Talking Points Memo linked to this report from ABC about the Bush administration is trying to deflect attention away from a new report that directly contradicts administration claims and the ensuing right-wing echo pre-Iraq occupation that there were operational links between Saddam and al-Qaeda.
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl Reports: The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention. This morning, the Pentagon cancelled plans to send out a press release announcing the report’s release and will no longer make the report available online.
The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the authors. No more. The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.
It won’t be emailed to reporters and it won’t be posted online.
Asked why the report would not be posted online and could not be emailed, the spokesman for Joint Forces Command said: “We’re making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we’ll send it out via CD in the mail.”
Another Pentagon official said initial press reports on the study made it “too politically sensitive.”
Some people said they were having problems downloading the Executive Summary so I thought I’d post it. If you try and get it from ABC it does take a minute or so to start even on a quick connection. I imagine that eventually the full report will find its way on-line. Saddam did use terrorism, but the report concluded that his primary targets were Iraqis in Iraq and living outside the country, not Americans or Israelis. ABC brings up what should be embarrassing quotes,
On June 18, 2004 the Washington Post quoted President George W. Bush as saying: “The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda: because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda,” Bush said.
“We know he’s out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons and we know that he has a long-standing relationship with various terrorist groups, including the al-Qaeda organization,” Vice President Dick Cheney said on NBC’s Meet The Press March 16, 2003.
Whether people that have been so shameless in their selling of a counter productive war will actually feel embarrassed is another matter.
The Long Goodbye 