Wait a Minute!!!Does or Doesn't Bush Believe In Iraq's Role in 9/11??

The White House......CNN ^ | 3/19/03..9/18/03 | White House & CNN

[jwalsh07]

No, I'm from the school that says: "Don't piss on me from the balcony and then tell me it's raining"!

Interesting but you should have been taught to have enough sense to come in out of the piss.

Don't have a doctrine and then exclude someone who is doing the same thing that caused you to proclaim that doctrine. In other words, be consistant.

Nobody's excluded but you'll have to have patience and wait until you're favorite terrorist stronghold's number comes up.

As for your comment that the creeps are shaking in their boots, that's nonsense, these beasts are nuts and are not afraid to die for their cause and that includes anyone who buys into their murders. Can you really tell the "good guys" from the "bad guys" from these religious fanatics?

Hey, I didn't make it up. The Syrian foreign minister stated it in an interview. Perhaps that's an indication that you are the one who spouts nonsense.

[arete]

Bush doctrine: Either you're with us or you're with the terrorists. We will make no distinction between the terrorists and those who give them aid and shelter.

Obviously, that doesn't apply to the Bush family friends the Saudis. As soon as someone tells me how so many can make that smelly inconsistency look good, then there is no "Bush doctrine" -- unless you exclude all those with business and family ties to the Bush family and then I guess you get some sort of terrorist dispensation. Must be in the fine print.

Richard W.

[cyncooper]

President Bush is not some hysterical fool who needs to shout anything. The facts are there and become clear as time goes on.

For example, this week he said we had no evidence that Saddam was directly involved in 9/11. But, he affirmed the al Qaeda/Saddam connection.

What then happened is the media who has tried (only lately) to deny those two would associate, started acknowledging that as a fact.

No shouting, just laying out the facts as we get them.

[Austin Willard Wright]

I apprecriate the correction. I have heard of this but am skeptical. If there was something "there" Dubya is a fool for not shouting it from the rooftops. We shall see...but then I am old enough to remeber all the wishful thinking about finding WMD's throughout Iraq, the Atta theories, Rice's spectre of looming mushroom clouds, Cheney's claim that Iraq could "finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon," etc.

[Peach]

Associated Press Worldstream
Feb. 14, 1999


Taliban leader says whereabouts of bin Laden unknown


... Analysts say bin Laden's options for asylum are limited.


Iraq was considered a possible destination because bin Laden had received an invitation from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein last month. And Somalia was a third possible destination because of its anarchy and violent anti-U.S. history ....

San Jose Mercury News
SUNDAY MORNING FINAL EDITION
Feb. 14, 1999


U.S. WORRIED ABOUT IRAQI, BIN LADEN TIES TERRORIST COULD GAIN EVEN DEADLIER WEAPONS

U.S. intelligence officials are worried that a burgeoning alliance between terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could make the fugitive Saudi's loose-knit organization much more dangerous ...

In addition, the officials said, Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal is now in Iraq, as is a renowned Palestinian bomb designer, and both could make their expertise available to bin Laden.

"It's clear the Iraqis would like to have bin Laden in Iraq," said Vincent Cannistraro, a former head of counterterrorism operations at the Central Intelligence Agency ...

Saddam has even offered asylum to bin Laden, who has expressed support for Iraq.

... [in] late December, when bin Laden met a senior Iraqi intelligence official near Qandahar, Afghanistan, there has been increasing evidence that bin Laden and Iraq may have begun cooperating in planning attacks against American and British targets around the world.

Bin Laden, who strikes in the name of Islam, and Saddam, one of the most secular rulers in the Arab world, have little in common except their hatred of the United States ...

More worrisome, the American officials said, are indications that there may be contacts between bin Laden's organization and Iraq's Special Security Organization (SSO), run by Saddam's son Qusay. Both the SSO and the Mukhabarat were involved in a failed 1993 plot to assassinate former President George Bush ...

"The idea that the same people who are hiding Saddam's biological weapons may be meeting with Osama bin Laden is not a happy one," said one American official....


Beacon Journal wire services
Oct. 31, 1999
BIN LADEN SPOTTED AFTER OFFER TO LEAVE


DATELINE: JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN:


... The Taliban has since made it known through official channels that the likely destination is Iraq.

A Clinton administration official said bin Laden's request "falls far short" of the UN resolution that the Taliban deliver him for trial. ...


The Kansas City Star
March 2, 1999


International terrorism, a conflict without boundaries


By Rich Hood


... He [bin Laden] has a private fortune ranging from $250 million to $500 million and is said to be cultivating a new alliance with Iraq's Saddam Hussein, who has biological and chemical weapons bin Laden would not hesitate to use. An alliance between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein could be deadly. Both men are united in their hatred for the United States and any country friendly to the United States. ...

United Press International
Nov. 3, 1999, Wednesday, BC cycle.


WASHINGTON – The U.S. government has tried to prevent accused terror suspect Osama bin Laden from fleeing Afghanistan to either Iraq or Chechnya, Michael Sheehan, head of counter-terrorism at the State Department, told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee. ...

U.S. Newswire
Dec. 23, 1999


Terrorism Expert Reveals Why Osama bin Laden has Declared War On America; Available for Comment in Light of Predicted Attacks.

... Aauthor Yossef] Bodansky also reveals the relationship between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and how the U.S. bombing of Iraq is "strengthening the hands of militant Islamists eager to translate their rage into violence and terrorism."

National Public Radio
MORNING EDITION (10:00 a.m.ET)
Feb. 18, 1999


THOUGH AFGHANISTAN HAS PROVIDED OSAMA BIN LADEN WITH SANCTUARY, IT IS UNCLEAR WHERE HE IS NOW. ANCHORS: BOB EDWARDS REPORTERS: MIKE SHUSTER

... There have also been reports in recent months that bin Laden might have been considering moving his operations to Iraq. Intelligence agencies in several nations are looking into that. According to Vincent Cannistraro, a former chief of CIA counterterrorism operations, a senior Iraqi intelligence official, Farouk Hijazi(ph), sought out bin Laden in December and invited him to come to Iraq.

Mr. VINCENT CANNISTRARO (Former Chief of CIA Counterterrorism Operations): Farouk Hijazi, who was the Iraqi ambassador in Turkey ... known through sources in Afghanistan, members of Osama's entourage let it be known that the meeting had taken place.

SHUSTER: Iraq's contacts with bin Laden go back some years, to at least 1994, when, according to one U.S. government source, Hijazi met him when bin Laden lived in Sudan. According to Cannistraro, Iraq invited bin Laden to live in Baghdad to be nearer to potential targets of terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. There is a wide gap between bin Laden's fundamentalism and Saddam Hussein's secular dictatorship. But some experts believe bin Laden might be tempted to live in Iraq because of his reported desire to obtain chemical or biological weapons. CIA director George Tenet referred to that in recent testimony. ...

Foreign news services also carried news of the now-supressed Saddam-bin Laden connection:

Agence France-Presse
Feb. 17, 1999


Saddam plans to use bin Laden against Kuwait, Saudi: opposition


Iraq's President Saddam Hussein plans to use alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden's network to carry out his threats against Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, an Iraqi opposition figure charged on Wednesday.

"If the ... Jaber, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), said Iraq had "offered to shelter bin Laden under the precondition that he carry out strikes on targets in neighbouring countries."

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Feb. 17, 1999, Wednesday, BC Cycle


Opposition group says bin Laden in Iraq


DATELINE: Kuwait City


An Iraqi opposition group claimed in a published report Wednesday that Islamic militant Osama bin Laden is in Iraq from where he plans to launch a campaign of terrorism against Baghdad's Gulf neighbours.

The claim was made by Bayan Jabor, spokesman for the Teheran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).

Bin Laden "recently settled in Iraq at the invitation of Saddam Hussein in exchange for directing strikes against targets in neighbouring countries," Jabor told the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai al- Aam ... Taleban leaders in Afghanistan, where he had been living, said they lost track of him. Media reports have speculated he sought refuge in Chechnya, Somalia, Iraq, or with a non-Taliban group in Afghanistan.

Jabor, who was interviewed in Damascus, Syria, said Iraq began extending invitations to bin Laden six months ago, shortly after the United States bombed his suspected terrorist training camps in Afghanistan after linking him with the August 7 bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and in Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania.

The United States indicted Bin Laden for the embassy bombings and has offered a five million dollar reward for information leading to his capture. Bin Laden's disappearance has coincided with stepped up threats by Iraq against neighbours Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey for allowing the United States and Britain to use their air bases to carry out air patrols over two "no-fly" zones over northern and southern Iraq. ...

[Austin Willard Wright]

Something has changed on Free Republic. There was a time when freepers distrusted big government/Wilsonian politicians. Now....they believe everything and anything uttered by these same politicians, that is if they are Republicans.

[mathluv]

It was on Fox, don't have link. W went on to say that Saddam had links to Al Q.

[woofie]

Yep

[cyncooper]

BTW, Cheney and Bush DID NOT say different things, with the exception that Cheney left the door open a little bit into the fact that "new information" is coming in every day and perhaps Iraq will be tied to 9/11 after all the facts are in. Bush said to date we have no seen information that Saddam was behind 9/11.

Exactly. I just switched off the easily duped Chris Matthews (he has an NBC network Sunday morning show) as he started off saying there was a contradiction or change in what President Bush said, VP Cheney said, and our original reason for going into Iraq. With that I CLICKED, because Matthews is not worth it.

[TheDon]

Agreed. Not too hard to understand.

[Peach]

Have to run for a day of football out of the house, but there are so many articles out there, in the UK, Australia, US, even France before 9/11, that link Saddam and OBL.

I believe the Salman Pak story...defectors even drew a map of the facility prior to the war and when the Marines got there, they found it exactly as the defectors had described. More info at:

Lawyer Mystified Over Failure to Invoke Iraq-WTC Link

While the Prague meeting has been refuted by some officials, people seem to forget that Farouk Hijazi, an Iraqi intelligence officer met with bin Laden in Kandahar in Dec 1998.

Also forgotten is that in 1998, two of bin Laden’s senior military commanders, Muhammad Abu-Islam and Abdullah Qassim, visited Baghdad for discussions with Qusay Hussein. This and info on other meetings can be found here.

Also in 1998, an Arab intelligence officer, who knows Saddam personally, predicted in Newsweek: "Very soon you will be witnessing large-scale terrorist activity run by the Iraqis." The Arab official said these terror operations would be run under "false flags" --spook-speak for front groups--including bin Laden's organization. This was reported by Laurie Mylorie.

Then there were the predictions by an Iraqi with ties to Iraqi intelligence, Naeem Abd Mulhalhal, in Qusay's own newspaper several weeks before the attacks that stated bin Laden would “demolish the Pentagon after he destroys the White House and ”bin Laden would strike America “on the arm that is already hurting.” (referencing a second IRAQI sponsored attack on the World Trade Center). Another reference to New York was “[bin Laden] will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra everytime he hears his songs.” (e.g., “New York, New York”) which identified New York, New York as a target. Mulhalhal also stated, “The wings of a dove and the bullet are all but one and the same in the heart of a believer." which references an airplane attack.

The Arabic language daily newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabic also cited the cooperation between Iraq, bin Laden and Al December 1998 editorial, which predicted that “President Saddam Hussein, whose country was subjected to a four day air strike, will look for support in taking revenge on the United States and Britain by cooperating with Saudi oppositionist Osama Bin-Laden, whom the United States considers to be the most wanted person in the world.” This info is in the link provided in the para above. How could these people have had foreknowledge without Iraq being involved?

And what about Ramzi Yousef (known to his associates as "Rashid the Iraqi.") and his uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed?

[Bernard Marx]

I've never heard the President say that Sadaam was directly involved. He has always stated that Sadaam was a threat to his own people and the region. By destabilizing the Middle East, he was a threat to us because there are terrorists in the Middle East who DO want to hurt us, and they were being supported, figuratively, if not literally, by Sadaam.

Exactly. The idea that we attacked Iraq because it was directly involved in 9-11 is entirely a media creation. I've watched this word-twisting evolve incrementally over the months and now it's being honed as an election catch-phrase. I'm surprised to find some Freepers have fallen for it.

[jwalsh07]

Something has changed on Free Republic.

Certainly, one of our former members was murdered on 9/11. Everything has changed since 9/11 and for the better. We have a POTUS who understands that the only way to defend against jihadists is to kill them.

There was a time when freepers distrusted big government/Wilsonian politicians. Now....they believe everything and anything uttered by these same politicians, that is if they are Republicans.

Hyperbolic nonsense.

[cyncooper]

Well, interesting point on Atta is that on MTP last Sunday VP Cheney brought up the Atta/Prague meeting. Evidently it has not been debunked.

[Peach]

Chris Matthew simply isn't worth the time these days, is he?

Some people here have an agenda and closed minds. They can't and haven't disputed the articles posted in the past to them. There's so much evidence of a connection and they can't degate it.

That tells me volumes. Malcontents.

[arete]

Save your spin for the sheep. It's the same old political flim falm by association. AQ attacked us on 9/11. AQ is a terrorist organization. Iraq is a terrorist state. Iraq is a threat to us cause we need to prevent another 9/11 type attack. You throw crap like that out there in the media a few hundred times using different administration lackeys and sources, and do a bunch of fear mongering and the average American sheeple out there will believe that attacking Iraq was justified. Not exactly any higher level thinking going on. Now that the original scam is starting to take on water as more people question it, the administration is playing duck and cover to make it all old news before next year.

Richard W.

[Austin Willard Wright]

I suspect you are a true believer in everything Dubya has done since 9-11 including the steel tariffs and the education bill, right? He knows best after all.

[alnick]

Could that mean "war" on us also? I refer to "patriot 1" and the coming "patriot 2".

Hysterics.

The threat against us is from radical muslim terrorism.

[alnick]

Could that mean "war" on us also? I refer to "patriot 1" and the coming "patriot 2".

Hysteria.

The threat against us is from radical muslim terrorism.

[jwalsh07]

I suspect you are a true believer in everything Dubya has done since 9-11 including the steel tariffs and the education bill, right? He knows best after all.

Wrong suspect AWW.

There are many issues where Dubya and I get crosswise of each other but I don't let them affect my judgement on his handling of the war on jihadists. You do.

As to who knows best concerning the war on the jihadists, it sure the hell ain't you.