Howard Dean: ‘We’ve not paid attention to al-Qaida’

AP / Portsmouth Herald ^ | 1/2/2004 | Holly Ramer

[rs79bm]

NASHUA, N.H. -- Democrat Howard Dean said that the events of the last few weeks have shown he was right to conclude that Saddam Hussein’s capture didn’t make America safer.

Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, faced criticism from his party’s rivals for his comments following the Dec. 13 capture of Saddam. Since then, the national terrorism alert has been raised to orange and more troops have been killed in Iraq, he said at a town hall meeting in Nashua.

"They got all excited, but here we are," the former Vermont governor said. "We’ve lost 10 more troops and F-16s are escorting foreign passenger jets into our air space because we’re now more worried than we were before.

"I can assure you it’s not Saddam who’s threatening to bomb airplanes," Dean said. "It’s al-Qaida. We’ve not paid attention to al-Qaida. We’ve spent $160 billion, lost over 400 servicemen, and wounded and permanently maimed over 2,000 people because we picked the wrong target."

Dean said even though he opposed the war, his greatest fear now is that "this administration will pull out of Iraq too early for political reasons," Dean said.

If that happens, al-Qaida will move into Iraq and become more powerful than ever.

"My fear is that the (Karl) Rove polls will tell him (Bush), ‘You’ve gotta get out, you’ve gotta get out,’ and he’ll start doing that, " Dean said, referring to Bush’s chief political adviser.

[Carolinamom]

YES! Every time "they" criticize Dubya w/one of these specifics, he surprises them w/a solid accomplishment. Their only recourse is a "Curses, foiled AGAIN." Dontcha love it and him?!

[tet68]

"I can assure you it’s not Saddam who’s threatening to bomb airplanes,"

That's right MR.Dean, he's in the slammer, no thanks to you.
One less thing to have to worry about.

Just like a backlash, if you keep picking at it you'll get it out,Dean is the kind of guy that takes a knife to it and loses half his line.

[woodyinscc]

I share the belief that Bin Laden is a ghost.

I share this belief also, he has been dead almost two yrs. His DNA is residing beneath the rocks, in the mountains of Tora Bora. I hope when we capture Mullah Omar we will be able to disclose this.!

[logan]

Thx; I've been reading the news and writing the occasional letter to the editor for a while, but since my house got DSL I've found there's a whole new world online. The back and forth is like good dinner conversation anytime of the day. ;)

[Darksheare]

DSL does make things far easier.
I initially was here on dialup service. *Yecch!*
And when DSl became available I came here more often.
As opposed to my previous "once every four days."

Found some threads I 'lurk at' most of the time.
Heck, there are even threads here that are 'freeform chat only'.
Though some have a problem with that format of certain threads.
There's pretty much something for everyone here.
The fun is in the looking.

[nuconvert]

more worried than we were before " ????????????

What the heck does this mean?

"we picked the wrong target."

"even though he opposed the war, his greatest fear now is that "this administration will pull out of Iraq too early"

Psycho is Right. He's really GONE!!

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

I went one step further and set myself up on a T-1 line, with over 3 meg. of "OOMPH"!

That commercial where the guy is surfing and reaches the end of the internet? It's not all that far-fetched.

[ohioWfan]

There will be no compromises when it comes to the safety of the American people, regardless of the election. None.

It would be totally contrary to the character of the man running.......and totally contrary to everything he has done in the WoT.

And, IMO he will win the 2004 election in a landslide precisely because of his strength in protecting the American people at his own political risk.

[Always Right]

Well, maybe not now; but it's hard to believe he didn't have a hand in how they used the buildup to the invasion to pull off the unprecidented 2002 victories.

Go to some left-wing nut site if you really belive that crap

[Darksheare]

Ouch.
Screaming lines.
*chuckle*
Have you run into where your connection is fine,and still fast, but it's faster than the site you're connected to?
So you end up experiencing molasses slow down on a download?
*ugh*

[al baby]

Is that Dean In the center back

[Restorer]

FWIW, here are the coalition losses by month.

May: 36

June: 30

July: 52

August: 34

September: 31

October: 42

November: 83

December: 39

BTW, if you actually look at the incidents, the biggest risk in Iraq seems to be traffic accidents. :)

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" We’ve not paid attention to al-Qaida."

This idiot cannot seriously believe that we have pulled our troops and our intel operatives out of Afghanistan,Pakistan,etc. He can't be that stupid or could he ? The media and Dean think that his MD degree innoculates him from charges of chronic moronitis.

When are we going to find out more about Dean's medical training ? What was his MCAT score ? Will he permit Albert Einstein to release any and all info they have on his training,evaluations,etc ? Likewise the University of Vermont. Dean or his surrogates have variously represented Dean as an internist,family practice,pediatrician and gynecologist. Which is it ? What medical articles and abstracts with Dean as author or co author have been published ? If any. What did Dean do to continue his medical education-courses,conferences,lectures,research projects,etc ?Why isn't Dean Board Certified? Did he ever take the Boards ? If not,why not? Did he fail?

From an AP interview 2/15/2003-posted on a Dean website.

" Judy Dean met her future husband at medical school. "We were sitting in class doing crossword puzzles."

Howard Dean completed medical school in three years rather than the traditional four and was sent to Vermont for his residency in 1978; Judy Dean followed when she graduated a year later. In 1981, Howard Dean opened his medical practice in Shelburne with another doctor; Judy Dean joined them in 1985 after a fellowship at Montreal's McGill University. "

Ok.His medical training consisted of 6 years, total-no specialties,no fellowships,no Boards.During lectures,he did crossword puzzles. There is an intentional fuzziness and gauziness about his medical background.

Howard Dean is no Bill Frist.

From Senator Frist's Senate website:
Frist graduated in 1974 from Princeton University where he specialized in health care policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 1978 he graduated with honors from Harvard Medical School and spent the next seven years in surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital; Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, England; and Stanford University Medical Center. He is board certified in both general surgery and heart surgery.


In 1985 Frist joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he founded and subsequently directed the multi-disciplinary Vanderbilt Transplant Center, which under his leadership became a nationally renowned center of multi-organ transplantation. A heart and lung surgeon, he performed over 150 heart and lung transplant procedures, including the first successful combined heart-lung transplant in the Southeast. Frist has written more than 100 articles, chapters, and abstracts on medical research and five books: Transplant, which examines the social and ethical issues of transplantation and organ donation; Grand Rounds in Transplantation;.."

[armymarinemom]

If that happens, al-Qaida will move into Iraq and become more powerful than ever.

Duh! They moved into the northern region of Iraq before 9/11 as a group called Ansar Al Islam.

Kurdistan Observer

Islamic extremist group says it killed 3 Kurdish leaders BY JONATHAN S. LANDAY
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Sulaimani,(Southern Kurdistan) - (KRT) - Islamic militants bound by a suicide pact assassinated a senior Kurdish general and two top security officers, a Kurdish Islamic militant group said Monday, claiming responsibility of the killings.

Ansar al-Islam (Partisans of Islam), which United States and Kurdish officials accuse of harboring followers of Osama bin Laden in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, said the murders foiled a plot against it by the U.S.-backed Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

The Saturday night killings have intensified pressure on the PUK to crack down on the militants in advance of a possible U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But there was no sign on Monday that PUK leaders were preparing to act.

Instead, reinforcements arriving at the front lines said there were fears that Ansar might take advantage of a four-day Muslim holiday that begins on Tuesday to attack the PUK-controlled town of Halabja.

Police were stopping all minibuses entering Halabja and requiring passengers to get off for questioning.

Two statements on Ansar's new Web site, neither of which could be independently verified, said the PUK had offered 150 militants "unimaginable" amounts of cash to defect, attack the group's mountain stronghold from the rear and allow the PUK to recapture the area.

The Web site, in Arabic, Turkish and Kurdish versions, is at http://66.246.51.215.

In a claim that may have been intended to sow discord among Kurdish groups hostile to both Saddam Hussein and Ansar, the Web site said the defectors also were to attack the PUK's political rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

The statement claimed that Ansar militants went along with the scheme until it was about to be concluded.

"Brothers who swore an oath of death to God" and "abandoned the pleasures of the world for the sake of Doomsday" killed Gen. Shawkat Hajji Mushir and the two senior PUK security officials, said one statement. Shawkat was a veteran guerrilla who was on the PUK leadership council and was the party's chief negotiator with Ansar.

The three attackers escaped and took three PUK guards with them. The hostages were being held in the Ansar-controlled village of Byara, said a senior PUK commander, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Four civilians were killed, including an 8-year-old girl who succumbed to her wounds on Monday, said PUK-run television. Eight other people, including the security chief of Halabja, were injured.

PUK officials, who said Shawkat was killed after he was lured to a meeting with the militants on the pretext of completing a defection deal, had no immediate comment on the group's claim of responsibility.

The PUK is among the main Iraqi opposition groups that would assist a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The Bush administration is also counting on the PUK's 30,000-strong militia, hardened by decades of fighting, to help U.S. and other troops prevent ethnic and religious hatreds from splintering Iraq after Saddam's ouster.

"We've worked closely with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan for many years," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday, condemning what he called "this act of terror."

The PUK and the KDP have presided over quasi-democratic administrations in northern Iraq since Saddam Hussein withdrew his forces from the Kurd-dominated area in 1991. But some political experts said the assassinations could make the PUK's job harder by encouraging new challenges to its authority.

The attack raised "not only doubts about their (the PUK's) abilities, but questions about why they don't act," said Asos Hardi, the editor in chief of Hawlati, an independent newspaper in Sulaimaniyah, where the party has its headquarters.

The slaying of Shawkat is the latest in a series of audacious acts by Ansar. During a Muslim holiday in December, it attacked a PUK outpost and videotaped the operation and the corpses of dozens of fighters it slaughtered. In April, the group tried unsuccessfully to kill PUK Prime Minister Barham Salih.

Senior PUK officials contend that rugged, mine-sown terrain, a shortage of heavy weapons and a threat of Iranian intervention on Ansar's behalf are blocking an assault on Ansar's stronghold.

The PUK has asked for U.S. military support. The Bush administration is considering the request because of worries that Ansar is providing al-Qaida with a base and a crude poison-making laboratory.

[AQGeiger]

I'm just a little more sanguine about what kinds of compromises people will make when re-election is on the line.

You are a little more optimistic/cheerful about what kinds of compromises people will make when re-election is on the line? You couldn't have meant you were a little more bloody or bloodthristy about such compromises. Those usages of the word just don't make sense in that context. But I'm confused why, if you really think the President will compromise his principles for the sake of re-election, you're cheerful about it.

[logan]

Well, maybe not now; but it's hard to believe he didn't have a hand in how they used the buildup to the invasion to pull off the unprecidented 2002 victories.

Go to some left-wing nut site if you really belive that crap

It's not nutso; it was f'in brilliant politics. They had the dems between a rock and a hard place, running scared as a party, and they used the issue to hammer down congressional seats nationwide.

[logan]

Oh man; vocabulary moment. I should have said "cynical." Mea culpa.

[BlueNgold]

2 reasons I fear a Dean nomination:
1) On the surface it would seem to be a good thing for the President, since Dr. D has not shown that he can dent the President, much less win. However, upon securing the nomination of the Dem party Dr. D will then be privy to daily briefings on security matters. Once he is in possession of actual knowledge, instead of his normal media sources, he will be able to twist, turn, and (as Clinton and Gore did) lie about situations knowing full well that to discount them is to reveal classified intel. I would not be surprised to see an interview with Dean post nomination: "Now that I have been fully apprised by the intel community, all I can say publicly is that all of my fears were justfied, and all of my conclusions have been born out." Without mentioning a single detail he could assert that the intel community is against the President and that the military is failing. It's been done before in softer terms, but he is just the kind of snake to try to make public hay out of his private courtesy briefings.
2) He strikes me as the kind of man who might actually reveal classified information, in bits and pieces, either overtly or through leaks, that he believes will spin his case. I would not be shocked to see him state publicly 'downside' intel (which all brefings include) without bothering to mention the upside. Then, when called on the carpet - "Oops, I'm sorry, I can't say anymore, (especially about things that prove I'm a snake and a liar) that information is classified." (Too late, Doc, the the security breach has already been made.) Actual intel in the hands of this man and his campaign is a danger to national security ... in my opinion anyway.

[weegee]

Qadaffi saw the writing on the wall and has ended his own WMD program (which was reportedly tied to Al-Qaeda). Certainly fewer WMD in the Muddled East has got to make the world at least a little safer, Dean...

Only a simpleton would think that claiming the capture of Saddam would make the world "a safer place" could be extended to mean it was the end of all evil in the world and the world is now "a safe place".

[Xphantasos]

Can't get this to post, but the link shows some of Dean's newly acquired "Green" party supporters.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/106849540/108690026rcGRTC