No Connection Between Iraq and al Qaeda
On September 21, 2001, Bush was told in the President's Daily Brief that the intelligence community had no evidence connecting Saddam Hussein's regime to the 9/11 attacks. Furthermore, there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with al Qaeda. This was no surprise. Al Qaeda is a consortium of intensely religious Islamic fundamentalists, whereas Hussein ran a secular government that repressed religious activity in Iraq.
Undeterred, Bush and his people continued to tout the connection. Although the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) determined in February 2002 that "Iraq is unlikely to have provided bin Laden any useful [chemical or biological weapons] knowledge or assistance," Bush proclaimed one year later, "Iraq has also provided al-Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training." And although the CIA concluded in a classified January 2003 report that Hussein "viewed Islamic extremists operating inside Iraq as a threat," Cheney claimed the next day that the Iraqi government "aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda."
To support their claims that Iraq was training al-Qaeda members, Bush, Cheney, and Colin Powell repeatedly cited information provided by Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, an al-Qaeda prisoner captured shortly after 9/11. An ex-FBI official told Newsweek that the CIA "duct-taped [al-Libi's] mouth, cinched him up and sent him to Cairo" for some "more-fearsome Egyptian interrogations" in violation of U.S. law prohibiting extraordinary rendition. Al-Libi's account proved worthless. The February 2002 DIA memo reveals al-Libi provided his American interrogators with false material suggesting Iraq had trained al-Qaeda to use weapons of mass destruction. Even though U.S. intelligence thought the information was untrue as early as 2002 because it was obtained by torture, al-Libi's information provided the centerpiece of Colin Powell's now thoroughly discredited February 2003 claim before the United Nations that Iraq had developed WMD programs.
The March to War
Bush poked his head into Condoleezza Rice's office and said, "f*ck Saddam. We're taking him out."
In August 2002, Cheney cautioned that Saddam Hussein could try to dominate "the entire Middle East and subject the United States to nuclear blackmail." He added, "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." The same month, the Bush administration quietly established the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) to lead a propaganda campaign to bolster public support for war with Iraq.
A week before WHIG began its work in earnest, the Sunday Times of London broke the story of the "Downing Street Memo," which contained the secret minutes of a July 2002 meeting with Tony Blair and Sir Richard Dearlove, chief of British intelligence. Dearlove reported that Bush had already decided to go to war and was making sure "the intelligence and facts" about Iraq and WMD "were being fixed around the policy" of war on Iraq.
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