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"Saddam's Al Qaida, this I know...for George Bush has told me so..."

(updated October 25th, 2004)
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“We have never claimed that Saddam Hussein ... had either direction or control of 9/11.”
– National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 9/16/03

“You can't distinguish between al-Qaida and Saddam.”
– President Bush, 9/25/02

Date What The Administration Says What Everyone Else Says
2004
  • Pentagon Reportedly Skewed C.I.A.'s View of Qaeda Tie, by Douglas Jehl, New York Times, October 22, 2004

  • Cheney-Speak, by Derrick Z. Jackson, June 23, 2004 By saying he "probably" knows things the commission does not yet know, Cheney makes a mockery of the morning in April that the commission interviewed him and President Bush at the Oval Office.

  • 9/11 Panel: New Evidence on Iraq-Al-Qaida. by Shaun Waterman, UPI (June 22) "a senior officer in an elite unit of the security services of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein may have been a member of al-Qaida involved in the planning of the suicide hijackings"

  • Media Blatantly Distorts Iraq-Al Qaeda Link, by Bobby Eberle for GOPUSA.com, June 21, 2004

  • Bush disputes 9/11-Iraq findings, BBC, June 17, 2004

    "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al-Qaeda is because there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda." --George Bush, June 17, 2004

  • Bush stands by al Qaeda, Saddam link, Tuesday, June 15, 2004

    WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush repeated his administration's claim that Iraq was in league with al Qaeda under Saddam Hussein's rule, saying Tuesday that fugitive Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ties Saddam to the terrorist network.

  • Cheney, in Florida visit, claims ties between Hussein, al Qaida, by Mike Schneider, Associated Press, June 14, 2004

    "He had long established ties with al Qaida."
    --Dick Cheney

  • The president as illusionist, by Scot Lehigh, Boston Globe, April 16, 2004

    "I have not seen smoking gun, concrete evidence about the connection, but I do believe the connections existed."
    --Colin Powell, January 2004

    "There's overwhelming evidence...of a connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq."
    --Dick Cheney, January 2004
  • How to Skew Intelligence, New York Times, October 23, 2004
    A report issued Thursday by the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin of Michigan, shows that on the question of an Iraqi-Qaeda axis, Mr. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and others offered an indictment that was essentially fabricated in the office of Douglas Feith, the under secretary of defense for policy.
  • Rumsfeld's missing link, The Guardian, October 6, 2004
  • Now They Tell Us LA Times, October 6, 2004
  • CIA review finds no evidence Saddam had ties to Islamic terrorists, by Warren P. Strobel, Jonathan S. Landay, and John Walcott, Knight Ridder Newspapers, Oct. 05, 2004
  • Saddam as the Twentieth Hijacker, by James Bovard, Future Freedom of Foundation, October 1, 2004
    The Bush administration cannot brush aside the 9/11 commission's report. A commission whose chairman was appointed by Bush and whose ground rules were dictated in large part by the White House has found that the Bush administration's claim regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was baseless. And after more than 900 American soldiers have died in Iraq, this cannot qualify as a harmless error.
  • Powell says Saddam not tied to 9/11, Washington Post, September 13, 2004
    Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday, said he had "seen nothing that makes a direct connection between Saddam Hussein and that awful regime and what happened on 9/11."
  • Al Qaeda-Iraq Link Recanted: Captured Libyan Reverses Previous Statement to CIA, Officials Say, by Dana Priest, Washington Post, August 1, 2004

  • 9/11 report finds no al-Qaeda, Iraqi links, by Philip Shenon, July 13, 2004

  • C.I.A. Director Again Disputes Hijacker's Iraqi Contact, by Douglas Jehl, New York Times, July 9, 2004

  • US officials doubt Iraqi officer was an Al Qaeda member, by Adam Entous, Reuters (June 22, 2004)

  • CIA Casts Doubt on Iraqi Militia Link to al Qaeda NPR, June 22, 2004

  • Two Panelists Detail Allies' Al Qaeda Ties, "...the commission concluded that Al Qaeda had stronger ties to other nations than it did to Iraq." (LA Times, 6/21/04)

  • No al Qaeda, Iraq cooperation, CNN, Wednesday, June 16, 2004

    The [9-11] panel said it found "no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States." The report contradicts statements from the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda.

  • 9/11 Panel Challenges Bush on Al-Qaeda-Iraq Links, by Jim Lobe, June 16, 2004

  • 9/11 probe - uneasy read for Bush, by Jonathan Marcus, BBC Diplomatic Correspondent

    "As former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I can tell you there's no evidence that Saddam Hussein had any role in September the 11, and there's scant evidence that there was any serious contacts [with Al Qaeda]."
    --Bob Graham, 03/19/04

  • No proof links Iraq, al-Qaida, Powell says, MSNBC, January 8, 2004

    "The most intensive searching over the last two years has produced no solid evidence of a co-operative relationship between Saddam Hussein's government and al-Qaeda."
    --Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, January 2004
2003
"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties," – President Bush, 9/17/03
  • “The regime of Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction.”
    – President Bush’s UN speech, 9/23/03

  • “Iraq [is] the central front in the war on terror.”
    – President Bush’s UN speech, 9/23/03

  • Bush: No Saddam Links To 9/11, CBS NEWS, September 18, 2003

  • “There was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda.”
    – Vice President Cheney, 9/14/03

  • “I think it’s not surprising that people make that connection” [between Saddam and 9/11]
    -- Vice President Cheney on 9/14/03

  • "Saddam was a danger in the region where the 9/11 threat emerged."
    - Condi Rice, September 2003

  • President Bush sent a letter to Congress on 3/19/03 saying that the Iraq war was permitted specifically under legislation that authorized force against “nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.”
"We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the 11 September attacks" -- President Bush, 9/18/03
  • Bush rejects Saddam 9/11 link , BBC, 18 September, 2003

  • National Journal reported on 8/9/03, that “three former Bush Administration officials who worked on intelligence and national security issues said the prewar evidence tying Al Qaedea was tenuous, exaggerated and often at odds with the conclusions of key intelligence agencies.”

  • The New York Times reported “since the fall of Baghdad, coalition forces have not brought to light any significant evidence demonstrating the bond between Iraq and Al Qaeda…Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, the two highest-ranking Qaeda operatives in custody, have told investigators that Mr. bin Laden shunned cooperation with Saddam Hussein.” [NY Times, 7/20/03].

  • The bipartisan September 11th commission report “undercuts Bush administration claims before the war that Hussein had links to Al Qaeda.” [LA Times, 7/19/03].

  • CIA found no al-Qaida-Saddam tie, Knight Ridder News, July 4, 2003

  • The NY Times in June reported, “The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track Al Qaeda told reporters that his team had found no evidence linking Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein.” [6/27/03]
2002
  • "Within a week, or a month, Saddam could give his WMD to al-Qaeda."
    – Donald Rumsfeld, November 2002

  • “You can't distinguish between al-Qaida and Saddam.”
    – President Bush, 9/25/02
  • No evidence exists to substantiate the claim that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda had any connections. In fact, most intelligence points to the contrary.

  • Under the headline “Allies Find No Links Between Iraq, Al Qaeda,” the LA Times reported on 11/4/02 that U.S. allies fighting Al Qaeda in Europe found no evidence of an Iraqi-Qaeda connection.

  • Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda Are Not Allies, by Daniel Benjamin, for The New York Times, September 30 2002
2001
  • On 12/18/01, the London Telegraph reported a story under the headline “Iraq link to Sept 11 attack and anthrax is ruled out” detailing how key assertions made by the Administration were unfounded.

"Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including al-Qaida members."
--from the official White House website,
under the heading "Disarm Saddam Hussein."
Now the administration claims they never said anything of the sort.
So, is Bush lying? Or are his "flip flops" a lot more dangerous than John Kerry's?

But wait--
Did their evil plan to mislead and misrepresent the American Public work?
How could it?
We're the smartest bestest country in the world!

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