Posted on 05/17/2004 9:22:06 AM PDT by truthandlife
President Bush wanted to base his justification for going to war with Iraq on Baghdad's links to terrorist groups including Al Qaida, but ultimately rejected the idea because it wouldn't have persuaded the United Nations, according to Washington Times reporter Bill Sammon.
"I talked to Bush and Condi Rice and Colin Powell about this," Sammon told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg on Sunday, in an interview about his new Bush political biography "Misunderestimated."
"They actually told me for the book that they were initially considering three separate U.N. resolutions, one on weapons of mass destruction, one on terrorism links and one on, of course, human rights abuses."
But, said Sammon, "according to Condi, the world community didn't really have that much interest in the terrorism links or the human rights abuses, and it all sort of fell away and started focusing on the WMDs."
The Times reporter said Secretary Powell was "gravitating towards [the WMD argument] because he figured that was where he could make the strongest case because there was more of a paper trail."
"Now that these links have been established, I think they should play them up much more," Sammon urged.
Salman Pak
This confirms what I've read elsewhere: Colin Powell pushed the public discourse toward the WMD against the objections of others; he was told that he had to make the presentation to the UN because he had made the WMD into his issue, and now that the media have concluded that WMD have not been found, he is disassociating himself from this intelligence, arguing that he was misled by some engineer.
Sure, mistakes were made, but they seem to have come from State.
Less than two months before 9/11/01, the state-controlled Iraqi newspaper “Al-Nasiriya” carried a column headlined, “American, an Obsession called Osama Bin Ladin.” (July 21, 2001)
In the piece, Baath Party writer Naeem Abd Muhalhal predicted that bin Laden would attack the US “with the seriousness of the Bedouin of the desert about the way he will try to bomb the Pentagon after he destroys the White House.”
The same state-approved column also insisted that bin Laden “will strike America on the arm that is already hurting,” and that the US “will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra every time he hears his songs” – an apparent reference to the Sinatra classic, “New York, New York”.
Other links between Saddam and Osama Bin Laden here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1127451/posts
After all, how could Powell have advocated the terrorism argument, after stating that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"?
It didn't gain him one ounce of world, or 'rat, credit, and gave Sadaam time to disperse his WMDs to God know who.
Exactly right and, according to John Kerry, the President's only strategic mistake in the WOT now is his unwillingness to kiss France's, Germany's and anybody else's ass in order to get them to send troops to Iraq. There's good reason why the mainstream media never asks him how he would accomplish this little task...especially since France just said it will never send troops to Iraq under any circumstances.
Exactly right and, according to John Kerry, the President's only strategic mistake in the WOT now is his unwillingness to kiss France's, Germany's and anybody else's ass in order to get them to send troops to Iraq. There's good reason why the mainstream media never asks him how he would accomplish this little task...especially since France just said it will never send troops to Iraq under any circumstances.
I haven't seen the link that would make Saddam responsible for 911, but it is clear he knew in advance and probably provided technical support.
Our message -- we will kill your children and turn you over to your enemies -- is probably going to be remembered, even if Iraq never gets a decent government.
There's humor, as well, and Sammon's is superbly candid about bashing broadcast and print media for their gaffes during this period.
If you weren't sure you really liked GW before, you will absolutely know he is worth your profound admiration about reading this book.
There's humor, as well, and Sammon's is superbly candid about bashing broadcast and print media for their gaffes during this period.
If you weren't sure you really liked GW before, you will absolutely know he is worth your profound admiration after reading this book.
Well, I can certainly see why they didn't try the human rights abuses ploy - in the UN, where a number of member states have Iraq's record or worse. And as for the Saddam-al-Qaeda connection, we already have a boat-load of liberals screaming "there's no proof" and raising the bar for same constantly so that there never can be. About the only certainty was that Saddam was acting in contravention of existing UN resolutions, and even now that isn't denied by the libs, it's simply ignored.
Until OPEC's dictating $50+/barrel or another arab lead oil/fuel embago, few Americans will grasp that Islam is at war with us. Read their Koran and Haddith; devout muslims are only obeying commends to slaughter infedels.
Pearl and Berg videos were for training purposes, but dismissed by our media darlings.
Through terrorist proxies The Nation of Islam attacked us repeatedly, unti 9/11, when Bush decided to respond in a limited fashion.
Bush understood that we must drive into the heart of the bellicose muslim homeland, dar al-islam.
Because of Clintons' Peace Dividend RIF, we do not yet have the capacity to fight islam's Terror War.
Our economy is their prime target, to weaken us so that we cannot ever win this war against Civilization.
After decades of watermellon environmentalism, we have no capacity to produce more fuel, especially with boutique gas formulations mandated by EPA. These boutique fuels provide more cost, less milage, and alcohols which poison our aquifers.
Look for Venezuela (Chavez is Castro Lite) to slow its export of refined fuel to our East Coast.
Our mortal enemies are at war with us, but our Beltway elites have yet to act like it.
As an ecomonist, I am planning on fuel rations at least at ~$3/gallon, higher in nests of ultra-librals. Now at ~$2/gallon, all we need is one "perturbation", such as one of our refineries being knocked out.
Koranazis are planning their summer's jihad, here. Damaging our economy is islamists' Prime Directive, our dead and maimed is for the added value in cheering more muslims to join the war of world conquest.
I skimmed the book a few days ago in the local Barnes & Noble. What struck me was the unremitting hostility of the press towards Bush, and its predictability. It reminded me of Eugene McCarthy, who once wrote: "The press is like a flock of birds: they fly along together, and when one lands on a wire, the rest of them land. Then when one flies away, all the others follow it."
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