Top Dem Senator releases documents that undercut Iraq, al-Qaeda link

[peace4all]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12875384-23109,00.html

Reports undercut Iraq, al-Qaeda link

From correspondents in Washington

April 16, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse

A TOP Democratic senator has released formerly classified documents that he says undercut top US officials' pre-Iraq war claims of a link between Saddam Hussein's regime and the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

"These documents are additional compelling evidence that the intelligence community did not believe there was a cooperative relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda, despite public comments by the highest ranking officials in our government to the contrary," Senator Carl Levin said today.

The declassified documents undermine the Bush administration's claims regarding Iraq's involvement in training al-Qaeda operatives and the likelihood of a meeting between September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in April 2001, Senator Levin said in a statement.

In October 2002, Mr Bush said: "We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases."

But a June 2002 CIA report, titled Iraq and al-Qa'ida: Interpreting a Murky Relationship, said "the level and extent of this is assistance is not clear".

-more-
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12875384-23109,00.html

[NewJeffCT]

1. Hmm, and you had to get that link from an Australian paper

I'm sure Fox & CNN will be all over that story... right after pigs start flying.

[displacedtexan]

2. This is what I hate about politics!

You can't just present the facts immediately to refute the asshat claims made by George W., Powell, et al during the run up to the invasion.

You have to wait until the Backside Of The Bell Curve has absorbed enough doubt to accept the basic fact that BushCo lied to them. It has to be timed so that the Backsiders think they've figured out the truth all by themselves.

Edited to add: Oh, yeah! BushCo obviously "classified" all documents that proved they were lying.

[zanne]

3. That's very true, displacedtexan.

It's always too late, especially with this administration. Even when the truth is apparent, the media won't get into it until after an election. (And if it isn't on CNN, it isn't happening.)

[peace4all]

4. excellent point

and these types of "revelations" are certainly a bit late after thousands have been killed.

[displacedtexan]

5. It was the same song & dance with Nixon.

AFTER the 1972 election, people began to wonder if Nixon, who had been a known entity since 1952 (Ike's VP) and even earlier...

Might really be a crook.

DUH!

It's a Salieri world, friends!