Posted on 01/26/2004 12:12:34 PM PST by Flightdeck
When President Bush said "Bring it on" he was taunting the terrorist to fight in Iraq instead of the US. But he couldn't make that obvious, just as he can't brag about the fact that we have totally shut down the terrorist in the US. That would just be taunting them to attack us here.
Thank our troops for putting their lives on the line in Iraq so that we don't have to live in fear here.
ha ! Yeah, let's see what Al Jazeera has to say about this ! :O)
That's also my opinion.
I can't say it too many times. Tbank you all members of the US military fighting terrorists and dead-enders in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Or these:
But how clear is Iraq's involvement in the 1993 attacks? Some say evidence of Baghdad's sponsorship is compelling.
Beyond Ramzi Yousef's Iraqi passport and Abdul Rahman Yasin's subsidy from Saddam, terrorist expert Laurie Mylroie has insisted for years that Iraq helped Yousef execute his plan. She says that Jim Fox, the FBI's New York bureau chief in 1993, who headed up the WTC bombing probe, was thoroughly convinced of a connection.
After pursuing possible Iraqi links, Fox was yanked from the investigation and he died a few years later. But two months after the bombing he told ABC News he thought the attack might have been revenge for the first Gulf War against Iraq.
"During the Gulf war, we took very seriously the threat to the United States from terrorist elements," Fox told ABC's Ted Koppel. "In fact, we tripled our commitment, agent commitment, to terrorist matters during the Gulf war and thereafter. Some of the individuals involved in this case [the '93 attack] came to our attention, as you can imagine."
Former CIA Director James Woolsey also finds evidence tying Iraq to the '93 attack persuasive.
So does conservative commentator George Will, who told MSNBC's Chris Matthews last year, "People are convinced that the Iraqi fingerprints were all over the first attack on the World Trade Center."
"Do you believe that?" asked Matthews.
"I think the evidence is quite compelling," replied Will.
Incredulous at the response, Matthews repeated, "Do you believe that Iraq had something to do with blowing up the World Trade Center in 1993?"
Will answered simply, "I do."
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's Account Links 9/11 to '93 WTC Attack
CIA can confirm two Atta visits to Prague--in Dec. 1994 and in June 2000; data surrounding the other two--on 26 Oct 1999 and 9 April 2001--is complicated and sometimes contradictory and CIA and FBI cannot confirm Atta met with the IIS. Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross continues to stand by his information.
It's not just Gross who stands by the information. Five high-ranking members of the Czech government have publicly confirmed meetings between Atta and al Ani. The meeting that has gotten the most press attention--April 9, 2001--is also the most widely disputed. Even some of the most hawkish Bush administration officials are privately skeptical that Atta met al Ani on that occasion. They believe that reports of the alleged meeting, said to have taken place in public, outside the headquarters of the U.S.-financed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, suggest a level of sloppiness that doesn't fit the pattern of previous high-level Iraq-al Qaeda contacts.
Whether or not that specific meeting occurred, the report by Czech counterintelligence that al Ani ordered the Iraqi Intelligence Service officer to provide IIS funds to Atta might help explain the lead hijacker's determination to reach Prague, despite significant obstacles, in the spring 2000. (Note that the report stops short of confirming that the funds were transferred. It claims only that the IIS officer requested the transfer.) Recall that Atta flew to Prague from Germany on May 30, 2000, but was denied entry because he did not have a valid visa. Rather than simply return to Germany and fly directly to the United States, his ultimate destination, Atta took pains to get to Prague. After he was refused entry the first time, he traveled back to Germany, obtained the proper paperwork, and caught a bus back to Prague. He left for the United States the day after arriving in Prague for the second time.
The U.S. government's secret memo detailing cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
Bush on Oct. 10 named Yasin as one of the world's 22 Most Wanted Terrorists for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Bush's list is headed by Osama bin Laden and his cohorts in al-Qaida, the terror group accused of finishing the destruction of the New York landmark begun by Yasin and others.
There is no doubt about Yasin's whereabouts after the 1993 outrage. The FBI agents who perfunctorily questioned Yasin in New York and were conned by his pleasant manner quickly understood their mistake in letting him go. They got his brother to telephone Yasin in Baghdad repeatedly to ask him to come back for more questioning. Guess what?
Mr. Yasin sent his regrets.
In 1998 then-FBI Director Louis Freeh said publicly that the fugitive was "hiding in his native Iraq." The Iraqi National Congress, the leading anti-Saddam movement, earlier obtained a photograph of Yasin in Baghdad and provided it to Washington. Every indication points to Yasin's not having left Iraq since then, a senior U.S. official tells me.
The capture of Hassan Ghul (The Gatekeeper) was reported on cable news stations much of this past weekend.
Getting errors on that link ...
SANAA, Yemen The Yemeni wing of al-Qaida, in a statement published yesterday on an Islamic Web site, vowed to attack the United States to avenge the 2002 killing of its leader by a CIA drone aircraft.
The statement, which could not be authenticated, said Osama bin Laden's network had over the past year prepared a "devastating and crushing blow in the United States that will happen soon" in retaliation for the death of Ali al-Harthi, who was killed by a missile the pilotless CIA aircraft fired at his car in eastern Yemen.
Remarks by the President on Medical Liability
1/26/04
Before I get into the issue of health, I do want to remind you that our country still faces big challenges. And we're rising to meet the challenges. The most important job of my administration is to protect the American people; is to chase down those who would do us harm and bring them to justice; is to never forget the lessons of September the 11th; is to stay on the offensive -- and that's what we're doing. (Applause.)
We're spreading freedom, and as we do so, the world becomes more peaceful. Freedom is not America's gift to the world. Freedom is the Almighty's gift to each man and woman in the world. (Applause.)
I appreciate so very much the contribution of the Arkansas Guard. Over 4,000 troops are part of our effort to not only make America more secure, but to make the world more free. I know that the Governor informed me that these troops are ready to go. They understand the mission. They're proud to serve our country. I'm proud to call them -- I'm proud to be their Commander-in- Chief. And I want their families to know how much we are grateful for their sacrifice, as well. Arkansas ought to be proud of the men and women who wear the uniform. And they're going to make this nation proud and more secure in their sacrifices. (Applause.)
I told everybody the other night at the State of the Union that we're going to stay on the offensive against al Qaeda, and we're making good progress. We're on an international manhunt. We're in a different kind of war. It used to be in the old days, you could measure progress based upon the number of airplanes that the enemy had or the number of ships in a flotilla. And the big battles of the past were clashes of equipment that were visible for people to see. And this is the kind of war where sometimes you see action and sometimes you don't. Sometimes progress is being made and it's hard to tell it, because in order to dismantle the al Qaeda terrorists network, we've got to be on a manhunt, and we've got a lot of people on the manhunt.
Just yesterday -- not yesterday -- just last week, we made further progress in making America more secure when a fellow named Hassan Ghul was captured in Iraq. Hassan Ghul was a -- reported directly to Khalid Shaik Muhammad, who was the mastermind of the September the 11th attacks. He was a killer. He was moving money and messages around South Asia and the Middle East to other al Qaeda leaders. He was a part of this network of haters that we're dismantling.
Our intelligence officers did a good job. He was captured in Iraq where he was helping al Qaeda to put pressure on our troops. There is one less enemy we have to worry about with the capture of Hassan Ghul. Our people are doing great work. (Applause.)
Or his Detroit cousin, known simply as "The Ghoul". Overday!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.