[tw]

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
If anyone made a 9-11/ Iraq connection I must have dismissed it subconsciously, knowing it was farfetched. I heard a lot of other reasons but not that one.

edit-I should clarify that I’ve heard the accusation that W made that connection. Shit TW was saying that before the hostilities actually started. But I never heard anyone in the administration make that claim.

Cheney hints Iraq campaign's cost will grow on 14 Sept 2003
On other topics, Cheney:
Said "I don't know" whether Saddam was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks but asserted a relationship between Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist network that "stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s." That collaboration, he said, involved training of al-Qaeda personnel in Baghdad in chemical and biological weapons and the provision of bomb-making expertise to the terrorist network by the Iraqis. In addition, one of the bombers of the 1993 World Trade Center attack probably received financing and shelter from the Iraqi government, Cheney said.

9/11 panel sees no link between Iraq, al-Qaida
The panel's findings were released two days after Vice President Dick Cheney asserted that Saddam had "long-established ties" with al-Qaida.

Bush: No Saddam Links To 9/11 on 18 Sep; 2003
Yet, a new poll found that nearly 70 percent of respondents believed the Iraqi leader probably was personally involved. ...

Critics have said the administration has tried to create the impression of Saddam's involvement in the attacks, without directly making such a claim, in order to boost public support for the war against Iraq.

Hussein Link to 9/11 Lingers in Many Minds on 6 Sept 2003
Bush's opponents say he encouraged this misconception by linking al Qaeda to Hussein in almost every speech on Iraq. Indeed, administration officials began to hint about a Sept. 11-Hussein link soon after the attacks. In late 2001, Vice President Cheney said it was "pretty well confirmed" that attack mastermind Mohamed Atta met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official.

Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," Cheney was referring to a meeting that Czech officials said took place in Prague in April 2000. That allegation was the most direct connection between Iraq and the Sept. 11 attacks. But this summer's congressional report on the attacks states, "The CIA has been unable to establish that [Atta] left the United States or entered Europe in April under his true name or any known alias."

Bush, in his speeches, did not say directly that Hussein was culpable in the Sept. 11 attacks. But he frequently juxtaposed Iraq and al Qaeda in ways that hinted at a link. In a March speech about Iraq's "weapons of terror," Bush said: "If the world fails to confront the threat posed by the Iraqi regime, refusing to use force, even as a last resort, free nations would assume immense and unacceptable risks. The attacks of September the 11th, 2001, showed what the enemies of America did with four airplanes. We will not wait to see what terrorists or terrorist states could do with weapons of mass destruction."

Then, in declaring the end of major combat in Iraq on May 1, Bush linked Iraq and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 -- and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men -- the shock troops of a hateful ideology -- gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions."

Moments later, Bush added: "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more. In these 19 months that changed the world, our actions have been focused and deliberate and proportionate to the offense. We have not forgotten the victims of September the 11th -- the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got."

A number of nongovernment officials close to the Bush administration have made the link more directly. Richard N. Perle, who until recently was chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, long argued that there was Iraqi involvement, calling the evidence "overwhelming."

Some Democrats said that although Bush did not make the direct link to the 2001 attacks, his implications helped to turn the public fury over Sept. 11 into support for war against Iraq. "You couldn't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein," said Democratic tactician Donna Brazile. "Every member of the administration did the drumbeat. My mother said if you repeat a lie long enough, it becomes a gospel truth. This one became a gospel hit."

So is Iraq a war on terrorists? Terror is bin Landen and Al Qaeda. Iraq is not about terror - unless they too were guilty of the WTC attacks.

No, the George Jr administration did not say directly that Saddam attacked the WTC. The administration and its outside spokesman said everything they could to make Americans believe that connection. So yes, 70% of Americans believe (with the help of talk radio) that Saddam attacked the WTC. The administration did nothing to correct or dispute that widely promoted myth; and openly added more fuel to encourage the myth. Their obvious and intentional objective - to get Americans to believe Saddam attacked the WTC. They were successful. 70% foolishly believed Saddam conspired to attack the WTC. Foolish because George Jr will not even directly admit to that myth.