9/11 Update
From NewsMax:
Reports Wednesday morning that the 9/11 Commission has determined there was no cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaida are completely false - and are undoubtedly driven by the media's determination to contradict the Bush administration's claims that such a link exists.
"9/11 Panel Says Iraq Rebuffed Bin Laden" reads the headline on the Associated Press report on today's Commission staff statement.
But that's not what the Commission staff report actually said.
...
"The Sudanese, to protect their own ties with Iraq, reportedly persuaded Bin Ladin* to cease [support for anti-Saddam Islamists in Northern Iraq] and arranged for contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda*.
"A senior Iraqi intelligence officer reportedly made three visits to Sudan, finally meeting Bin Ladin in 1994. Bin Ladin is said to have requested space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded." [Staff Statement No. 15, Page 5]
Apparently never responded? How, pray tell, does the AP derive from those words the conclusive claim that Iraq "rebuffed" bin Laden?
The Commission statement continues:
"There have been reports that contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda also occurred after Bin Ladin had returned to Afghanistan, but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship."
What's the evidence for this less-than-conclusive surmise?
"Two senior Bin Ladin associates have adamantly denied that any ties existed between al Qaeda and Iraq," says the Commission.
Such a statement begs the question: Why does the Commission, let alone the press, take the word of two senior bin Laden associates over, say, Iraq's new prime minister, Iyad Allawi.
Matt's Chat
The Partisan Mediatm continue to play their "let's take comments out of context" game to the point where they are actually misleading the American people. It is clear there is an agenda at work here, and it isn't in line with journalistic ethics.This Commission is a joke, but the fact that it leaves us with more questions than answers shows that the liberals didn't get what they wanted out of it.
9:15AM Update
NRO's Andrew C. McCarthy has more. Well worth the read...12:45PM Update
Mark Levin says it best:For years the media have been reporting on connections between al-Qaeda and Iraq. At some point, the media reversed course and now hypes all claims of no such relationship. The issue has always been the extent and nature of the relationship, not its existence. And as a matter of logic, are we to believe al-Qaeda is and was active throughout Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, and even the U.S., but avoided Iraq because bin Laden and Hussein didn't share religious beliefs? Finally, the Commission doesn't say there was no connection. It makes no such definitive statement. The language it uses, which is contained basically in a single sentence, has been heavily lawyered. The Commission's language is notable for what it does not say.Indeed. Excellent points...
Mark's Remarks
More media bias from the D party run Fascist Press. The mass media in this nation has become nothing more than the propaganda wing of the Democratic party. Let's face it. When Clinton was in office, there were al Queda-Iraq ties, they had training centers, there was a world wide network. Now, all of a sudden, nope, we are going to obfiscate and transmogrify every bit of context we can out of quotes and edit them in a way so as to make them say what we want. Tell a big enough lie long enough and they will believe you. That was Nazi Joe Goebbels strategy, and it appears that is the strategy of Democrats and the Fascist Press.
