I have nothing whatsoever to add to this-
Pentagon cancels release of controversial Iraq report
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers
March 12, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Wednesday canceled plans for broad public release of a study that found no pre-Iraq war link between late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the al Qaida terrorist network.
Rather than posting the report online and making officials available to discuss it, as had been planned, the U.S. Joint Forces Command said it would mail copies of the document to reporters — if they asked for it. The report won't be posted on the Internet.
The reversal highlighted the politically sensitive nature of its conclusions, which were first reported Monday by McClatchy.
In making their case for invading Iraq in 2002 and 2003, President Bush and his top national security aides claimed that Saddam's regime had ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.
But the study, based on more than 600,000 captured documents, including audio and video files, found that while Saddam sponsored terrorism, particularly against opponents of his regime and against Israel, there was no evidence of an al Qaida link.
The study comes at a difficult time for the Bush administration. The fifth anniversary of the Iraq war is approaching on March 19, and Bush is attempting to hold support for a continued large U.S. troop presence there following a report from his on-the-ground commander, Army Gen. David Petraeus, in early April.
Navy Capt. Dennis Moynihan, a spokesman for the Norfolk, Va.-based Joint Forces Command, said, "We're making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we'll send it out via CD in the mail."
Moynihan declined further comment.
12 comments:
You know how Bush always seems to be dancing in front of the camera these days? Well, this is the latest official dance craze among the Republicans - stick your fingers in your ears and then jump around while singing "La La la I can't hear you."
Call me foolish but I'm still optimistic enough to believe that a decade or two down the road this country will look back upon the Bush years and wonder what the hell were we all thinking to allow that fool to be re-elected much less to stay in office for his full term.
Wow, I want one so I can post a .pdf of it.
What are you complaining about? They'll mail it out to you if you ask for it. And just think of all those other things that they have that they might mail out if you know what to ask for!
(Same thing happened here by the way - advice to the gubmint from various security organizations at the time was strong - 'There is no established link between Saddam and Al Qaeda'. They didn't care - just went ahead and said there was anyway. Scumsucking asswipes. But THEY'RE GONE NOW! And you guys can do it too!! I'm rooting for you!)
The real reason they're delaying it is because of a problem with the title, due to the previous writer's strike:
"Iran from Iraq like a Turkey, Oman!"
Dubya didn't like it because it had too many two-syllable words.
Crooks and Liars had a link to it. I found it yesterday when I was catching up after my computer problems.
I don't know why the hell they would want to hide it, most of us knew this before this damned invasion began. This report is the smoking gun of the biggest lie told in my lifetime.
Wow, big surprise. Really, I'm all taken aback by the whole thing.
lately I've been having sweet dreams of french revolution-esque decapitations, reign of terror-like class warfare and soviet style gulags. A man can dream can't he?
I have to admit, this did surprise me just a bit. Every time I think this Administration can't possibly get any ballsier, they prove me wrong.
There's going to be an all-out effor this fall to convince Americans that electing a Democratic President means surrendering to terrorists. I'm quite concerned about how far these loonies are actually prepared to go...
What does it say that they continually think they can get away with this?
Only way to know is as follows.
If government says it is so it isn't.
If government says it isn't so it is.
You'll never go far wrong
I could really stir up a hornets nest here but I will be the polite Canadian. Outside of the US, we see a different perspective than what is given to the people in the US. Originally, the invasion was because of terrorism....but now it looks like there were other motives....oil maybe?
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