All I know is that our troops found the mural in Iraq and they were photographed standing by it. Other than a couple of places on the internet, I have yet to see it reproduced anywhere else. Sad.
Posted on 06/15/2004 7:06:53 AM PDT by areafiftyone
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that Saddam Hussein had "long-established ties" with al Qaida, an assertion that has been repeatedly challenged by some policy experts and lawmakers.
The vice president offered no details backing up his claim of a link between Saddam and al Qaida.
"He was a patron of terrorism," Cheney said of Hussein during a speech before The James Madison Institute, a conservative think-tank based in Florida. "He had long established ties with al Qaida."
In making the case for war in Iraq, Bush administration officials frequently cited what they said were Saddam's decade-long contacts with al-Qaida operatives. They stopped short of claiming that Iraq was directly involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, but critics say Bush officials left that impression with the American public.
Cheney listed what he described as the accomplishments of the Bush administration in the war on terror, including fledgling democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the decision by Libya's leader, Moammar Gadhafi, to abandon his nuclear ambitions.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., countered that the Bush administration had "a sorry record in the war on terror." Graham, former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, spoke Sunday in a conference call arranged by John Kerry's presidential campaign in anticipation of Cheney's speech.
The State Department said last week it was wrong in stating that terrorism declined worldwide last year in a report that the Bush administration initially cited as evidence it was succeeding against terrorism, Graham noted. Both the number of incidents and the toll in victims increased sharply, the department acknowledged.
I love google...........
Since the Dims are so good at repeating lies until they become the defacto "truth", maybe we can get the same believablity by repeating the truth often enough...
Yes!
And, in the late 90's, the Clinton administration talked openly about the fact that Osama bin Laden agreed not to attack Iraq in exchange for WMD training.
I have this feeling that Bush is holding something back...to drop on the Dems. While many of us no about some of Saddam's ties to terrorism, I think (hope) the administration is helping the Iraqis put together an indictment of Saddam that will include many of these charges...including alot more.
All I know is that our troops found the mural in Iraq and they were photographed standing by it. Other than a couple of places on the internet, I have yet to see it reproduced anywhere else. Sad.
This has got to be the most disgusting (and dangerous) example of media bias I've ever seen. These were people who were making these very connections long before Bush became president. It's bad enough that they've buried their own news stories and sources...but what's worse, is that they are accusing Bush of something that so many of them really believed.
This was an EXCELLENT speech by Cheney. I sent it to my mom, who is teetering towards her first ever GOP vote.
Dick seems to be trolling for RATS.
I know it.
It's so bad, I've done something I've never done before and written the president and his entire administration.
Why they aren't out there talking about these things is beyond me. With the exception of Cheney, of course.
Bill Crystal was just on FNC saying the same thing; the administration would see support for the war increase tenfold if they would talk about these ties at press conferences and REFERENCE the articles in the 90's.
What can we do to get this story out there more and encourage the administration to discuss this?
bbl
Saddam link to Bin Laden
Terror chief 'offered asylum' in Iraq? US says dealings step up danger of chemical weapons attacks
By Julian Borger in Washington
==> Saturday February 6, 1999
The Guardian
Saddam Hussein's regime has opened talks with Osama bin Laden, bringing closer the threat of a terrorist attack using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, according to US intelligence sources and Iraqi opposition officials.
The key meeting took place in the Afghan mountains near Kandahar in late December. The Iraqi delegation was led by Farouk Hijazi, Baghdad's ambassador in Turkey and one of Saddam's most powerful secret policemen, who is thought to have offered Bin Laden asylum in Iraq.
The Saudi-born fundamentalist's response is unknown. He is thought to have rejected earlier Iraqi advances, disapproving of the Saddam Hussein's secular Baathist regime. But analysts believe that Bin Laden's bolthole in Afghanistan, where he has lived for the past three years, is now in doubt as a result of increasing US and Saudi government pressure.
News of the negotiations emerged in a week when the US attorney general, Janet Reno, warned the Senate that a terrorist attack involving weapons of mass destruction was a growing concern. "There's a threat, and it's real," Ms Reno said, adding that such weapons "are being considered for use."
US embassies around the world are on heightened alert as a result of threats believed to emanate from followers of Bin Laden, who has been indicted by a US court for orchestrating the bombing last August of embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which 259 people died. US delegations in Africa and the Gulf have been shut down in recent weeks after credible threats were received.
Ahmed Allawi, a senior member of the opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC), based in London, said he had heard reports of the December meeting which he believed to be accurate. "There is a long history of contacts between Mukhabarat [Iraqi secret service] and Osama bin Laden," he said. Mr Hijazi, formerly director of external operations for Iraqi intelligence, was "the perfect man to send to Afghanistan".
Analysts believe that Mr Hijazi offered Mr bin Laden asylum in Iraq, most likely in return for co-operation in launching attacks on US and Saudi targets. Iraqi agents are believed to have made a similar offer to the Saudi maverick leader in the early 1990s when he was based in Sudan. ------->end of snips
I mentioned this before, and I pray I'm right...but I hope what the administration is doing is preparing a formal indictment against Saddam (with the Iraqis) for all these obvious connections. It could have the political impact of damaging the Democrats...and the administration could argue that it had to be kept secret because of the ongoing investigation...especially as it deals with sealed/secret indictments. I hope it's coming.
Uhh, you're repeating yourself. :)
"Only fools and Democrats fail to see the connection...
Uhh, you're repeating yourself. :)"
When you realize how many Democrats monitor this cite, you post accordingly......(grin)
All that picture necessarily means is that Saddamites were happy about 9/11.
The majority of the American people instinctively understand that Iraq was deeply involved in 9/11, in spite of the media lying about the issue on almost a daily basis. However, people also seem to understand that it's "impolite" to openly talk about it.
True. I also think it is time we start asking some hard questions of our saudi "friends", and their financing of Al Queada operatives in the US. A friend of mine who worked in Saudi said they treat Americans & Christians as second class citizens. And to find that some of the hijackeers got money from the Saudi gov't? That really irks me.
JMO..
bump
Good question.
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