...instead, just focus on what you want to believe.The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment, according to current and former government officials. The officials said the captive, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, provided his most specific and elaborate accounts about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda only after he was secretly handed over to Egypt by the United States in January 2002, in a process known as rendition
Oh boy, the DNC Times must have had a joygasm over this one. A double whammy! Not only did Bush lie about intel, but he got suckered in by his own policies about torture! Yes, we got him, they had to think...here is more.
The new disclosure provides the first public evidence that bad intelligence on Iraq may have resulted partly from the administration's heavy reliance on third countries to carry out interrogations of Qaeda members and others detained as part of American counterterrorism efforts. The Bush administration used Mr. Libi's accounts as the basis for its prewar claims.
Man, Joe Wilson must be ticked about being thrown under the bus. No longer is he the main man. now it is this Libi guy. Ahh, Libi, like Scooter Libby. Of course he must be lying about things right?
The fact that Mr. Libi recanted after the American invasion of Iraq and that intelligence based on his remarks was withdrawn by the C.I.A. in March 2004 has been public for more than a year. But American officials had not previously acknowledged either that Mr. Libi made the false statements in foreign custody or that Mr. Libi contended that his statements had been coerced... A classified Defense Intelligence Agency report issued in February 2002 that expressed skepticism about Mr. Libi's credibility on questions related to Iraq and Al Qaeda was based in part on the knowledge that he was no longer in American custody when he made the detailed statements, and that he might have been subjected to harsh treatment..
Now, they don't use the T word, but it is all over this story. Torture! Bush tortured al-Libi. That led to false information which led to an unjust invasion of an unjust country and that caused an unjust war. Well, there's only one problem with this whole story, and that is that it was Bill Clinton and his administration who first talked about firm evidence linking Saddam Hussein's regime to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, years before George Bush made the same statements.
From the Washington
The Clinton administration talked about firm evidence linking Saddam Hussein's regime to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network years before President Bush made the same statements... In fact, during President Clinton's eight years in office, there were at least two official pronouncements of an alarming alliance between Baghdad and al Qaeda. One came from William S. Cohen, Mr. Clinton's defense secretary. He cited an al Qaeda-Baghdad link to justify the bombing of a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan.
Oh yeah, and there was this little indictment (the chosen weapon of the Clintonistas in fighting brutal terrorists)from Nov. 4, 1998 (hmm, 1998, wasn't that the same year that Clinton made all those WMD arguments about bombing Saddam, you know those same arguments the Dems in Congress cited (like HillRod) for supporting the war, but now want us to forget?):
The other pronouncement is contained in a Justice Department indictment on Nov. 4, 1998, charging bin Laden with murder in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The indictment disclosed a close relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam's regime, which included specialists on chemical weapons and all types of bombs, including truck bombs, a favorite weapon of terrorists. The 1998 indictment said: 'Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West.
Now, isn't this interesting. Here is Bill Clinton saying the same things that supposedly Bush had to torture, squeeze, and rendition out of people, but Bush lied. There never was any ties between Iraq and al Queda. Nope. Then whoever filed that indictment needs indicted themselves on filing false indictments. The NYT is a joke. They can't even do elementary research. They refuse to go back to 1998 because that would mean Bush could not have lied, because how could he lie about something he didn't know about when he was not President, back when he was still on the Crawford Ranch? More and more, people are realizing that the media is lying and that this whole "Bush lied" meme is wrong. However, the kook base will never let truth get in the way of their false realities.
And here is even more proof from the BBC:
Documents found in Baghdad show a link between Saddam Hussein's fallen regime and al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, according to a UK newspaper.
The Sunday Telegraph says reporter Inigo Gilmore discovered the files in the bombed headquarters of the Mukhabarat, the feared Iraqi intelligence service.
It says the files, in Arabic, show an al-Qaeda envoy was invited to visit Baghdad secretly in March 1998.
These latest documents suggest Iraqi officials wanted to pass on an oral message to set up a direct meeting with Bin Laden.
The 1998 visit described in the documents would have taken place before Washington blamed Bin Laden for the bombings of two US embassies in Africa later that year.
Correction fluid
Mr Gilmore told the BBC he found the documents after being allowed into the intelligence headquarters in Baghdad by US troops guarding the site.
He smuggled the papers back to his hotel where his translator translated them into English.
He told the BBC: "I noticed on some of the documents there were some marks erased out... we scraped away with a razor and underneath we found the name Bin Laden three times and obviously realised this was highly significant.
"These documents explain that an envoy from Bin Laden came to Iraq in March 1998 to discuss contact between al-Qaeda and Iraqi intelligence.
"It also talks about sending an oral message back to Bin Laden and it furthermore discuss the idea of setting up a direct meeting with Bin Laden himself."
In one document quoted by the paper an Iraqi official wrote:
"We suggest permission to call the Khartoum station [Iraq's intelligence office in Sudan] to facilitate the travel arrangements for the above-mentioned person to Iraq.
"And that our body carry all the travel and hotel costs inside Iraq to gain the knowledge of the message from Bin Laden and to convey to his envoy an oral message from us to Bin Laden."
No ties whatsover, none at all....nothing to see here...move along....
