WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 — President Bush said Wednesday that there was no evidence that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, disputing an impression that critics say the administration tried to foster to justify the war against Iraq.
“THERE’S NO QUESTION that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties,” the president said. But he also said, “We’ve had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th.”
The president’s comment was the administration’s firmest assertion that there was no proven link between Saddam and Sept. 11. It came after Vice President Dick Cheney clouded the issue Sunday by saying, “It’s not surprising people make that connection.”
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Cheney also repeated an allegation, doubted by many in the intelligence community, that Mohamed Atta, the lead Sept. 11 attacker, met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in the Czech Republic five months before Sept. 11, 2001.
“We’ve never been able to develop any more of that yet, either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it,” Cheney said Sunday. However, other U.S. authorities have said information gathered on Atta’s movement showed that he was on the U.S. East Coast when that meeting supposedly took place.
ALLEGATION HOTLY DISPUTED
Critics of the Bush administration have pointed to statements like Cheney’s as evidence that the administration was exaggerating al-Qaida’s prewar links with Saddam to help justify the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
A recent poll indicated that nearly 70 percent of Americans believed Saddam probably was personally involved. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday, “I’ve not seen any indication that would lead me to believe that I could say that.”
The administration has argued that Saddam’s government had close links to al-Qaida, the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden that masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks. Bush himself has taken to referring to Iraq as the central front in the war against terror.
But Bush said there was no attempt by the administration to try to confuse people about any link between Saddam and Sept. 11.
| “No, we’ve had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th,” Bush said. “What the vice president said was is that he [Saddam] has been involved with al-Qaida. ... There’s no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties.” BUSH WOULD WELCOME SADDAM’S DEATH |
Bush spoke after a number of newspapers from states important to his re-election campaign printed articles Wednesday morning based on an interview he conducted Tuesday. In that interview, he predicted that Saddam would eventually be captured or killed, but he said the definition of victory in Iraq would be when the country was free and peaceful.
The comments were published on the same day that a new audiotape surfaced in which the purported voice of Saddam demanded the United States unconditionally withdraw from Iraq or face “catastrophic” losses.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Bush said that his policies for rebuilding Iraq and dismantling militant organizations were working but that the message had not filtered down to the public.
The alleged Saddam audiotape, meanwhile, called for Iraqi men and women to step up their fight against the U.S. occupation.
“You Mujahedeen, Iraqis and women, increase your attacks on your enemies,” the voice said. It sounded like Saddam’s, but there was no way to independently verify who the speaker was.
The man called on U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraq immediately.
“We call on you to withdraw your armies as soon as possible and without any conditions or restrictions, because there is no reason for you to suffer more losses, which will be disastrous for the Americans,” he said, claiming that the recording was made in “mid-September.”
The man also called on Iraqis to protest against occupation in the streets, to “beat the walls in protest” and to donate money to the resistance.
The last purported Saddam tape was broadcast Sept. 1 by the Al-Jazeera television network, and the CIA said it was likely authentic.
Al-Arabiya news editor Aymen Gaballah said the new tape was received Wednesday in Baghdad. As usual, he said, someone called the Al-Arabiya office and said he had a tape of Saddam.
He said the tape was aired in its entirety, 14 minutes.
Speaking with long pauses between thoughts and with the sound of papers rustling as if reading the message, the voice sounded to experienced ears to be that of Saddam, who sounded very tired.
U.S. forces in Iraq have been plagued by guerrilla attacks blamed on Saddam’s followers since he was ousted in April, hampering efforts to rebuild the country.
In an interview published Wednesday, the commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, told The Times newspaper of London that U.S. soldiers now also faced revenge attacks from ordinary Iraqis angered by the occupation.
Sorry about the formating folks. I just thought it was an interesting article and wanted to share it with you. I found it on msn.com.
~Aztec