Monday, November 21, 2005

What Did Congress Know, And When Did They Know It?

I do not know the political leanings, if any, of FactCheck.org, which is somehow related to the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. But this is what they have to say about the pre-war intelligence leading up to the Iraq War, as well as the "Bush lied" story.

Update: And here's what John Kerry said on March 20, 2003--from his own web site! Apparently he had been so thoroughly hoodwinked by Bush, Cheney, Rove, et. al., that he actually seemed coherent for a moment!

Thursday, March 20, 2003

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in response to the commencement of military strikes in Iraq:

“It appears that with the deadline for exile come and gone, Saddam Hussein has chosen to make military force the ultimate weapons inspections enforcement mechanism. If so, the only exit strategy is victory, this is our common mission and the world’s cause. We're in this together. We want to complete the mission while safeguarding our troops, avoiding innocent civilian casualties, disarming Saddam Hussein and engaging the community of nations to rebuild Iraq.”



But only for a moment.

Update #2: Victor Davis Hanson sets the left straight, again, on Saddam's links to international terror, on the pre-Bush bipartisan belief in his danger to peace, and on the results of removing him and the Taliban from power.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bush certainly committed a big lie of omission by sitting on the CIA's PDB about the distinct lack of a connection between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. Wait, I'm being too kind; their lies were quite boldfaced: they said there was a connection AFTER being briefed that there was NO connection. Here's the story (though by now, this kind of thing really isn't news)

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1122nj1.htm

Darren said...

No one except the left believes in this direct link between Saddam and the 9/11 hijackers. There's clear evidence he had contacts with al-Qaeda, however.

It would be nice if you lefties could try the truth every once in awhile. Your oft-repeated lies and conspiracy theories are old.

Darren said...

And from what I've read, the PDB's were more "hawkish" than the intelligence that Congress saw.

And what's that 'P' stand for in PDB, anyway? Odd, Congress doesn't begin with a 'P'.

Anonymous said...

"You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror," President Bush said on September 25, 2002.

The next day, Rumsfeld said, "We have what we consider to be credible evidence that Al Qaeda leaders have sought contacts with Iraq who could help them acquire … weapons-of-mass-destruction capabilities."

The most explosive of allegations came from Cheney, who said that September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta, the pilot of the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center, had met in Prague, in the Czech Republic, with a senior Iraqi intelligence agent, Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, five months before the attacks. On December 9, 2001, Cheney said on NBC's Meet the Press: "[I]t's pretty well confirmed that [Atta] did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in [the Czech Republic] last April, several months before the attack."

Cheney continued to make the charge, even after he was briefed, according to government records and officials, that both the CIA and the FBI discounted the possibility of such a meeting.

Anonymous said...

Darren said: "It would be nice if you lefties could try the truth every once in awhile."

Oh my, Darren; is this yet another example of your civilized ("don't disagree with me using strong tones or I'll delete your posts") tongue?

All that's LEFT is the truth, my friend; and the truth hurts, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

And what's that 'P' stand for in PDB, anyway? Odd, Congress doesn't begin with a 'P'.

W is out saying that Congress had the same intel that he (W) had. That's just not true now is it?

Maybe if you say it enough times... but that's how the right works (or tries to work, anyway).

Darren said...

In the quotes you mentioned above, I don't see where the President linked Saddam to the 9/11 attacks specifically. He did link Saddam to the War on Terror, a reasonable thing to do since he paid off Palestinian suicide bombers, harbored Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas, and had contacts with al-Qaeda.

You can try, Anonymous, but you're wrong. The facts don't support your claims.

Might I recommend re-reading my post on Bush Derangement Syndrome. The first step is to admit you have a problem, Anonymous :-)

Darren said...

How coincidental that Victor Davis Hanson just penned an article about the very same things I put in my last comment. I've included that article as Update #2.