BREAKING NEWS STORIES
- Gunman Opens Fire in Tenn. Church
- Two Top Air Force Officials to Leave
- Get 'Em While They're Hot
- American Airlines Again Cancels Hundreds of Flights
- TSA Stops Person With Suspicious Items
- FAA To Review All Airline Inspections
- Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda
- Pentagon Report on Saddam's Iraq Censored?
- U.S. Military Concludes No Saddam Link to Al Qaeda
- News Roundup in a Minute -- Click Here
- Delta-Northwest Merger Taking a Nosedive?
- Sleeping Pilots? NTSB Opens Investigation Into Go! Airline Flight
- School Shooting Appears to Be Premeditated
- All Clear Given at the White House
- The Afghanistan Surge
- Some Election Monitors Pulling Out of Pakistan
- 2007 on Track to Be Second-Warmest Year
- Alleged Hostage Taker Arrested at Clinton Office
- Exclusive: A First Glimpse at Communications Between US Coast Guard and San Fran Ship
- Companies Ring Up $7.7 Million in Fines for 'Do Not Call' Violations
- Women Risk Heart Disease Even After They Stop Taking Birth Control Pill
- Judge Rules to Suppress Lisa Nowakâs Confession
- White House Edits ABC News Then Takes it Back
- Two Calif. Fires Now Thought to Be Arson
- Dulles Airport Evacuated Briefly Due to Suspicious Bag
- NASA Shelved Air Safety Study
- Wildfires Evacuate 250,000 in San Diego County
- Hijacked Fuel Tanker Found in D.C.
- Senator Kennedy Undergoes Surgery
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
Pentagon Report on Saddam's Iraq Censored?
Email
Print
ShareMarch 12, 2008 1:58 PM
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."
ABC News obtained the comprehensive military study of Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism on Tuesday. Read the report's executive summary HERE.
The study, which was due to be released Wednesday, found no "smoking gun" or any evidence of a direct connection between Saddam's Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist organization.
The report is based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion. It is also based on thousands of hours of interrogations of former top officials in Saddam's government who are now in U.S. custody.
Others have reached the same conclusion, but no previous study has had access to so much information. Further, this is the first official acknowledgement from the U.S. military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda.
The study does, however, show that Saddam Hussein did much to support terrorism in the Middle East and used terrorism "as a routine tool of state power." Saddam's government, for example, had a program for the "development, construction, certification and training for car bombs and suicide vests in 1999 and 2000." The U.S. military is still dealing with the fall-out from this particular program.
The report says Saddam's bureaucrats carefully recorded the regime's connections to Palestinian terrorists groups and its financial support for the families of suicide bombers.
The primary target, however, of Saddam's terror activities was not the United States, and not Israel. "The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq." Saddam's primary aim was self preservation and the elimination of potential internal threats to his power.
Bush administration officials have made numerous attempts to link Saddam Hussein and the Al Qaeda terror group in their justification for waging war against Iraq.
"What I want to bring to your attention today is the potentially much more sinister nexus between Iraq and the Al Qaida terrorist network," former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations February 5, 2003.
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.
"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda," The Washington Post quoted Bush as saying. "We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda."
"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.
"But the cost is far less than it will be if we get hit, for example, with a weapon that Saddam Hussein might provide to al-Qaeda, the cost to the United States of what happened on 9/11 with billions and billions of dollars and 3,000 lives. And the cost will be much greater in a future attack if the terrorists have access to the kinds of capabilities that Saddam Hussein has developed," Cheney said.
''There is no question but that there have been interactions between the Iraqi government, Iraqi officials and Al Qaeda operatives. They have occurred over a span of some 8 or 10 years to our knowledge. There are currently Al Qaeda in Iraq,'' former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a interview with Infinity CBS Radio, Nov. 14, 2002.
March 12, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (111)
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c4df253ef00e550fc356e8833
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Pentagon Report on Saddam's Iraq Censored? :
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
I can't believe it took the Pentagon 7 years to come to the same conclusions most Americans with a brain had all along. No weapons of mass destruction and no connection betweeen Iraq and Al Queda. Way to go Bush administration. Only thing left to do is bring the troops home but Bush won't do it, he wants to leave that mess for someone else to clean up. Bush = worst president ever
Posted by: Marley | May 4, 2008 10:47:21 PM
us empires LIES and CRIMES is boundless. the empires is on it's deathbed as well it should be.
Posted by: jack | Apr 21, 2008 2:55:40 PM
It seems to me that EVERYONE has missed the point here.
We attacked Saddam H. because he was suppossed to be supporting Al-Quida.
We defeated Saddam H., occuppied tthe country, and had him hung. (don't say WE didn't because he was in oour custody---and WE carried out the eexecution)
NOW, we are supplying arms and money to Sunni miltias to bring "order and security". The same people who supported Saddam Hussein. The same people Cond. Rice called a great step forward to release from prison and put in positions of power. And the same people who control the Iraqi army who are fighting the political enemies of the Prime Minister---a Sunni himself.
Official US policy is supporting the same people who we are told supported Al-Quida. US troops are currently attacking the Shi'ite who oppose the Sunnis. Therefore, US policy is in support of Al-Quida.
Posted by: Fred Linn | Apr 8, 2008 8:22:13 PM
it's funny that clinton wanted to the same thing as bush, and is on record of saying saddam is better off gone. hmmm.... i sense a double standard here.
Posted by: Eric | Mar 26, 2008 4:53:28 PM
May I suggest that all commenters here actually read the executive summary? It is almost exactly opposite of Mr. Karl's portrayal. The inaccuracy may reach the threshold for a correction.
Reading the report reveals that Saddam had extensive contacts within various Islamic terrorist groups. I believe that the journalists reporting this have focused on the qualifier "no operational links" (as opposed to tacit or secret support) in order to justify an anti-war position.
Judge for yourselves.
Posted by: Wade | Mar 16, 2008 6:34:43 PM
I don't think anyone should hold their breath until CD's actually are sent to anyone. They'll be like those disappeared e-mails from the WH on firings of attorneys. If you're going to flip off the country and the constitution about one thing, why even consider a freedom of information law?
Posted by: Elisabeth | Mar 15, 2008 6:33:10 PM
I assume, and will expect, that as soon as someone has the CD in her or his hands, that it can get posted online pretty darned quickly ?
The mainstream media (like you, ABC) owe at least that much to the public.
Posted by: Jon | Mar 15, 2008 1:48:27 PM
The press should order the CD and report the results of the study.
As for Bush and his gang of goons, they lied to the American people. They knew that Saddam was not a threat. They belong in prison.
Posted by: Dave | Mar 14, 2008 1:26:18 PM
Mark E. @Mar 12, 2008 7:39:40 PM
Mark, the report was produced a year ago (January 2007) but was just approved for declassification and (redacted) release under procedures set out (according to the report) in September 2007.
Posted by: Richard H | Mar 14, 2008 1:08:00 PM
Al Queda...Fear, Fire, Foe! What a humbug! If we must have a fear to live with, We should be far more concerned with the "neo-Quedas" inside our goverment who put money and power ahead of america and It's citizens! oh and don't forget they tried to buy that "yeller cake"
Posted by: CEO,citizens,eyes,open | Mar 14, 2008 11:39:04 AM
ok by a show of hands, how many of you are suprised by this? ............anyone? ..................im waiting.............guess not
Posted by: nerd | Mar 14, 2008 5:00:25 AM
Where do we send for the CD?
And ABC : good coverage but go further and post the contact for the Cd !
Posted by: Steve | Mar 14, 2008 1:35:59 AM
It is this type of news that should make everyone question the culpability of this admin in the events of 9/11. The way they swiftly went after Iraq with an orchestrated campaign of lies on the heels of 9/11mmakes me think they knew 9/11 was coming. Now did they make it happen or let it happen? When will America wake up? I fear never.
Posted by: teus | Mar 14, 2008 12:54:48 AM
Pelosi is as guilty as Bush.
Posted by: David G | Mar 13, 2008 11:34:56 PM
OK, Frank. Sure, we all think O.J.'s guilty.
But are we going to drag him out in the street and beat him to death just because we THINK he's guilty?
You don't go to war based on hunches. And besides, all this information is coming from the military. Are you actually saying the military is trying to discredit the President for political purposes?
Posted by: gb8898 | Mar 13, 2008 7:16:35 PM
So when you request a copy of this report do you end up on the terrorist watchlist? This seems like impeachment material to me -- this Administration has repeatedly made public misstatements and it is beyond comprehension why this has not gained more traction.
Posted by: Gardner Waterberry | Mar 13, 2008 6:43:16 PM
Just because the Pentagon can't prove does NOT mean it did not happend!!!
Example O.J. They could not proved he killed two persons, but that does not
mean this din NOT happend. And like everything, its political. Why has no one interview the Iraqi Comerical Pilot that moved all the WMD to Syria? What next, no real prove Iran is building Nukes!! Who really belives that? beside Democrats and China.
Posted by: Frank Pinon | Mar 13, 2008 6:37:11 PM
So far we have only seen the President
and his staff hide behind claims of
executive privilege, outright lies,
obsessive secrecy, and of course, in
the case of Scooter Libbey, a pardon
from Mr. Bush.
Until this country sees the law applied
equally to everyone, and all citizens,
including the President, held accountable,
we will continue to see outlandishly
abusive actions such as those taken in
Iraq and Afghanistan repeated.
Posted by: Marc Allen | Mar 13, 2008 5:59:18 PM
Does the Administration's perversity know no end? When will lying and covering up the truth have its ultimate blowback? We are all waiting.
Posted by: Archie1954 | Mar 13, 2008 4:00:38 PM
I'm amazed to see how many how many of you common American citizens have the opinion 'we should do something about Iran', just because they are enriching uranium for peaceful purposes or not... It would be the complete end of America and probably the rest of the world as well.
When will you get it? The time of American interference and domination of other countries is over!
It's time you take a good look at yourselves - iow. INWARDS, not OUTWARDS.
And By the way, America is the only country which has ever actually USED nuclear weapons against another country.
Not to forget the depleted uranium pollution after the recent wars and occupations.
Get real... nobody looks up to you anymore, and the present global mess we are in now is directly and indirectly caused by America.
Maybe not by YOU as an individual, but by your corrupted government which more than half of YOU got into power.
Be ashamed. YOU! All of YOU!
KimB. From a snotty little country called Denmark.
Posted by: Kim Brian | Mar 13, 2008 3:55:02 PM
It is not only the 4000 American Troops killed and the many more thousands severely injured that Bush/Cheny/Rumsfeld are directly responsible for, and so far totally unaccountable for, but, as a former civilian contractor in Iraq, I can tell you about friends, never counted, that never came home alive and many more wounded. The people that started this thing are a shame to this Nation.
Posted by: John Cusick | Mar 13, 2008 3:25:55 PM
I ordered a copy of the report, and I urge you to do so, and to urge your friends to do so. AND recommend it to your public library!
I did that today, and within the hour had the email response "Thank you for your email. Your copy will be sent today."
So I suggest you give it a try too. But be polite! remember, the soldier who gets your request is not the one who is keeping the report off the internet....and may be even more annoyed that you about Bush's war.
Posted by: rewinn | Mar 13, 2008 3:03:18 PM
IT is unconstitutional to go to the war without declaration! And we didn't know about at the beginning and whatever is going on now is the domino effect and all because of our ignorance and lies that Mass media brings to us.
The only guy who could change it was a Ron
Paul!!!
Posted by: zafar | Mar 13, 2008 2:33:11 PM
You would think stuff like this would be front page news in every US news outlet. But to be quite honest, there were boat loads of people saying this..not just Obama, when this whole conflict got started. The apathy of the public as a whole is the most shocking part of this story.
Posted by: Steve-o | Mar 13, 2008 2:07:27 PM
What are you people talking about? You
should know by now that there is no
difference between Repubs and Dems.
Different sides of the same coin.
Posted by: Maximillian | Mar 13, 2008 1:29:11 PM
Post a comment
