911 Commission: “No al Qaeda, Iraq cooperation.”

The panel said it found "no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States."

The report contradicts statements from the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda.

In response, a senior administration official traveling with President Bush in Tampa, Florida, said, "We stand by what Powell and Tenet have said," referring to previous statements by Secretary of State Colin Powell and CIA Director George Tenet that described such links.

In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations that Iraq was harboring Zarqawi, a "collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda lieutenants," and he said Iraq's denials of ties to al Qaeda "are simply not credible."

In September, Cheney said Iraq had been "the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11."

Bush, responding to criticism of Cheney's comment, said there was no evidence Saddam's government was linked to the September 11 attacks.

(WTF)
Just this week Bush and Cheney have made comments alleging ties between al Qaeda and Iraq. (Full story http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/15/bush.alqaeda/index.html )

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry said, "the administration misled America." The administration reached too far, he told Detroit radio station WDET. "They did not tell the truth to Americans about what was happening or their own intentions."

The commission's report says bin Laden "explored possible cooperation with Iraq during his time in Sudan, despite his opposition to [Saddam] Hussein's secular regime. Bin Laden had in fact at one time sponsored anti-Saddam Islamists in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"The Sudanese, to protect their own ties with Iraq, reportedly persuaded bin Laden to cease this support and arranged for contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda."

A senior Iraqi intelligence officer reportedly made three visits to Sudan, finally meeting bin Laden in 1994.

Bin Laden is said to have requested space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded.

"There have been reports that contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda also occurred after bin Laden had returned to Afghanistan, but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship," the report said.

"Two senior bin Laden associates have adamantly denied" any relationship, the report said.

The panel also dismissed reports that Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Czech Republic on April 9, 2000. "We do not believe that such a meeting occurred."

The report also found that there was no "convincing evidence that any government financially supported al Qaeda before 9/11" other than the limited support provided by the Taliban when bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan.

The toppling of the Taliban regime "fundamentally changed" al Qaeda, leaving it decentralized and altering bin Laden's role.

Prior to the attacks, bin Laden approved all al Qaeda operations and often chose targets and the operatives himself, the report said.

"After al Qaeda lost Afghanistan after 9/11, it fundamentally changed. The organization is far more decentralized. Bin Laden's seclusion forced operational commanders and cell leaders to assume greater authority; they are now making the command decisions previously made by him," the report said.

But what about the little black book that said 'property of Saddam Hussein' they found buried next to the two canisters of Sarin gas? (which, of course, the proof of WMDs) Guess who's name was under 'O'.

Need I say more.

Need more reason to believe Iraq has Al-Qaida ties? Because Dick Cheney says so. (And he keeps saying so regardless what the so-called evidence tells us.)

I mean who could ask for more than the word of a trustworthy man like Cheney?

"The report contradicts statements from the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda."

The report does NO SUCH THING!!!
The report says Saddam had no part in 911. Bush and/or his admin NEVER said he did. What they said (and has been well documented) is that there was a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

But as usual the left wing media has taken it and twisted it just enough to build the perception that Bush told a lie. When in fact he never said that Iraq was involved in 911. The commission never said that Iraq had no ties to Al Qaeda.

This trap has worked on you. The commission DID not say that Iraq did not have ties with Al Qaeda. They said Iraq was not involved with 911.

Read the commission report, not just what is fed to you by the media.

U.S. intelligence officials have said al Qaeda had some links to Iraq dating back to the early 1990s, but the nature and extent of those contacts is a matter of dispute.

What exactly does the above statement mean? Maybe Saddam was on Bin Ladin's Christmas card list? And how can you reconcile that Saddam had nothing to do with 9-11 but had close ties to Al-Qaida? Wouldn't those be conflicting statements? You know, that whole guilt by association principle?

AND:

Bobcat writes: The report says Saddam had no part in 911. Bush and/or his admin NEVER said he did.

So when Cheney said this in September: ...Iraq had been "the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11,"

He meant something else?

The final words immerging from the 911 Commission, says that Ancient Greece may as well be just as responsible for 911, as anyone in the White House or Iraq can ever be, that Osama BinMissing and his two other “masterminds” are all that there ever was, behind the 911 plot.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/17/politics/17intel.html