It was all a lie

["Robert L Bass" <robertbass1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Senate Intelligence Committee has found no evidence of links between the regime of Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.

In a report issued on Friday, it also found that was little or no evidence to support a raft of claims made by the US intelligence
community concerning Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.  The 400-page report was three years in the making, and is probably the
definitive public account of the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq.

One starting point is this: In a poll conducted this month by Opinion Research Corporation for CNN, a sample of American adults was
asked: "Do you think Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 11 September terrorist attacks, or not?"  Forty-three percent of
those polled answered yes, they believed Saddam was personally involved.

Even though it is well-established that Saddam Hussein was no ally of al-Qaeda, nor did he possess weapons of mass destruction, the
original justifications for the invasion for Iraq linger on, often in ways that have strangely mutated on their journey through
politics and media.

Cheney claims 'untrue' -- In fact, the intelligence agencies had been extremely cautious in suggesting links between Saddam Hussein
and al-Qaeda.  It was Vice-President Dick Cheney who asserted most strongly in public that Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaeda had
an operational relationship.

In a television interview in September 2003, he said there was "a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda that stretched back through
most of the decade of the '90s... al-Qaeda sent personnel to Baghdad to get trained... the Iraqis providing bomb-making expertise
and advice to the al-Qaeda organization."
It was "clearly official policy" on the part of Iraq, he said.

Friday's report, issued by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, provides another definitive statement that that assertion is
simply not true.

BBC News World Report.


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