Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AFP
Byline: n/a
Date: 10 September 2006
US officials today insisted Iraq had a relationship with the al-Qaeda terror
network despite acknowledging Saddam Hussein was not involved in the 9/11
attacks on US targets.
"We've never been able to confirm a connection between Iraq and 9/11,"
Vice-President Dick Cheney said on NBC, but insisted that a connection with
Al-Qaeda was "different issue".
"There are two totally different propositions here. People have consistently
tried to confuse them," he said, noting that al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi was in Iraq before the US invasion.
"Zarqawi was in Baghdad after we took Afghanistan and before we went into
Iraq. You had the poison facilities run by an affiliate of al-Qaeda ... This
was a state sponsor of terror. He had a relationship with terror groups, no
doubt about it," Mr Cheney said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice echoed that sentiment on Fox News
today, insisting al-Qaeda operatives were developing weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq.
"There were ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda," she said. "We know that Zarqawi
was running a poison network in Iraq."
Ms Rice stood by the claim today despite a February 2002 report from the
Defence Department's intelligence arm which was just released by a Senate
Committee and stated that Iraq was "unlikely to have provided Bin Laden any
useful (chemical or biological) knowledge or assistance".
"That particular report I don't remember seeing," Ms Rice said when asked if
she and Mr Bush had not ignored the assessment by the Defence Intelligence
Agency.
"There are conflicting intelligence reports all the time," she said.
"That's why we have an intelligence system that brings those together into a
unified assessment by the intelligence commit of what - community of what
we're looking at."
In the run-up to the September 11 anniversary, and with the unpopular war in
Iraq threatening to damage Mr Bush's Republican Party in upcoming
congressional elections, senior administration officials have been
repeatedly making the case the Iraq conflict is a central element of the war
on terrorism.
Ms Rice said the sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims which
is now plaguing Iraq was set off by al-Qaeda in order to prevent the
development of a stable, democratic regime in Baghdad.
"It would simply be wrong to say that the only problem in Iraq is sectarian
violence between Sunni and Shiite," she said.
"There is still a considerable problem of terrorism from extremists who
simply want to see Iraq be a part of a Middle East in which the Bin Ladens
of the world control," she said.
Byline: n/a
Date: 10 September 2006
US officials today insisted Iraq had a relationship with the al-Qaeda terror
network despite acknowledging Saddam Hussein was not involved in the 9/11
attacks on US targets.
"We've never been able to confirm a connection between Iraq and 9/11,"
Vice-President Dick Cheney said on NBC, but insisted that a connection with
Al-Qaeda was "different issue".
"There are two totally different propositions here. People have consistently
tried to confuse them," he said, noting that al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi was in Iraq before the US invasion.
"Zarqawi was in Baghdad after we took Afghanistan and before we went into
Iraq. You had the poison facilities run by an affiliate of al-Qaeda ... This
was a state sponsor of terror. He had a relationship with terror groups, no
doubt about it," Mr Cheney said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice echoed that sentiment on Fox News
today, insisting al-Qaeda operatives were developing weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq.
"There were ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda," she said. "We know that Zarqawi
was running a poison network in Iraq."
Ms Rice stood by the claim today despite a February 2002 report from the
Defence Department's intelligence arm which was just released by a Senate
Committee and stated that Iraq was "unlikely to have provided Bin Laden any
useful (chemical or biological) knowledge or assistance".
"That particular report I don't remember seeing," Ms Rice said when asked if
she and Mr Bush had not ignored the assessment by the Defence Intelligence
Agency.
"There are conflicting intelligence reports all the time," she said.
"That's why we have an intelligence system that brings those together into a
unified assessment by the intelligence commit of what - community of what
we're looking at."
In the run-up to the September 11 anniversary, and with the unpopular war in
Iraq threatening to damage Mr Bush's Republican Party in upcoming
congressional elections, senior administration officials have been
repeatedly making the case the Iraq conflict is a central element of the war
on terrorism.
Ms Rice said the sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims which
is now plaguing Iraq was set off by al-Qaeda in order to prevent the
development of a stable, democratic regime in Baghdad.
"It would simply be wrong to say that the only problem in Iraq is sectarian
violence between Sunni and Shiite," she said.
"There is still a considerable problem of terrorism from extremists who
simply want to see Iraq be a part of a Middle East in which the Bin Ladens
of the world control," she said.