Oh please, "the very constant and very consistent denial of this rumour by Bush". Yeah, the Bush administration have done absolutely their best from the beginning to separate the issues of Iraq/Saddam and 9/11. Sure. Do you really belive that Bush and/or anyone in his administration have done nothing to link Iraq/Saddam with 9/11?
If you truly believe they haven't I have underestimated you.

And why is a quote like "Saddam has had long established ties with al-Qaida'' not enough? Is it too subtle for you or the general public? 9/11 > al-Qa´eda > Iraq > Saddam; how much more would you need to make the connection between Iraq/Saddam and 9/11? Besides, I think we all know that people can be manipulated to believe things without someone spelling out the exact words. And just because you understand there may not be a link between Saddam and 9/11 doesn't tell nothing about the common public's capability to separate the issues. There must be some reason the public thinks Saddam is to blame for the 9/11 attack. Maybe they just all happened to decide that Saddam is the main culprit while examining some objective information. Right?

Btw, do you know how many times the words "terrorism"/"global terrorism"/"weapons of mass destruction" etc., "Osama Bin Laden" and "Saddam Hussein"were mentioned during the Republic Convention? One of the three options were not mentioned, can you guess which? You would probably guess that it would be Saddam who, as the Bush administration has (quietly) mentioned a few times, has had no ties to the 9/11 attack. But no, it was not Saddam. I'll give you another guess though.
Here's a pretty funny compilation of the convention that shows the main themes pretty well:
http://home.earthlink.net/~houval/gopconstrm.mov
(Apparently the site has been too popular so the bandwidth is limited at the moment, but perhaps the video can be found elsewhere on the net. I could send it to you, but it's over 13Mb...)

Now here are a few of the (and these are only some of the first few that came up on Google) links you can read and decide for yourself if the Bush administration has perhaps done a little something to establish a link between Iraq/Saddam and 9/11:

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0314/p02s01-woiq.html

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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0918-03.htm


"We don't know," Cheney said. "We've learned a couple of things. We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s."

"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties," Bush said.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5233810/


Cheney, however, insisted the case was not closed into whether there was an Iraq connection to the Sept. 11 attacks. "We don't know."

The vice president noted a disputed report about an alleged meeting between an Iraqi intelligence official and lead hijacker Mohamed Atta in the Czech Republic in April 2001. "We've never been able to confirm or to knock it down," Cheney said.

The 9/11 commission, however, said in one of three reports issued this week that "based on the evidence available — including investigation by Czech and U.S. authorities plus detainee reporting — we do not believe that such a meeting occurred."

Cheney responded that, for his part, the findings remained inconclusive. "It doesn't add anything from my perspective. I mean, I still am a skeptic."

Overall, the vice president defended the administration's view of Iraq's links to al-Qaida, saying the "the evidence is overwhelming" and citing the commission report's evidence of a meeting between bin Laden and an Iraqi official in 1994 in Sudan, as well as the presence of terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq.

He said he disagreed with the commission's conclusion on whether there was a "general relationship" between Iraq and al-Qaida.

"I don't know what they know," Cheney said of the commission, adding however that he "probably" knows more about Saddam and al-Qaida than the panel.

But Cheney declined to disagree outright with the report's conclusion that no evidence exists to connect Saddam to Sept. 11 — saying instead that, "I disagree with the way their findings have been portrayed. There has been enormous confusion."

“It’s not surprising people make that connection,” Cheney said at one point as polls showed most Americans believed Iraq was involved.

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http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/000563.html


March 18, 2003

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President

Consistent with section 3(b) of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243), and based on information available to me, including that in the enclosed document, I determine that:

(1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic and other peaceful means alone will neither (A) adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq nor (B) likely lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and

(2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.

Sincerely,


GEORGE W. BUSH


"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties," the president said. But he also said, "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the Sept. 11" attacks."

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http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0904/172321.html


The president's remarks last year were in response to questions about a Cheney appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" three days earlier in which the vice president said "I don't know" when asked whether Saddam was involved in the 9/11 attacks. However, the Kerry-Edwards campaign argued on Sunday that Cheney suggested such a link as recently as last week.

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...oll-iraq_x.htm

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http://www.pol.uiuc.edu/news/largio.htm

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Now seriously, can anyone say with a straight face that they don't believe Bush and his administration did not try to link 9/11 and Iraq/Saddam together?

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