-=> Quoting Wayne Chirnside to All <=-

 WC> Here's your Republican Plan for the New American Century.

 WC> Iraq's Alleged Al-Qaeda Ties Were Disputed Before War
 WC> Links Were Cited to Justify U.S. Invasion, Report Says

 WC> By Jonathan Weisman
 WC> Washington Post Staff Writer
 WC> Saturday, September 9, 2006; Page A01

 WC> A declassified report released yesterday by the Senate Select
 WC> Committee on Intelligence revealed that U.S. intelligence analysts were
 WC> strongly disputing the alleged links between Saddam Hussein and
 WC> al-Qaeda while senior Bush administration officials were publicly
 WC> asserting those links to justify invading Iraq.

 WC> Far from aligning himself with al-Qaeda and Jordanian terrorist Abu
 WC> Musab al-Zarqawi, Hussein repeatedly rebuffed al-Qaeda's overtures and
 WC> tried to capture Zarqawi, the report said. Tariq Aziz, the detained
 WC> former deputy prime minister, has told the FBI that Hussein "only
 WC> expressed negative sentiments about [Osama] bin Laden."

 WC> A Senate report on prewar intelligence found no evidence of ties
 WC> between al-Qaeda and former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, pictured
 WC> here testifying in Baghdad on Aug. 21, 2006.
 WC> A Senate report on prewar intelligence found no evidence of ties
 WC> between al-Qaeda and former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, pictured
 WC> here testifying in Baghdad on Aug. 21, 2006. (Daniel Berehulak - AP)
 WC> Intelligence

 WC> The report also said exiles from the Iraqi National Congress (INC)
 WC> tried to influence U.S. policy by providing, through defectors, false
 WC> information on Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
 WC> capabilities. After skeptical analysts warned that the group had been
 WC> penetrated by hostile intelligence services, including Iran's, a 2002
 WC> White House directive ordered that U.S. funding for the INC be
 WC> continued.

 WC> 
 WC> 

 WC> In a classified January 2003 report, for instance, the CIA concluded
 WC> that Hussein "viewed Islamic extremists operating inside Iraq as a
 WC> threat." But one day after that conclusion was published, Levin noted,
 WC> Vice President Cheney said the Iraqi government "aids and protects
 WC> terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda."

 WC> In February 2002, the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded
 WC> that "Iraq is unlikely to have provided bin Laden any useful [chemical
 WC> and biological weapons] knowledge or assistance." A year later, Bush
 WC> said: "Iraq has also provided al-Qaeda with chemical and biological
 WC> weapons training."

 WC> 
 WC> "It is such a blatant misleading of the United States, its people, to
 WC> prepare them, to position them, to, in fact, make them enthusiastic or
 WC> feel that it's justified to go to war with Iraq," said Sen. John D.
 WC> Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), the committee's vice chairman. "That kind of
 WC> public manipulation I don't know has any precedent in American
 WC> history."

Why is it, Wayne, that I strongly suspect you've deleted any 
parts *favorable* to President Bush?  BTW, that's a rhetorical 
question since I *know* you'd do *anything* to stop GWB from 
being shown in a favorable light ...

... Easy cookie recipe #1:  Buy one bag Oreos.

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