Corn on Bush on Zarqawi
Daviid Corn does a good job on the way Bush has reacted to the 9/11 commission’s conclusions on the (non-)link between Hussein and al Qaeda: Bush sticks to misrepresentations on the al Qaeda link. From Corn’s conclusion:
At this point, if Bush–who keeps mischaracterizing the Zarqawi connection–wants anyone to believe him rather than the 9/11 commission, he better present hard and clear evidence. All that he offers is assertions and misrepresentations. No wonder he initially opposed the creation of the 9/11 commission. It can be awfully irritating to be confronted with a factual record and reasonable analysis.
June 21st, 2004 at 11:29 am
UPI ran an interesting item regarding this on June 20:
“WASHINGTON, June 20 (UPI) — The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks has received new information indicating that a senior officer in an elite unit of the security services of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein may have been a member of al-Qaida involved in the planning of the suicide hijackings, panel members said Sunday.
John F. Lehman, a Reagan-era GOP defense official told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that documents captured in Iraq “indicate that there is at least one officer of Saddam’s Fedayeen, a lieutenant colonel, who was a very prominent member of al Qaida.”
The lieutenant colonel, Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, has the same name as an Iraqi thought to have attended a planning meeting for the Sept. 11 attacks in January 2000, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The meeting was also attended by two of the hijackers, Khalid al Midhar and Nawaf al Hamzi and senior al-Qaida leaders.
Lehman said that commission staff members continued to work on the issue and experts cautioned that the connection might be nothing more than coincidence.”
June 21st, 2004 at 11:57 am
I saw that, but given the track record the Bush supporters have of making loud announcements about possible smoking guns tying Saddam to WMD and al Qaeda, with those always turning out to be bogus later on when the initial media flurry on Fox News has died down, I’m going to retain my skepticism on this until it’s sourced a little more thoroughly.
June 21st, 2004 at 4:49 pm
Yet you don’t retain your initial commentary. Hrmmm…
June 21st, 2004 at 5:00 pm
I have no idea what you’re trying to say, Former Fan.
June 21st, 2004 at 6:08 pm
I won’t even bother trying to explain. All you’ll do is dismiss it rather than discuss it. Just as you’ve done before, Mr. Bushender.