So, say you\’re the Bush administration. If you\’ve invaded a country and launched an occupation that\’s cost thousands of American lives, untold Iraqi lives, and shattered others, and left some damaged beyond repair, what do you do if — after pouring over 600,000 documents — you get a report saying there were no ties between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda? One (more) of your reasons for going to war didn\’t exist? If you\’re the Bush administration, you just \”lose\” the report.
The Pentagon on Wednesday canceled plans for broad public release of a study that found no pre-Iraq war link between late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the al Qaida terrorist network.
Rather than posting the report online and making officials available to discuss it, as had been planned, the U.S. Joint Forces Command said it would mail copies of the document to reporters — if they asked for it. The report won\’t be posted on the Internet.
In making their case for invading Iraq in 2002 and 2003, President Bush and his top national security aides claimed that Saddam\’s regime had ties to Osama bin Laden\’s al Qaida terrorist network.
But the study, based on more than 600,000 captured documents, including audio and video files, found that while Saddam sponsored terrorism, particularly against opponents of his regime and against Israel, there was no evidence of an al Qaida link.
It\’s a \”no brainer\”. Right?
Leave a Reply