|
Comment on this article |
View comments |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Iraq |
|
It's official: no Iraq tie to 9-11 |
Current rating: 0 |
by AP via gehrig
(No verified email address) |
16 Jun 2004
|
|
|
une 16, 2004
Sept. 11 Commission Report Says Iraq Rebuffed Al Qaeda
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:54 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bluntly contradicting the Bush administration, the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks reported Wednesday there was ``no credible evidence'' that Saddam Hussein had ties with al-Qaida.
In a chilling report that sketched the history of Osama bin Laden's network, the commission said his far-flung training camps were ``apparently quite good.'' Terrorists-to-be were encouraged to ``think creatively about ways to commit mass murder,'' it added.
As devastating as the Sept. 11 attacks were, the commission disclosed that an earlier, more ambitious plan called for hijacking 10 planes instead of four. The target list for such a strike ranged from coast to coast, including the CIA and FBI headquarters as well as unidentified nuclear plants, and tall buildings in California and Washington state.
Bin Laden made overtures to Saddam for assistance, the commission said, as he did with leaders in Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere as he sought to build an Islamic army.
While Saddam dispatched a senior Iraqi intelligence official to Sudan to meet with bin Laden in 1994, the commission said it had not turned up evidence of a ``collaborative relationship.''
The Bush administration has long claimed links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, and cited them as one reason for last year's invasion of Iraq.
On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech that the Iraqi dictator ``had long established ties with al-Qaida.''
President Bush has said there is no evidence that Saddam was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.
But critics have alleged the administration has left a contrary impression with the public. Last fall, Cheney referred to what he called a credible but unconfirmed intelligence report that Mohamed Atta, one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, had met at least once in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official a few months before the attacks.
The panel report said that meeting never happened. |
This work is in the public domain |
|
The Hypocrisy of the Right |
by Dose of Reality
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
16 Jun 2004
|
Hmmm... thanks for reminding us of the hard facts.
The right spends an enormous amount of time sniping at Michael Moore for what they claim are alleged "factual" errors in his films (see http://www.ucimc.org/newswire/display/18386/index.php and some of the hidden comments to it, at least the ones that even make an attempt to stay on topic in that thread.)
You would think that the right would be significantly more concerned about the factually challenged president and his regime who makes war on what he has _made up_ to justify it.
But Noooooooo... the right is far more worried about Michael Moore, who actually seems to get HIS facts right most of the time. |
