US 'allowed Zarqawi to escape' (The CIA goes after Bush again)

The Age ^ | May 1 2006 | Chris Evans

[jmc1969]

The United States deliberately passed up repeated opportunities to kill the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, before the March 2003 US-led invasion of that country.

The claim, by former US spy Mike Scheuer, was made in an interview to be shown on ABC TV's Four Corners tonight.

Mr Scheuer was a CIA agent for 22 years - six of them as head of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit - until he resigned in 2004.

Mr Scheuer claims that a July 2002 plan to destroy the camp lapsed because "it was more important not to give the Europeans the impression we were gunslingers".

"Mr Bush had Zarqawi in his sights almost every day for a year before the invasion of Iraq and he didn't shoot because they were wining and dining the French in an effort to get them to assist us in the invasion of Iraq," he told Four Corners.

"Almost every day we sent a package to the White House that had overhead imagery of the house he was staying in. It was a terrorist training camp . . . experimenting with ricin and anthrax . . . any collateral damage there would have been terrorists."

[jmc1969]

These CIA boys just don't quit. At this point I almost would like to see the CIA taken apart.

[EagleUSA]

Yeah, I wonder how much this traitor cost George Soros??

[MizSterious]

We're fighting wars on several fronts--in Iraq, on our borders, and within our own ranks. I have to think the Clinton years were the most damaging this country has ever experienced, and we're only now finding out just how bad they were.

[Tarpon]

Well he let bin Laden go, so why not Zarqawi.

/sarcasm

[mtbopfuyn]

And how many times was Bubba offered OBL's head and refused.

[MizSterious]

Probably not much. Some of these twits work cheap, either to see their names in headlines (as in Joe Wilson) or just because they hate this President, and indeed the country and what it stands for.

[SandRat]

Mr Scheuer was a CIA agent for 22 years - six of them as head of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit - until he resigned in 2004

Then he know's he's supposed to keep his big yap shut! Someone check his party affiliation and I bet you he's a staunch RAT! Perhaps, even a donor and member of the ACLU.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

I'll second that! This treasonous behavior must stop!

[alice_in_bubbaland]

LOL! No doubt about it!

[midway]

File this under: DAMNED IF YOU DO and DAMNED IF YOU DON'T
i.e. cater to the European sensibilities

Mr Scheuer claims that a July 2002 plan to destroy the camp lapsed because "it was more important not to give the Europeans the impression we were gunslingers".

"Mr Bush had Zarqawi in his sights almost every day for a year before the invasion of Iraq and he didn't shoot because they were wining and dining the French in an effort to get them to assist us in the invasion of Iraq," he told Four Corners.

[denydenydeny]

former US spy Mike Scheuer,

The guy was the head of the Osama Bin Laden desk at the CIA. The worthless incompetent should have been fired on 9/12/01.

[operation clinton cleanup]

"Almost every day we sent a package to the White House that had overhead imagery of the house he was staying in. It was a terrorist training camp . . . experimenting with ricin and anthrax . . . any collateral damage there would have been terrorists."

Soooo.. let me get this straight. Iraq did have AQ people training within its borders with WMD in 2002?

[SevenMinusOne]

"Mr Bush had Zarqawi in his sights almost every day for a year before the invasion of Iraq and he didn't shoot because they were wining and dining the French in an effort to get them to assist us in the invasion of Iraq," he told Four Corners.

Absolute BS! 110% BS! - The levels some of these guys are going is truly surprising (but then again it is only happening because of a complete anti-GWB agenda driven MSM along with an uninformed public to make such BS even possible).

[mfnorman]

Did we have any kind of legal authority to perform such a hit before the actual war broke out? Did we know as much about who Zarquawi was before the invasion?

[jazusamo]

Mr. Scheuer is flirting with prison time. Just because he is retired, it doesn't absolve him of the security statements he signed.

[Michael.SF.]

Almost every day we sent a package to the White House that had overhead imagery of the house he was staying in. It was a terrorist training camp . . . experimenting with ricin and anthrax . . .

Wonder why they did not use this headline?:

Zarqawi Trained to use Chemical Weapons -- Ex CIA Agent Confirms

[fantom]

Osama Bin Laden Unit ? Well i see that worked out well for him . These are the same people who allowed Sept. 11 to happen . Methinks this is a head fake . Probably more to come out about this guy. The Goss machine appears to be in full burn.

[MizSterious]

That should be "chemical and bio-weapons"--he mentioned anthrax, too.

[Bahbah]

"Almost every day we sent a package to the White House that had overhead imagery of the house he was staying in. It was a terrorist training camp . . . experimenting with ricin and anthrax . . . any collateral damage there would have been terrorists."

Okay, but what does this do to the drumbeat about how there were no terrorists, no al Qaeda, in Iraq, Iraq was not working with terriorists or training them, we actually had nothing to fear from Iraq insofar as the GWOT is concerned?

[SevenMinusOne]

Zarqawi Trained to use Chemical Weapons -- Ex CIA Agent Confirms

Exactly - I remember thinking exactly this when this very topic was discussed back over a year ago now -

[cdrw]

Sounds to me like pretty clearcut evidence that there were terrorist training camps in Iraq and Saddam got what was coming to him. It has long been reported that Zarq's presence in Iraq was known before the war (during the prolonged ceasefire I should say).

Bush and his team apparently thought, at the time, they had a fighting chance of winning the French over. In hindsight we know that's a joke. But things would have gone much better if the French, Germans ... joined up.

Is this guy's team the same crew that had us kill Saddam two or three times with bombs based on solid intelligence of which house he was in? Is this the same crew that has dropped bombs on various safe houses across Afghanistan and Pakistan in hopes of picking off bin laden ...

[Explorer24]

The most important piece of the article is:

"it was more important not to give the Europeans the impression we were gunslingers"

Again, tying our hands b/c of politics costs America, dearly. Reminds me of the Clinton/UAE Bin Laden reports

The message is very clear - we need to act and the pubic needs to accept bold action rather than accept "can we kill them tomorrow" "leadership."

[jmc1969]

NBC had an article like this also based on leaked info in early 2004, but the DNC sat on it and didn't start using it until early October 2004.

[RBroadfoot]

Better yet, "Iraq trained Al-Qaida to Use Chemical Weapons -- Ex CIA Agent Confirms".

[highlander_UW]

Headline should read "Ex-CIA Officer confirms Saddam trained terrorists in the use of chemical and biological weapons IN IRAQ just prior to the war, thus confirming WMD in Iraq".

This just in...Kerry chokes on spittle, Hillary's eyes bug out even more and Ted "the whale" Kennedy has slipped on his blubber and can't get up.

[jennyjenny]

The United States deliberately passed up repeated opportunities to kill the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, before the March 2003 US-led invasion of that country.

But I thought al-Qaeda wasn't in Iraq before the war.....oops!

Maybe now that the likes of this guy and Plame are out, we can actually get some good intelligence for a change.

[Bommer]

Mr Scheuer was a CIA agent for 22 years - six of them as head of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit - until he resigned in 2004....."Mr Bush had Zarqawi in his sights almost every day for a year......

So the man in charge to finding Osama is whining because Bush didn't get Zarqawi? Doesn't seem to me it was Bush that didn't have his eyes focused on the right target! While Scheuer was watching Zarqawi, when he was supposed to get Bin Lauden, Bin Lauden escaped! Yep Bush's fault!

[river rat]

Damn it all to hell!

We damned well better be "gun slingers"....
We're in a sure as hell kill or be killed scenario...

Fxxx the Europeans if they don't recognize that FACT.
I am a firm believer in killing the enemy by ANY means necessary, BEFORE he can do the same to our forces..

We are at war....not in a damned popularity contest..
The world will fear and respect a winner, and abuse the memory and corpses of losers.

Semper Fi

[JoeSixPack1]

...because they were wining and dining the French in an effort to get them to assist us in the invasion of Iraq," he told Four Corners.

Lay this one FIRMLY at the feet of Hanoi Kerry DemonRats.

Appeasement may work in love, but never war.

[ModelBreaker]

This 'revelation' cuts two ways:

1. It reveals that Al Quaeda terrorists were training in Iraq pre war.

2. That Al Quaeda was working with WMD in Iraq pre war.

3. That the idiocy of calling Old Europe 'allies' fuzzes our brains and prevents us from taking sensible and prudent steps. We should recognize that they are not allies in any meaningful sense of the word.

[Laverne]

But the media has been telling us that no terrorists were in Iraq until after we invaded....remember we caused the terrorism in Iraq.

[monkapotamus]

"Mr Scheuer was a CIA agent for 22 years - six of them as head of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit - until he resigned in 2004."

Probably still working for them.

[jrooney]

If we did an attack in 2002 in Iraq before working the UN as long a we did prior to the invasion, the dems and liberal msm would have gone nuts. Also, by waiting until 2003, POTUS was able to get the universal resolution giving Saddam one last chance which he blew.

I also thought there were no terrorists in Iraq before the war. Didn't the dems and the MSM tell us so? ** Sarcasm...

This is a weak pushback by the rogue agesnts that are facing round up in the very near future and arrest on a slew of charges that are going to include conspiracy. Liberal MSM and these idiots are not very smart to keep poking POTUS in the chest because he is going to smack them hard. This is the last POTUS anyone should think would not have the balls to make such a move against, rogue CIA, journos, dem seantors and congressmen.

Okay idiots, keep playing with that stick of dynamite.

[bad company]

Mr Scheuer was a CIA agent for 22 years - six of them as head of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit - until he resigned in 2004

Thanks for 9-11, you incompetent twit.

[jmc1969]

Check the Washington Times article, there is no mention of the Chemical and Biological weapons.

http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20060430-060125-9310r.htm

[CharlesWayneCT]

But this story does shoot holes in the leftist lie that there were no terrorists in Iraq until we created them.

This is not new news. I heard this over a year ago.

Also, the people complaining about this are the same ones who said we had no right to attack Iraq. If we didn't, why do they think we had the right to attack Iraq to kill Zarqawi?

[jmc1969]

You are using logic, they aren't.

[photodawg]

These CIA boys just don't quit. At this point I almost would like to see the CIA taken apart.
//////////////////////////////////////////

Strangely enough its the left that comes across poorly here. It was the left, and the Europeans that had to be "sold" on the Iraq war. This testimony shows the President, ham strung by the need to placate the anti-war left on the Iraq issue and therefore he couldn't risk looking too eager for a Kill, especially since the "kill" would have occurred in Iraq. It shows how hard the Pres. worked to enlist the europeans in the coalition.

[TexasCajun]

Mike Scheuer & Richard Clarke, what a pair of back-door sheep-herders!

[photodawg]

Soooo.. let me get this straight. Iraq did have AQ people training within its borders with WMD in 2002?
///////////////////////////////////////////

Excellent observation. Where was this guy when the Dems were yelling, Bush lied, people died?

[lucysmom]

Soooo.. let me get this straight. Iraq did have AQ people training within its borders with WMD in 2002?

The article says:

He told Four Corners that during 2002, the Bush Administration received detailed intelligence about Zarqawi's training camp in Iraqi Kurdistan.

If Zarqawi's camp was in Iraqi Kurdistan, he was out of Saddam's reach. Weren't the Kurds supposed to be our allies in Iraq, living pretty much autonomously under our protection?

[Garvin]

From Wikipedia:
Michael Scheuer is a 22-year CIA veteran. He served as the Chief of the bin Laden Unit at the Counterterrorist Center from 1996 to 1999. He resigned from the CIA in 2004. He is currently a News Analyst for CBS News as well as a Terrorism Analyst for the Jamestown Foundation's "Global Terrorism Analysis."

Scheuer is the anonymous author responsible for Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror and the earlier anonymous work Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America. [2]

Although Scheuer was an overt member of the CIA, not much is known about his personal history. Scheuer currently makes radio and television appearances. He also participates in conferences on terrorism and national security issues, such as the New America Foundation's December 2004 conference, "Al Qaeda 2.0: Transnational Terrorism After 9/11."

[pollyannaish]

"Mr Bush had Zarqawi in his sights almost every day for a year before the invasion of Iraq and he didn't shoot because they were wining and dining the French in an effort to get them to assist us in the invasion of Iraq," he told Four Corners.

A naked case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. The press sucks.

[jmc1969]

Zarqawi moved all around Iraq in 2002 including going to Baghdad and Anbar to prepare the ground for a post war insurgency. He brought in fighters from all across the Arab world for that task. There was no way he could have done this without Saddam's security services letting him.

[pollyannaish]

That's quite a resume.

[TomasUSMC]

We are at war....not in a damned popularity contest..
The world will fear and respect a winner, and abuse the memory and corpses of losers.

---

Well said.

The Japanese feared and respected our strength after 1945 and it turned out well in the long run. Allowing an Iraqi Constitution that incorporates Islam in it, will maintain and legitimize the animosity that moslems have towards US.

I hope the Kurds break away and form a secular country or they will be slaughtered. Heck, they may get crushed anyway with the hard line moslems in Turkey in control now.

[Wuli]

In his book, Anonymous, Mr. Scheur, like the true liberal he is, also blames Bush for not working hard enough to get the cooperation of "our allies" before going into Iraq.

As a typical lefty, he can take both sides of an argument and make you damned if you do and damned if you don't - no matter which side you take.

I think he must have left the CIA when he knew the incompetent Tenant was on his way out and Porter Goss was going to be Bush's pick.

[operation clinton cleanup]

If Zarqawi's camp was in Iraqi Kurdistan, he was out of Saddam's reach. Weren't the Kurds supposed to be our allies in Iraq, living pretty much autonomously under our protection?

If you consider CAP fighter overflights a couple times a week "protection". Our aircraft only fired back when painted or fired upon by Saddam's forces. The Kurds kept to themselves to avoid being slaughtered.

[taxesareforever]

Mr Scheuer was a CIA agent for 22 years - six of them as head of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit

So, him and his Clintonistas didn't get Osama and he was the head of the Osama unit. Tells me all I need to know about this guy.

[Marine_Uncle]

Well. The point this agent made backs up what many of us have been screaming about. We knew Zman had operational terrorist camps in Iraq PRIOR to the invasion. And he really did not say anything new, in essence. The 101 Airborne was dropped into the Mosul region to quickly take out those terrorist, but just missed then as they all ran for the northern mountain ranges, to escape into northern Kurdistain.
Of course his political agenda is transparent. But in his words he verifies Saddam supported terroist and even let them work on wmd stuff in his country.