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The Plain Truth
June 17, 2004
It's hard to imagine how the commission investigating the
2001 terrorist attacks could have put it more clearly
yesterday: there was never any evidence of a link between
Iraq and Al Qaeda, between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11.
Now President Bush should apologize to the American people,
who were led to believe something different.
Of all the ways Mr. Bush persuaded Americans to back the
invasion of Iraq last year, the most plainly dishonest was
his effort to link his war of choice with the battle
against terrorists worldwide. While it's possible that Mr.
Bush and his top advisers really believed that there were
chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq, they
should have known all along that there was no link between
Iraq and Al Qaeda. No serious intelligence analyst believed
the connection existed; Richard Clarke, the former
antiterrorism chief, wrote in his book that Mr. Bush had
been told just that.
Nevertheless, the Bush administration convinced a
substantial majority of Americans before the war that
Saddam Hussein was somehow linked to 9/11. And since the
invasion, administration officials, especially Vice
President Dick Cheney, have continued to declare such a
connection. Last September, Mr. Bush had to grudgingly
correct Mr. Cheney for going too far in spinning a
Hussein-bin Laden conspiracy. But the claim has crept back
into view as the president has made the war on terror a
centerpiece of his re-election campaign.
On Monday, Mr. Cheney said Mr. Hussein "had
long-established ties with Al Qaeda." Mr. Bush later backed
up Mr. Cheney, claiming that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a
terrorist who may be operating in Baghdad, is "the best
evidence" of a Qaeda link. This was particularly
astonishing because the director of central intelligence,
George Tenet, told the Senate earlier this year that Mr.
Zarqawi did not work with the Hussein regime.
The staff report issued by the 9/11 panel says that Sudan's
government, which sheltered Osama bin Laden in the early
1990's, tried to hook him up with Mr. Hussein, but that
nothing came of it.
This is not just a matter of the president's diminishing
credibility, although that's disturbing enough. The war on
terror has actually suffered as the conflict in Iraq has
diverted military and intelligence resources from places
like Afghanistan, where there could really be Qaeda forces,
including Mr. bin Laden.
Mr. Bush is right when he says he cannot be blamed for
everything that happened on or before Sept. 11, 2001. But
he is responsible for the administration's actions since
then. That includes, inexcusably, selling the false
Iraq-Qaeda claim to Americans. There are two unpleasant
alternatives: either Mr. Bush knew he was not telling the
truth, or he has a capacity for politically motivated
self-deception that is terrifying in the post-9/11 world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/17/opinion/17THU1.html?ex=1088516146&ei=1&en=cc4a30688731e68b
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