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Wolfowitz Backs Off al-Quida - Iraq Link
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WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's No. 2 official, Paul Wolfowitz, is backtracking from a public claim that associates of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden are trying to link up with Saddam Hussein loyalists to attack Americans.
In the past, Wolfowitz made the claim that al-Quaida were in Iraq, this was one of the reasons for the US to attack Iraq. Now he is framing his argument in a different more understandable way. Here are some of his new assertions to clear up the matter. Thanks Paul, I don't want to misunderstand why we attacked Iraq.
"We know Iraq had a great deal to do with terrorism in general and with al-Qaida in particular, and we know a great many of Bin Laden's key lieutenants are now trying to organize in cooperation with old loyalists from the Saddam regime to attack in Iraq," Wolfowitz said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America." But Wolfowitz — a key architect of U.S. policy in Iraq — said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press that he had misspoken.
He said he was referring to only one man — Bin Laden supporter Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the few names that Bush administration officials previously have cited to assert pre-war links between al-Qaida and Iraq.
Al-Zarqawi allegedly once received medical care in Baghdad, U.S. officials have said.Now that is a smoking gun.
"Zarqawi is actually the guy I was referring to — should have been more precise," Wolfowitz said Friday. "It's not a great many — it's one of bin Laden's key associates — probably better referred to that way than a key lieutenant."
It's not a great many — it's one..... Wolfowitz reminds me of the spy on Get Smart when he would do his would you believe skit. Would you believe the al-Quaida are training Saddam on how to use weapons of mass destruction? Would you believe one man, a very evil man, who is known to have attended terrorist school with Osama has imported al-Quaida sleeper cells into Baghdad? Would you believe that Bin Laden's barber sent a very threatening post card to President Bush. Yes very threatening, a Mr. Zarqawi was not going to teach at the School of the Americas training center if he didn't get more money.
He went on to say that Mr. Zarqawi, who is now bearing the burden of proof that al-quaida and Iraq have this relationship, "There are some indications that they work together (Iraq and al-Quaida) and they certainly work at a common purpose,". Good grief, talk about making it up as you go. First there is a link between teh two and then we should accept, well they certainly have something in common - to kill Americans. The Bush administration has limited evidence if any beyond the hypothetical of Iraqi-al-Qaida contacts before the war, and no conclusive evidence that Iraq and al-Qaida plotted joint terror operations. SO what will be the excuse for the expansion of the war, will it be those insurgents coming after us from Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia?
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