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The Missing Link
George W. Bush was on his way back to Washington from Macdill Air Force Base in Florida last Wednesday when aides told him the 9/11 commission had found no evidence that Iraq was involved in the fateful attacks on the U.S. But some media outlets were already portraying the commission as saying Iraq and al-Qaeda had never had ties of any kind â a position the White House disputes. "I hope you made our case," Bush told aides. The next morning the President was furious when he saw a New York Times headline saying NO QAEDA-IRAQ TIE. Immediately, White House staffers called officials at the CIA to see if the agency had updated its assessment of Saddam Husseinâs relationship with al-Qaeda; according to a senior White House official, CIA officials told Bush aides they still believed there were links. That gave Bush the green light, and later that day he went before cameras to declare that "the reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al-Qaeda" is "because there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda." By the end of the week, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice had also stepped before microphones to declare that they had nothing to apologize for.When it comes to describing purported connections between al-Qaeda and Saddam, the Bush Administration sometimes sounds like a teenager carefully delineating the different shades of romance from "seeing other people" to "hanging out" to "hooking up." The Administration claimed this week that there was "no link" between Iraq and 9/11 and insisted it had never said there was one. But back in 2002 Bush stated that "you canât distinguish between al-Qaeda and Saddam in the war on terror." And when Bush declared war on Iraq last year, he sent a letter to Congress citing Iraqi involvement in 9/11 as one of the reasons for war. Democrats, who have lambasted Bushâs handling of the war, believe the holes in the Administrationâs claims provide an opportunity to exploit Bushâs credibility gap. John Kerry jumped on the report, saying Bush misled the country in making the case for war. The Democratic National Committee last week put out ads questioning Bushâs truthfulness. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-06-20 |
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