Iraq. (Part 1)

Congress resolved "that the government of Iraq is in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations, and therefore the president is urged to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws of the United States, to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations".
Then, on Oct. 31, 1998, Congress passed the Iraq Liberation Act, which declared, "It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime."
Armed with that "authority," Clinton attempted – from 20,000 feet – to remove Saddam from power at the end of the year.
As the bombing of Saddam's palaces was an obvious attempt to assassinate him, Saddam ceased "cooperating" with the UNSCOM inspectors, who had fled Iraq on the eve of the attempt.
Then, in November 2002, President Bush got the Security Council to pass Resolution 1441, which afforded Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations under relevant resolutions of the Council."
Of course there was a failure in our intelligence prior to Sept 11, which directly led to the attacks. With excellent hindsight, Kerry keeps on pounding Bush on the intelligence failures. Bush’s fault? Before Bush became President, Kerry served eight years on the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he worked to gut the CIA. He never once voted to increase funding for intelligence, and even, on three separate occasions, voted to cut the intelligence budget. In 1994, Kerry tried to slash the intelligence budget by $6 billion. And this was after the first World Trade Center attack. For that attack, Ramzi Yousef, an Iraqi, is now serving life in prison.

Kerry also criticizes Bush for the failures related to airport security. However, he was a member of the Senate Transportation Committee. He should be careful before pointing fingers. As Jesus said, always remove the plank in your eye first before you remove the sawdust in your friend’s eye. (Practice what you preach!)

Michael Reagan, son of Ronald Reagan, had this to say:

“ABC News, which either has a very short memory or is willing to cover up what they know about the connection [between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda]. And they know plenty – they just won't talk about it. The fact is, ABC interviewed bin Laden and had disclosed the ties that existed between Baghdad and the master terrorist as far back as 1999 when Bill Clinton was president.

AS Reagan wrote, “Here's what ABC News reported on January 14, 1999: Citing an alleged key military adviser and a man believed to be "privy to bin Laden's most secret projects" who had been apprehended, ABC News said:

The U.S. government alleges he was under secret orders to procure enriched uranium for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons. These are allegations bin Laden does not now deny. "It would be a sin for Muslims not to try to possess the weapons," bin Laden told ABC. "But how we could use these weapons if we possessed them is up to us."

“Commented ABC: "With an American price on his head there weren't many places bin Laden could go unless he teamed up with another international pariah, one also with an interest in weapons of mass destruction. 'Osama believed in the enemy of my enemy is my friend and is someone I should cooperate with. That's certainly the current case with Iraq,'" an ABC reporter involved with the bin Laden interview said.
“And the ABC narrator added:

Saddam Hussein has a long history of harboring terrorists, Carlos the Jackal, Abu Nidal, Abu Abas – the most notorious terrorists of their era all found shelter and support at one time in Baghdad.
Intelligence sources say bin Laden's long relationship with the Iraqis began as he helped Sudan's fundamentalist government in their efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Three weeks after (Clinton's bombing of a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory) on August 31st, bin Laden reaches out to his friends in Iraq and Sudan. Iraq's Vice President arrives in Khartoum to show his support for the Sudanese after the U.S. attack.
ABC News has learned that during these meetings senior Sudanese officials acting on behalf of bin Laden asked if Saddam Hussein would grant him asylum. Iraq was indeed interested. ABC News has learned that in December an Iraqi intelligence chief ... (who in 1999 was Iraq's ambassador to Turkey) made a secret trip to Afghanistan to meet with bin Laden." During the meeting, ABC says their sources reported that "bin Laden was told he would be welcome in Baghdad.

ABC? CBS? A prequel to Rathergate? Were they speaking the truth? Or did they fabricate it?


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