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TechnoratiSaddam, Documents Indicate no Iraq-Qaeda Cooperation
WASHINGTON - Interrogations of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and documents seized after the 2003 US-led invasion confirmed that his regime had not been cooperating with Al-Qaeda, the Washington Post reported on its website Friday.The report contradicted a strong argument for the invasion made by the administration of President George W. Bush that Baghdad had a working relationship with Al-Qaeda, the Afghanistan-based group led by Osama bin Laden blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The Post reported that a newly released declassified Department of Defense report said information obtained after the fall of Saddam confirmed the prewar position of the US Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon intelligence that the Iraqi government had had no substantial contacts with Al-Qaeda.
This position was shored up by interrogations of Saddam and other top officials captured by the US-led coalition forces in Iraq, said report, obtained by the Post.
The report noted that the office of then-undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith, one of the foremost advocates for invading Iraq after the 2001 attacks, had ignored the CIA's position and characterized the Al-Qaeda-Iraq relationship as "mature" and "symbiotic" in a September 2002 briefing to the chief of staff of Vice President Dick Cheney.
The Feith briefing alleged that the two cooperated in 10 areas, including training, financing and logistics.
But the new report, the Post says, said the US intelligence community had concluded at the time that there were "no conclusive signs" of links between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, and that "direct cooperation ... has not been established" between the two.
Prior to the war there was little public dispute inside the United States over the Bush administration's linking Iraq and bin Laden's group.
But since the invasion, a number of intelligence officials have alleged that the White House and its backers ignored their intelligence and "cherry picked" information that supported their campaign to persuade Americans of the need to go to war.
In a radio interview Wednesday Cheney insisted on a prewar link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, saying that the group was working in Iraq "before we even arrived on the scene."
"As I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq," Cheney told conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh.
Copyright © 2007 AFP.
3 Comments so far
Show AllCheney, the Al-Qaeda omniscient, probably considers his own working relationship with that organization as the same working relationship with Saddam. Cheney is unwittingly exposing himself.
Although disputed, Cheney and Rumsfeld helped found Al-Qaeda while they forged their alliance during Ford's administration. Today, the Bush administration continues to secretly funnel US funds to violent Al-Qaeda groups, creating inter-sectarian violence in Iraq. The Bush/Cheney Iraq war, according to their "plan" (which never had anything to do with democracy) is successful. They have managed to carve Iraq into pieces so that it might no longer be a viable state.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chaired by Representative Henry Waxman supposedly is working toward verifying the countless impeachable crimes and felonies documented through the two terms of the Bush/Cheney occupation. Ironically Ramsey Clark has had the articles of impeachment and necessary investigations completed for quite some time. Oddly, the Democrats won't impeach.
Nancy Pelosi swore under oath to defend and uphold our Constitution. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution states "[t]he President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." Instead she makes it her priority to don a berka and go to Syria. Her diplomatic effort is admirable but her interests are not with the American people. Instead she is working on behalf of the Democratic elite toward reentrenchment and the expansion of power. Pelosi fails to recognize that America has become a rogue state. Her failure to support the impeachment of Bush/Cheney (and Rice) is simply immoral.
Section 603 of Jefferson's "Manual" cites as the first, No. 1 method of setting impeachment in motion "By charges made on the floor by a member of the House". Dennis Kukinich recently gave us this gift. Before she left office, Cynthia McKinney sponsored an impeachment resolution. Eight states -- Vermont, Washington, New Mexico, Missouri, California, Illinois, Minnesota, and Texas have submitted impeachment legislation but still nothing is done.
After the miraculous 2006 Democratic victory Conyers and Pelosi swiftly dismissed impeachment as a "waste of time". When the Speaker of the House fails to uphold her oath of office is the remedy impeachment as well? Should we consider removing Nancy Pelosi for her egregious failure to defend and uphold the Constitution? Is she complicit in the Bush/Cheney crimes and felonies as a result? Why wouldn't she be?
America is no different from WWII Germany. Our new Democratic Congress fails us miserably. The Democrats are ridiculously misguided thinking impeachment might cost them the White House in 2008. If they fail to impeach, 2008 will be another coup and the end of America once and for all. Nancy Pelosi won't be the only woman wearing a berka.
"Don't worry folks. If the 'surge' works, all lies will be forgiven." [/sarcasm]
That's just how the minds of these war mongers work. They are kind of like the arsonist who burns down your home with your family inside, and thinks that all things can be forgiven by simply rebuilding your home. The issue of accountability for the lost of American and Iraqi lives(remember them?) seems like such an astract concept with the media and our newly elected Congress that the war's main backers actually feel that they can pull this thing off smelling like a rose.
For those of us who opposed this war from the start, this "new" news is not a really surprising revelation, it's just another vindication for those of us who dared to venture through the onslaught of propaganda at the time. My only question would be is who had access to this information other than the neocons? It seems rather obvious that Bush-Rumsfeld's secretive Office of Special Plans operated on a separate plain from the CIA with its own agenda and shenanigans.
Holy God, Mary, and Jesus! If our elected officials ever showed the nerve to investigate some of the pre-war claims before congress we might finally have some accountability! [/sarcasam2]
What is lying to these people? They are taught from birth to call the truth a lie and the lies the truth. In their world, the facts are irrelevant, the idiology is what matters, make up the "facts" to match the agenda. And they are still calling the shots? If they aren't taken down, then the laws can be ignored - all of them.
Revolt, refuse to pay your taxes on 4/17. Enough of us do it, they'll understand we've awoken, and we're mad as hell.