Posted on 09/12/2004 7:15:40 PM PDT by crushelits
Says administration is implying link that has been disproved
Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry accused the Bush administration Sunday of falsely linking Iraq to the attacks of September 11, 2001, "in its desperate attempts to reinvent a rationale for the Iraq war."
Kerry made his charge in a statement released after Secretary of State Colin Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he has seen nothing to link Saddam Hussein's regime with the 9/11 attacks
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Even the 9/11 commission, however, has said there WAS a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda.
Kerry is erecting a strawman here and putting words in Bush's mouth.
Did Secretary of State Colin Powell said this on NBC's "Meet the Press"
What's an NBC? Meet the WHO?
Sec. Powell said that he saw no convincing direct link between Saddam & 911.....however, the Administration has repeatedly said this very same thing over & over. In fact, last year the Dems were whining that polls indicated the AMERICAN PUBLIC believed there was a link........however, this is not the Administration's fault (!)
John Kerry's fallen off his rocker. The administration made no such claims, and if those people believed that, they did so erroneously.
We all know this, but most of America still thinks the administration said it.
John Kerry is betting on the press helping spread this particular piece of FUD.
Anyone threatened America after 9/11 was against us, especially an Arab country with which we had continually been at war since 1991 in violation of its own treaties with us. Hussein kept shooting at our flyovers and hurling verbal attacks at us. That was enough for me.
"...WAS a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda."
A small correction: There are multiple links including documents, personnel meetings, training camps, sanction of leadership and intelligence exchange. Even the gasbag Richard Clarke wrote in a memo that if the US got close to bin Laden, he would bug out to Iraq. The language of the leftist charge has changed, however, and they now state that there are 'no active operational links.' Screw them - the only connection they won't dispute will be mushroom clouds over American cities.
No. No. No. Kerry it is you who is reinventing the White House's rationale for the Iraq War. It is you who is misleading the American people.
There does not have to be a convincing link. Just as there is no link to international terrorism in the Sudan in Africa. What there is, is genocide, racial compounded with religious persecution. Arabic Muslim warlords are decimating and driving out the native African population, apparently on religious grounds. The Muslim warlords are practicing internal terrorism, much like Saddam was practicing internal terrorism. It is not necessary for them to cross national frontiers to be branded as genocidal racists or terrorists.
But, while there is more to his answer; Powell, nonetheless - and determenedly - gives the media this meaty bone; it is confounding; annoying; maddening and disheartening.
It is the most often asked question of Powell; and they know he will not disappoint them.
Kerry was watching; waiting to to run with it.
Only the ignorant would think that there was no link between Sadaam's cabinet and Osama Bin Laden...
Thank You GW for imagining the threat I know that we are safer because we went into Iraq.
"Did Secretary of State Colin Powell said this on NBC's "Meet the Press"
Yes, and no one in the Administration has ever said Iraq had a direct link to 9/11 and it was never advanced as a rational for taking out Saddam. That Saddam was a major supporter of terrorists generally cannot be disputed. Al Qaeda is not the sole threat to the people of the world. Radical Islam is as are crazy dictators with oil money and connections.
Powell batted the (mis)leading questions of MTP Russert with wishy-washy responses.
Bush campaign has already responded to it: The Bush admin is not claiming there was a direct Saddam 9/11 link, but there are connections between Saddam and Al Qaeda, as Bush has pointed out ... and even 9/11 commission has pointed out:
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com/2004/07/saddams-regime-and-al-qaeda.html
Russert tried to bait Powell on WMD intel, and Powell said that the stockpiles werent found and some sources werent good but he refused to criticize the CIA or claim he was used.
Russert tried to bait Powell into gloom-n-doom on Iraq and Powell corrected him on the status there, pointing out that 90% of the country is ready for elections *today*, and that the other 10% we would be cleaning up by election time period.
Russert tried to bait Powell on a Cheney quote and he didnt bite on it, and explained that Cheney clarified the comment later and that *any* President would repond to terror attacks, it was a question of the strategy to be used, that he wouldnt characterize the Kerry strategy but he knew what Bush's response would be: firm and resolute.
On the Saddam and 9/11 link, Russert baited again.
The answer was consistent with other admin officials, there is no evidence of direct 9/11 link but saddam had links with al quaeda. Powell won't go out on any limb here and so gives more cautious answers than you get from Cheney. So what? the Kerry camp tries to create 'cracks' in the administration over assessments of 'links' that the Dems dont even want to admit exist at all! Same old BS game.
These differences in nuance are between different people asked different questions, unlike with Kerry, when it is the same man changing his song and dance wildly.
But look, Kerry cant even answer the straight question "Do you now support the decision to remove Saddam Hussein by force?"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1214119/posts
Full POWELL quote:
"We know that there had been connections and there had been exchanges between al-Qaida and the Saddam Hussein regime. And those have been pursued and looked at," Powell said. "But I have seen nothing that makes a direct connection between Saddam Hussein and that awful regime and what happened on 9/11."
This is CORRECT (see:
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com/2004/07/saddams-regime-and-al-qaeda.html
This is CONSISTENT with what Bush has said for quite some time now.
This Kerry putz should stick to his amateur film making Vietnam style. It's as close as he'll ever come to being a warrior.
An NBC is a Nutso-Ballistic Crackpot. As far as meeting the WHO, do you mean the guys who composed the rock opera "Tommy"?
I thought that Kerry had now admitted that fighting Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do regardless of whether there were weapons of mass destruction. Someone needs to give Kerry a tip: If you're playing the Who Wants to be President game and Regis has to keep asking "Is that your final answer," you're not going to win.
Bill
Egad, he IS getting desperate! The fraudulent documents on CBS has him gasping for the next breath!
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