Monday, March 22, 2004



Just in case you haven't seen it

You've probably all seen this already, but just in case you haven't: a long-serving top-level US national security professional has come forward claiming that the White House wanted to attack Iraq immediately after 9/11. According to former national Security Council official Richard Clarke, who has served seven US presidents over the past 30 years, this is how the conversation went once Bush had returned to the White House:

"Rumsfeld was saying that we needed to bomb Iraq [...] And we all said ... no, no. Al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan. We need to bomb Afghanistan. And Rumsfeld said there aren't any good targets in Afghanistan. And there are lots of good targets in Iraq. I said, 'Well, there are lots of good targets in lots of places, but Iraq had nothing to do with it.'

Later, having been told by Bush to "find whether Iraq did this", Clarke submitted a report backed by the FBI and CIA's experts saying that there was no connection. It was sent back by Condoleezza Rice's office, with the comment

"Wrong answer. ... Do it again."

It's the faith-based presidency in a nutshell. "We already know the facts, and we don't need any 'experts' to tell us any different".

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