Deja Vu All Over Again, Again, As Fifth Anniversary of Al-Qaeda Attack Approaches

On the evening of Sept. 12, 2001, . . . President Bush wandered alone around the Situation Room in a White House emptied by the previous day's calamitous events.

Spotting Richard A. Clarke, his counterterrorism coordinator, Bush pulled him and a small group of aides into the dark paneled room.

"Go back over everything, everything," Bush said, according to Clarke's account. "See if Saddam did this."

"But Mr. President, al Qaeda did this," Clarke replied.

"I know, I know, but . . . see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred."

Reminded that the CIA, FBI and White House staffs had sought and found no such link before, Clarke said, Bush spoke "testily." As he left the room, Bush said a third time, "Look into Iraq/Saddam!"

There was no linkage between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. The Bush administration knew this, and invaded Iraq anyway. They put together a propaganda barrage pushing their lies until seventy per cent of Americans falsely believed Saddam was responsible for 9/11.

Five years after 9/11, a Senate report finally reveals the truth. There was no linkage between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

However, there is a linkage between Bush's Oedipal invasion of Iraq and the increasing moral and fiscal bankruptcy of this country, our failure to destroy Al Qaeda, our actual enemy, and the growing threat of Islamist fundamentalism, both Shi'a and Sunni.

Meanwhile, boys and girls, Osama Bin Forgotten. Al Qaeda, the medievalist energizer bunny, just keeps on ticking. And it looks like there's a nuclear Caliphate arising to take over the Middle East--but it will be Shi'a, not Sunni.

So it goes.

"Nothing America could have done would have provided al Qaeda and its new generation of cloned groups a better recruitment device than our unprovoked invasion of an oil-rich Arab country.

Nothing else could have so well negated all our other positive acts and so closed Muslim eyes and ears to our subsequent calls for reform in their region.

It was as if Usama bin Laden, hidden in some high mountain redoubt, were engaging in long-range mind control of George Bush, chanting, "invade Iraq, you must invade Iraq."

-- Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies

WaPo update on Bush's bogus linkage here.


Estimated US death toll, here: 12,000 dead, 25,000 badly wounded?
Estimated Iraqi death toll may reach 180,000, here.

9/11 anniversary
Iraq War lies
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