Bizzaro world is alive and well.
Bush Defends Assertions of Iraq-Al Qaeda Relationship
Washington Post
June 18, 2004
While not explicitly declaring Iraqi culpability in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, administration officials did, at various times, imply a link. In late 2001, Cheney said it was “pretty well confirmed” that attack mastermind Mohamed Atta had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official. Later, Cheney called Iraq the “geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11.”
Bush, in 2003, said “the battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001.”
Beyond the Sept. 11 attacks, administration officials have also suggested that there had been cooperation between Iraq and al Qaeda that went beyond contacts. Bush last year called Hussein “an ally of al Qaeda.” Just this Monday, Cheney said Hussein “had long-established ties with al Qaeda.”
In January, Cheney said the “best source” of information on the subject was an article in the Weekly Standard, which reported: “Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al Qaeda training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda — perhaps even for Mohamed Atta — according to a top secret U.S. government memorandum.”
Bush, in a February 2003 radio address, said: “Iraq has sent bombmaking and document forgery experts to work with al Qaeda. Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training. And an al Qaeda operative was sent to Iraq several times in the late 1990s for help in acquiring poisons and gases. We also know that Iraq is harboring a terrorist network headed by a senior al Qaeda terrorist planner. This network runs a poison and explosive training camp in northeast Iraq, and many of its leaders are known to be in Baghdad.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50679-2004Jun17.html