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Powell and Bush Spin Away on al Qaeda Link
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Jun 17, 2004 05:20pm |
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| Category | Commentary |
| News Date | Thursday, June 17, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | 06/17/2004 @ 10:52am
It must be hard to be Colin Powell--that is, it must be tough to have to keep defending an administration that makes dramatic assertions untethered from known facts. But that's what Powell, the (mostly) loyal lieutenant, was doing yesterday, as he shilled for his president regarding the supposed link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
Earlier in the day, the 9/11 commission issued a report that declared there was no evidence of any "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda. (For a summation and a to-the-point analysis, see my blog entry on this.) The day before that, George W. Bush offered his "best evidence" of such a link, but he botched the facts and misrepresented the truth. His "evidence" was, at best, flimsy. In fact, it could be considered evidence that there was no significant link between Hussein and al Qaeda. (For the stunning details, click here.) Remember, the purported al Qaeda-Hussein bond was a primary argument for Bush's war. Prior to the invasion, Bush claimed that Hussein was an "immediate" threat because he possessed weapons of mass destruction and at any given moment could slip them to his good pals in al Qaeda. As Bush put it, "he's a threat because he is dealing with al Qaeda." Without those WMDs, without the al Qaeda connection, what's left of Bush's main justification for the war?
After the 9/11 commission released its report dismissing the idea of an al Qaeda-Hussein partnership, I predicted the ensuing White House spin would be dizzying. And the first to run in circles was the Secretary of State. In an interview with Hafiz Mirazi of Al-Jazeera television, the following exchange occurred: |
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