence service says no link between Saddam and Al Qaeda: report
Spain's counter-espionage service believes there is no link between toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the extremist Al Qaeda network, national media has reported. - The head of the National Intelligence Centre, Jorge Dezcaller, added that Al Qaeda had even accused Saddam of not respecting the principles of Islam,
http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/09/06/

The Next Debate: Al Qaeda Link
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60616FE3A580C738EDDAE0894DB404482

Brent Scowcroft, one of the Republican Party’s most respected foreign policy advisors;

"Don't Attack Saddam. It would undermine our antiterror efforts. There is scant evidence to tie Saddam to terrorist organizations, and even less to the Sept. 11 attacks."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110002133

Allies Find No Links Between Iraq, Al Qaeda

"What I'm asked is if I've seen any evidence of that. (Iraq links to al Qaeda) And the answer is: I haven't.” -British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who supports U.S. invasion & occupation of Iraq.
http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-noqaeda4nov04,0,4538810.story

British Intelligence agencies, MI6 and MI5

A dossier prepared by the two agencies “showed no discernible links between Iraq and al-Qaida,”
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=375403

Richard Kerr, a former deputy CIA director who lead an internal review of the CIA's prewar intelligence;

“the CIA has not found any proof of operational ties between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime.”
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?pid=800

The White House’s own publication, A Decade of Defiance and Deception, makes no mention of Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/iraq/decade/sect5.html

The 2002 congressional joint intelligence committee’s report on the Sept. 11 attacks revealed that the Bush administration had no evidence to support its claim that Saddam’s government was supporting al-Qaeda.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030723-064812-9491r

No proof links Iraq, al-Qaida, Colin Powell says
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ID/3909150

According to a "top secret British document", quoted by the BBC "there is nothing but enmity between Iraq and Al Qaeda." The BBC said the leak came from intelligence officials upset that their work was being used to justify war." (quoted in Daily News, New York, 6 February 2003).
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO303D.html

Iraq-al Qaeda links weak, say former Bush officials

Three former Bush administration officials who worked on intelligence and national security issues have told National Journal that the prewar evidence tying al Qaeda to Iraq was tenuous, exaggerated, and often at odds with the conclusions of key intelligence agencies.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0803/080803nj2.htm

Split at C.I.A. and F.B.I. On Iraqi Ties to Al Qaeda

"…analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency have complained that senior administration officials have exaggerated the significance of some intelligence reports about Iraq, particularly about its possible links to terrorism, in order to strengthen their political argument for war, government officials said."

and…

"At the Federal Bureau of Investigation, some investigators said they were baffled by the Bush administration's insistence on a solid link between Iraq and Osama bin Laden|s network. "We've been looking at this hard for more than a year and you know what, we just don't think it's there," a government official said."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70D1EF83E5C0C718CDDAB0894DB404482

This is consistent with what they were saying back in October 2002.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A14056-2002Oct24

"There's absolutely no evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda, ever."
-Richard Clarke, former terrorism chief under bush.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml

Iraq-al Qaeda ties have not been found

Bush administration hyped sketchy and false evidence to push for war
The Bush administration’s claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda — one of the administration’s central arguments for a pre-emptive war — appears to have been based on even less solid intelligence than the administration’s claims that Iraq had hidden stocks of chemical and biological weapons.

Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam’s links with al Qaeda, and several key parts of the administration’s case have either proved false or seem increasingly doubtful.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/2004/03/04/news/nation/8101079.htm

Iraq and al Qaeda: What Evidence?
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=23816

bush's own hand-picked Republican weapons hunter ISG, Dr. David Kay;

David Kay was on the ground for months investigating the activities of Hussein's regime. He concluded "But we simply did not find any evidence of extensive links with Al Qaeda, or for that matter any real links at all."

He called a speech where Cheney made the claim there was a link, as being "evidence free."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/06/16/bush_backs_cheney_on_assertion_linking_hussein_al_qaeda/

Israeli intelligence (the Moussad)

“According to Israeli intelligence, Palestinians are still not connected to the global terror network, and neither is Iraq.”
http://www.haaretz.com /

bush's second and final hand-picked Republican weapons hunter ISG, Dr. Charles Dueffler;

Report: No WMD stockpiles in Iraq, no capability since 1991, no evidence of ties to al Qaeda, no serious threat;
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/06/1096949583023.html?from=storylhs

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/2004/isg-final-report/

OFFICIAL VERDICT: WHITE HOUSE MISLED WORLD OVER SADDAM-AL QAEDA TIES (no, actually, only AMERICANS were ever dumb enough to think Iraq did 911)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0617-03.htm

No evidence of Iraq-Al Qaeda ties: 9/11 commission
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/06/cheney.911

"CIA Review Finds No Evidence Saddam Had Ties to Islamic Terrorists"
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1005-01.htm

NO TIES. GET OVER IT and STOP TRYING TO FOOL THE STUPID AMERICANS!

[King Coal]

11. Rice is a turd that won't flush.