Manipulating the Truth; Bush Continues to Twist History in Order to Win Votes
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Summary
A brief statement from the bipartisan commission investigating the 9/11 attacks on the US revealed that they had found no "credible evidence" that Iraq helped al Qaeda carry them out. This comes as little surprise in the UK. Though Tony Blair has referred to "definite links" between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, it did not form part of the British justification for war. The February dossier played down any liaison because British intelligence could not find one. Contacts "had foundered due to mistrust and incompatible ideology", it stated, adding that bin Laden had dismissed Hussein's ruling Ba'athist party as "an apostate regime".
Why has it taken so long to concede this truth in the US where citizens have been given the firm impression that Saddam and bin Laden were thick as thieves? As recently as Monday, Dick Cheney, the vice-president, asserted that the former dictator has "long- established ties" with the terrorist network. The answer must be that in the aftermath of 9/11, American neo-conservatives and hawks within the CIA were not prepared to let the truth get in the way of a good justification for war. That is why the Islamic extremist group, Ansar al-Islam, was portrayed as the Iraqi al Qaeda. That is why a secret meeting is supposed to have taken place between 9/11 terrorist Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence agency in Prague. Both claims were soon discredited by reliable intelligence sources but, along with Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, remained embedded in the mythologised intelligence used to justify a pre- emptive strike against Saddam Hussein in the name of keeping Americans safe. Bush officials may have stopped short of claiming direct Iraqi involvement in the September 11 attacks but managed to leave that impression in American minds.See the full content of this document
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Manipulating the Truth; Bush Continues to Twist History in Order to Win Votes
Yesterday's statement from the 9/11 commission coincides with another from ...
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