BUSH LIED; pt1/5 "Those NO TIES Lies"

Those "No Ties" Lies: A Five Part Series - Part 1
Bush Lied
Government Scott Malensek
September 25, 2006

How many times have we heard members of the media say, “We know now that there were no ties between Saddam and Al Qaeda”? Typically, people make this claim based on any combination of four sources: President Bush’s 9/17/03 statement, Sec. Powell’s 1/8/04 statement, the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report of 7/22/04 or the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s (SSCI) report on Pre-war Iraq intelligence reports: 7/7/04. Yet, in each of these cases, the very quotations that opponents of the war in Iraq point towards as definitive claims of “no ties” are only half quotes. When they refer to President Bush’s comments about Iraq not being part of 9/11, Colin Powell’s statement that he saw no evidence of collaboration, the 9/11 Commission saying no evidence of collaborative ties or the SSCI report of “no evidence of ties”…all of those comments are only half quoted.

For example, opponents of the war will tell us that Pres Bush constantly tied 9/11 to the war in Iraq and effectively tricked the world into believing the two were related by often using the two subjects in subsequent sentences or paragraphs or at least in the same speech. Then they’ll turn right around and point to a single quote from President Bush as evidence that the Bush Administration knew Saddam wasn’t involved in 9/11.

“We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11th. There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties.” – Pres. Bush 9/17/03

Normally these words would seem to contradict the argument that President Bush was claiming Iraq attacked the US on 9/11 and “There’s no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties” would seem to contradict the claim that there were no ties.

It happens again with former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Opponents of the war often point to an impromptu press conference Sec. Powell where he says, “I have not seen a smoking gun, concrete evidence about the connection,” but that’s where an opponent will deliberately try and mislead by only providing half of Sec. Powell’s comments. Back on planet Earth, Sec. Powell’s full comments can be examined and rather than being a voice of dissent to the idea of Saddam’s ties to al Qaeda, he explains that the idea of such ties…was not some sort of neocon fiction. He says it was a prudent assessment instead.

"I have not seen smoking gun, concrete evidence about the connection, but I think the possibility of such connections did exist, and it was prudent to consider them at the time that we did." [emphasis added] – Sec. Powell 1/8/04

The CIA’s report, “Iraqi Ties to Terrorism” says:

“The CIA assessed that: Regarding the Iraq-al-Qaida relationship, reporting from sources of varying reliability points to a number of contacts, incidents of training, and discussions of Iraqi safe haven for Usama bin Laden and his organization dating from the early 1990's. Iraq's interaction with al-Qaida is impelled by mutual antipathy toward the United States and the Saudi royal family and by bin Ladin's interest in unconventional weapons and relocation sites. The relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida appears to more closely resemble that of two independent actors trying to exploit each other - their mutual suspicion suborned by al-Qaida's interest in Iraqi assistance, and Baghdad's interest in al-Qaida's anti-U.S. attacks. The Intelligence Community has no credible information that Baghdad had foreknowledge of the 11 September attacks or any other al-Qaida strike, but continues to pursue all leads.”

From the 2004 Phase I report:

“Due to the limited amount and questionable quality of reporting on the leadership intentions of Saddam Hussein and Usama bin Ladin, the CIA was unable to make conclusive assessments in "Iraqi Support for Terrorism" regarding Iraq's relationship with al-Qaida. The CIA stated in the Scope Note: Our knowledge of Iraq's ties to terrorism is evolving...This paper's conclusions-especially regarding the difficult and elusive question of the exact nature of Iraq's relations with al-Qaida-are based on currently available information that is at times contradictory and derived from sources with varying degrees of reliability...While our understanding of Iraq’s overall connections to al-Qaida has grown considerably, our appreciation of these links is still emerging.”…

Section 13 of the Senate Intelligence Committee report, titled Intelligence Community Collection Activities Against Iraq's links to Terrorism, points out the problem with stating categorically if there were ties or no ties between Saddam’s regime and Al Qaeda:

“Notwithstanding four decades of intelligence reporting, IC officials and analysts expressed frustration over the lack of useful intelligence collected on Iraq’s involvement in terrorism, particularly on links to al-Qaida. A January 2003 IC assessment of Iraqi support for terrorism explained, "Our knowledge of Iraq’s ties to terrorism is evolving and (REDACTED)".

Based on information provided to Committee staff, these gaps had three main causes:

1. a late start collecting against the target,

2. the lack of a U.S. presence in Iraq, and

3. reliance on foreign government services, opposition groups and defectors for current intelligence.” [emphasis added]

When the 9/11 Commission and Senate Intelligence Committee both said there was a lack of evidence, they BOTH continued on to say that the reason for the lack of evidence was a lack of intelligence reporting (evidence gathering) from 98-01. In fact, we know from both that monitoring of AQ prior to 9/11 never numbered more than 40 people and averaged only 4! As bad is the comment from the Senate Intelligence Committee that after 98 there were ZERO human intelligence assets reporting on Iraq. No one collecting evidence equals no evidence.

However, both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the 9/11 Commission specifically said that the lack of evidence means that the issue should remain OPEN-not closed and that it was not the final word, and since then several 9/11 Commission members and Senate as well as House members have said that new evidence should be re-examined as the depth of the relationship is now showing itself to have been more than just tacit ties.

Now we have the Phase II report. It’s the report that all the mass media, Democrats and opponents of the war (both non-violent protesters and violent insurgents) point towards as the final word on Saddam’s Ties to Al Qaeda. They say this report closes the door and says there were never any ties between the two. That’s not an accurate representation of the report or of history. Testimony from detainees who are known to be lying, proven to be lying by their past deeds and words and who are under duress to both please their interrogators AND protect their lives by protecting their images of innocence are simply nowhere near as reliable as the report suggests. Whether it’s a prison in the United States or a prison in Iraq, they’re always filled with people convicted of crimes or on trial for crimes, and nearly all proclaim their innocence. Couple that gross over-reliance on FBI detainee interrogations as well as the millions of captured documents (82% of which are still awaiting translation), and finally a re-examination of open source reports of regime ties to Al Qaeda all combine to make the conclusions temporary and incomplete.

Can one imagine turning in a report to a professor or supervisor that was based on nothing but known liars in positions where they were most inclined to lie? What if the report was based on only 18% of the records having been reviewed and all past history ignored? Would that report be accepted? Well the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence works for the American people-for you and me. We are their supervisors. We are the ones getting the incomplete report. It is unacceptable.

It’s understandable. The “Additional Comments” explains why the report took so long and why it’s so clearly a manipulation of the truth aimed at compromised closure rather than completion:

“Simply stated, this second series of reports is designed to point fingers in Washington and at the Administration. The conclusions in the reports were crafted with more partisan bias than we have witnessed in a long time in Congress. The “Phase II” investigation has turned the Senate Intelligence Committee, a committee initially designed to be the most bipartisan committee in the Senate, into a political playground stripped of its bipartisan power, and this fact has not gone unnoticed in the Intelligence Community.” pg146

UNACCEPTABLE: 18% of the docs reviewed equates to a conclusion?

UNACCEPTABLE: based on interrogations of detainees by FBI?

UNACCEPTABLE: based on the word of Saddam, Aziz, al Tikriti, and Hijazi

This phase II report is more of a compromise to get it off the table before the midterms. Democrats wanted it out so they can scream no ties to the people who won't take the time to read it. Republicans want it out so they don't have to hear the rhetoric about them blocking it anymore. Nope. Don't accept the headlines. Read the report, do some research, and the ties are very clear.

Related Reading:

Independent Rebuttal Report Regarding The Select Committee on Intelligence
on Postwar Findings About Iraq's WMD Programs and Links to Terrorism and How They Compare with Prewar Assessments

US Senate Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence on Postwar Findings About Iraq's WMD Programs
and Links to Terrorism and How They Compare with Prewar Assessments

US Senate Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence on the
Use by the Intelligence Community of Information Provided by the Iraqi National Congress

Scott Malensek is the author of: Black Rain For Christmas, The Secret War in South Asia, Sixth Fleet Under: Aircraft Carrier Combat in The Eastern Mediterranean, The X-MAS War, The Weekend Warriors, and 50+ Ways to Play With Your Paintballs. He's also written several books on the Global War on Terror and Iraq under the pen name, Sam Pender. These books include: Iraq's Smoking Gun, The Ignored War, America's War With Saddam, How Did It Come To This?, and Saddam's Ties to Al Qaeda.

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