Russert Fib: 'No One' Believes Iraq Link to 9/11

NewsMax.com ^ | 9/08/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert is claiming that "no one" believes Iraq played a role in the 9/11 attacks - a contention that should come as quite a surprise to Manhattan U.S. District Judge Harold Baer.

"No one will say there was a direct involvement of Saddam Hussein in Sept. 11," Russert told radio host Don Imus on Monday. "There's no direct link that can be substantiated."

Instead, said the "Meet the Press" host, the Bush White House is misleading the American public by insinuating that ties between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 exist. "It is in the president's interest for people to perceive Iraq as a central or vital part of the war on terror," he insisted.

In fact, when he claims that "no one" believes in an Iraq-9/11 link, it's Russert who's doing the misleading.

In a May 7 ruling on a lawsuit bought against Iraq by the families of 9/11 victims George Eric Smith and Timothy Soulas, Manhattan U.S. District Judge Harold Baer ruled there was proof Baghdad played a role in facilitating the attacks.

As the New York Law Journal reported a few days later, Baer wrote in his opinion that the testimony of witnesses like former CIA Director James Woolsey and terrorism expert Laurie Mylroie was "sufficient to meet plaintiffs' burden that Iraq collaborated in or supported bin Laden/al Qaeda's terrorist acts of September 11."

Key among the evidence introduced by Woolsey and Mylroie was the Baghdad terrorist camp Salman Pak, where radical Islamists were trained to hijack U.S. airliners using techniques employed on 9/11.

In his decision Baer wrote:

"Director Woolsey described the existence of a highly secure military facility in Iraq where non-Iraqi fundamentalists [e.g., Egyptians and Saudis] are trained in airplane hijacking and other forms of terrorism. Through satellite imagery and the testimony of three Iraqi defectors, plaintiffs demonstrated the existence of this facility, called Salman Pak, which has an airplane but no runway."

Judge Baer continued:

"The defectors also stated that these fundamentalists were taught methods of hijacking using utensils or short knives. Plaintiffs contend it is farfetched to believe that Iraqi agents trained fundamentalists in a top-secret facility for any purpose other than to promote terrorism."

While Judge Baer said the evidence of an Iraq-9/11 link was largely circumstantial and "just barely" met the required burden of proof, he awarded the claimants $104 million.

NBC News, along with most of the rest of the mainstream press, declined to cover Judge Baer's decision.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Media Bias

[Peach]

A couple of polls published on FR show that over 70% of Americans believe there is a link between AQ and Iraq.

[oceanview]

I believe it, so does Laurie Mylorie and anyone who had read her book and seen her inteviews on Fox with John Gibson.

Saddam was also behind the 93 WTC attack, and provided the anthrax too.

[Diogenesis]

Couric, also representing NBC:
"We (at NBC) all hope and pray that Saddam escaped harm, and hopefully fled to Syria."

[theDentist]

None so blind....

[anniegetyourgun]

Nope, no connection at all.

Russert is an ignorant ninny.

[Diddle E. Squat]

"No one believes that there is a connection between Iraq and 9/11" is a phrase that appears to be a Democrat talking point. ABC radio's news 'analysis' after the President's speech led off with a supposed 'independent' 'expert' who several times trumpeted pretty much that exact phrase.

I posted a thread about it last night, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/977849/posts

[Timesink]

The Essential Katie Couric Collection:

• hose
• camera
• laughing gas
• KY jelly

[Timesink]

This is the nascent Mainstream Media Shenanigans ping list. Please freepmail me to be added or dropped.
Please note this will likely become a high-volume list.
Also feel free to ping me if you come across a thread you would think worthy of the ping list. I can't catch them all!

[Doctor Stochastic]

My Middle Eastern correspondents all (at least since 9-12) have said that Saddam was responsible. (They also complained about Saddam, the Taliban, and Al-Qaeda long before these raised a blip on the Clinton radar screen.) Of course, they all also believe that LBJ had JFK killed. (Cui Bono as the say in Latin.)

[JohnGalt]

Talk about misleading, I believe the poll you are thinking of showed 70% of Americans believed Saddam had something to do with 9/11 when no such link has been established.


But I guess if you believe 'truth' is established by polls, you really nailed Russert on this one.

[JohnGalt]

Some people will believe anything.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Russert's in love with his own voice.

[oceanview]

ok, where did the anthrax come from?

[Dave S]

There is a difference between having connections and Iraq being involved in 9/11, a big difference. Might Saddam have known that something big was going to happen? Probably. Did he pay for or help it come to pass, I dont think anyone has any evidence of that. It's more a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. He provided training in WMD's to Al Qaeda and allowed their leadership to use their hospitals. Beyond that, everything else is speculation.

[vin-one]

count me in as a believer that Iraq was involved.
and what about the high ranking Iraqi offical meeting with the 20th highjacker, or someone along those lines.

[MoJoWork_n]

"...nailed Russert on this one."

Well, with one small caveat. The phenomenal ignorance of most Americans when it comes to geography apparently extends to judges. That notorious Iraqi Al-Qaida camp, as it happened, was way north of the "no-fly zone", in Kurdish territory. A place that much more closely resembled "no man's land" than it did the rest of Iraq.

The U.N. administered all of the "oil-for-food" money in that part of the country, not Saddam's evil Baghdad regime. As a result, the infant mortality rate, and most other indices of public health, were distinctly above the level of the rest of Iraq. The civil authorities were Kurdish. Baathist secret police, Republic Guard armored divisions, etc., were noticable by their absence, not for the extent of their influence.

[chudogg]

Mohammed Atta, who is believed to be the ring leader of 9/11, met with Iraqi diplomats in Praque

[Peach]

Well aren't you silly. I'm assuming those 70% of Americans who believed Iraq and AQ were behind the 9/11 attacks have read the same articles I've read.

You know - books written about the subject, articles written, PBS specials, etc. I have links if you'd like them.

Also, you perhaps didn't know, but in 1998 Newsweek exposed the links between AQ and Iraq and posed questions as to why the government wasn't doing anything about the risks involved with that alliance.

Time magazine also did a similar investigative report in 1999.

So you see, rather than be sarcastic, it is ASSUMED that Americans have actually read more about the subject than you appear to have read.

[JohnGalt]

If you are privy to evidence that Saddam was responsible for the anthrax attacks, please get it to the FBI ASAP.


In the meantime, try to at least play the part of an independent thinking citizen.