57% of Americans believe Saddam gave substantial support to al-Qaeda.

[tedzbear]

From Juan Cole: Informed Comment

Poll: 57% of Americans Believe Saddam Gave Substantial Support to al-Qaeda

A new poll shows that as of mid-March, 57% of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein had given substantial support to al-Qaeda. Worse, 45% actually say that "clear evidence" has been found in Iraq to support this allegation! As for weapons of mass destruction 45 percent say they believe Saddam had them before the recent war, and 22 percent say that he had a major program for developing them.

There is no documentary or physical evidence for any of these assertions.

The only good thing about the poll is that it showed that a majority of Americans now believes the Iraq war will not bring greater peace and stability to the Middle East (56% did believe it in May 2003), and 51% believe that Iraqis want US troops out of their country (this may actually be overly simplistic).

The poll was commissioned by the ' University of Maryland's Program in International Policy Attitudes, conducted by Knowledge Networks from March 16 to 22, was released yesterday. It surveyed 1,311 adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points. '



I am beginning to despair that all of our anti-war efforts have been in vain. It seems most American voters refuse to acknowledge the truth. Either because they are loyal Republicans or else because they are too busy (or lazy) to educate themselves beyond the sound bites on CNN.

Also, a poll in the L.A. Times today says that most Americans support the Patriot Act and that Kerry is being advised to tone down his resistance to it by his advisers.

Looks like whether it's Bush or Kerry in 04, we're going to stay the course in Iraq AND obey Patriot Act II.

:puke: X :nuke: = move to Canada?

[htuttle]

1. Sigh...

No wonder the Penis and Breast enlargement pills business is so successful here..

"Step right up! Get yer snake oil, right here! "

PT Barnum was right.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Circus clowns.

"More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing in nothing, than by believing too much."-P.T. Barnum

[fearnobush]

2. This only proves that our sad pathetic population of sheeple really

are in fact - Brainwashed. Hitler was real good at this too. When the fuck are they gonna climb out of their holes and wake up! or are these polls Freeped, rigged by the BFEE?

[Shopaholic]

3. SOP for the Bush Admin

Throw the lie out there, repeat it over and over again, and when the truth comes out, the citizens are so brain-washed they're convinced the truth is a lie and the lie is the truth.

[Ernesto]

6. The reason chimp spends so much time @ the ranch

He has a secret canyon with a flock of sheep where he practises herding them around. That way he is always prepared when he goes back to work (campaigning).

[saigon68]

23. Bulk of German people under Hitler believed Jews were

a filthy vermin infested lot.

Amazing what a few good propagandists can do.





Der ewige Jude ("The Eternal Jew") is the most famous Nazi propaganda film. It was produced at the insistence of Joseph Goebbels, under such active supervision that it is effectively his work. It depicts the Jews of Poland as corrupt, filthy, lazy, ugly, and perverse: they are an alien people which have taken over the world through their control of banking and commerce, yet which still live like animals.

Though unquestionably vicious, many would say that, by today's standards, it is also crude and transparent. The narrator explains the Jews' ratlike behavior, while showing footage of rats squirming from sewers and leaping at the camera. The film's most shocking scene is the slaughter of a cow, shown in bloody detail, by a grinning Rabbi - and it is followed by, of all things, three innocent (presumably German) lambs nuzzling each other.

edit for link : http://www.holocaust-history.org/der-ewige-jude/

[Lindacooks]

42. People just don't realize the danger of chimp because

we have never lived under facists. This country has been more or less free for 225 years. Europeans know what facism looks like and they have lived through wars and under dictators. Therefore they are far more vigilant about freedom than the U.S.

If chimp gets four more years (shudder) then we'll really see true facism here. Maybe then people will wake up - I just don't know.

[Jack Rabbit]

4. This should make Kerry's strategy clear

Stop trying to justify the war or this or that vote on it and just make sure the public gets the facts. It is obvious that the more people who know that Bush lied about Saddam's weapons and his terrorist associations, the more likely it is that Kerry will win in November.

If Kerry wants to keep his options open about the occupation, that's okay with me. A man possessed of common sense will realize that the US must get out of Iraq sooner rather than later; I believe Kerry is a man with common sense, as much as he tries to convince us otherwise.

Kerry should come right out and call the Bushies a den of liars, say that there no WMDs have been found and that if there were any to be found, they would have been found by now and that Saddam had nothing to do with September 11.

The Bushies firmly believe nice guys finish last. When they're playing the game, that's unusually true. It's time for Kerry to tell the not-very-nice truth.

[snippy]

24. You are right. FIRE THE LIAR should be the Kerry campaign slogan.

The entire world knows that Bush is the most compulsive and incessant liar in the history of American politics.

Bush claims that John McCain has an illegitimate Negro daughter and the yawning boy was not there and was not yawning and besides he was standing some place else and Richard Clarke had complete access to Bush and Rice which proves that Clarke was out of the loop which is Clinton's fault and Bush promised to veto McCain-Feingold which means that unnamed White House sources may be identified whenever Bush wishes even though everyone except Bush himself knows where he was during his Alabama National Guard service which was after he volunteered to go to Viet Nam but before he was no longer required to take a flight physical and about the same time that God ordered Bush to smite Saddam which is Clinton's fault because the 60 lines of embryonic stem cells and more arsenic in the water and more mercury in the air prove that republican science is better than sound science but the Bush administration did not illegally conspire to illegally reveal the identity of a covert CIA operative which resulted in 2 million new jobs being created because democrats support terrorism and are not good Americans just as the Jews were not good Germans which is why Bush said he would veto the creation of both the Department of Homeland Security and the 9/11 Commission but the White House is cooperating with the 9/11 Commission which is why the White House withheld documents and called the republicans on the Commission before Clarke testified and why the White House is not coordinating the attacks on the integrity and bipartisanship of the Commission since the dental xrays prove that Bush spoke with the CIA director everyday and did not ignore either the repeated warnings of the dangers of al Qaeda and Osama or the August 2001 intelligence briefing specifically warning of the upcoming 9/11 attacks because the United States is a nation with a mission and that mission is to bring freedom to every single person in the world which will cut the deficit in half if you do not count those parts of the deficit which will increase under Bush which is Clinton's fault but the boxes from China were labeled "Made in USA" which resulted in 2.6 million new jobs being created even though the $400 billion decorative Medicare turkey was not labeled $550 billion and was passed without bribery or criminal deception which proves that government spending under Bush has gone down if you do not count the increased government spending under Bush which is Clinton's fault and Bush's plane to Baghdad was spotted because before Saddam bought the uranium and became an urgent but not an imminent threat which is Clinton's fault Bush had no plans on his desk to invade Iraq since the invasion was not planned before Bush took office even though it was the subject of his first national security council meeting and in December 2001 Bush said he was focused on the military operations in Afghanistan and then the aircraft carrier was too far offshore for the Navy to make a large enough "Mission Accomplished" banner to describe the WMD we have found in Iraq some of which Saddam was giving to Osama for following Saddam's plans and using Iraqi hijackers on 9/11 which is Clinton's fault but everyone who pays income taxes got a tax cut which created 3 million new jobs and allowed Iraqi oil revenue to pay for the cost of the reconstruction of Iraq after the invasion by a small number of troops who would be greeted with floral program related activities except for the dead and wounded troops who are being brought home secretly which is Clinton's fault since Bush is the one who hugs the mothers and the widows and the wives and the kids and that is why Bush who will use the jawbone of an ass to force OPEC to open the spigots and who is responsible for good economic numbers but not bad economic numbers which are Clinton's fault wrote the poem that he did not write blaming Laura for dropping the dog?

There is no subject so somber, serious, or shallow that Bush will not lie about it. The only other option is not to lie. And that apparently is something Bush can not do.

Ridiculing Bush for his compulsive and incessant lying needs to become common.

FIRE THE LIAR

[sadiesworld]

39. Thanks for the great post!

[nolabels]

31. I hate playing the devils advocate but there could be a gamble here

I wouldn't like it, and think it would be immoral (letting people be killed is wrong) but the old adage about giving someone enough rope so they can hang themselves could be valid. If Iraq keeps on falling apart like it is, then later Kerry steps back and say Whoa Nelie in a discrete way, what would be the effect. At this moment people in Iraq could be used up as pawns (if one could be that cynical), they will turn up the heat if they see a no-win with Kerry or Bushco holding similar positions

I don't think anybody is stupid, just uninformed or misinformed to that point if your really worried about it, think about how easy it would be to dissemble any stated policy Kerry came out with now. Bushco's problem is they got a tiger by the tail and know it could become a real problem for them in November. Bushco whole strategy was to get him re-elected (sic) in the next term.

I don't trust any of them, for you know the devil plays with the best made plans.

Here is a thread to think about

What we MUST realize in order to win - Americans are stupid and uninformed
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=495887

[Jack Rabbit]

35. Thank you for playing Devil's Advocate

The idea that Kerry is giving Bush enough rope with which to hang himself has been advanced in other places. However, the irrefutable fact is that Bush has regained a lead in the polls during a week when one would have expected him to take a beating. He was down and Kerry should have kicked him when he was down.

Another irrefutable fact is that Americans continue to be misinformed about the invasion of Iraq. If Americans continued to support it knowing that there were no WMDs, knowing that Saddam had no associations with al Qaida and knowing that world public opinion was overwhelmingly opposed to the invasion, that would be a different matter. At that point, we could say that there isn't much that can be done. Then we could say that the poll results show that Americans know that Bush lied to them and just don't care.

That's not what the LA Times poll is showing. It is showing that more Americans are misinformed that properly informed and that those who are properly informed are upset about the lies. The poll shows that those who are informed of the real facts favor Kerry. It would seem obvious that the purpose of Kerry's campaign should be to inform more people.

That one of the reasons we have open elections. Many candidates run without a hope of winning just to air their points of view and to inform the public of facts that lead them to hold the views that they do. That is what drives a Ralph Nader, a Peter Camejo or a Pat Buchanan.

In this case, we have a candidate who has a better chance of winning than any of those just named and whose best chance of winning lays in informing voters in a way not different than they would. The media can ignore them, but it can't ignore Kerry and remain credible; news outlets -- both electronic and print -- have to cover what he says. He is the presumptive nominee of what is at a grass roots level the largest political party in the United States. At the very least, Kerry needs to state the facts of the invasion. For now, he can let those facts speak for themselves; nevertheless, the people need to know the facts.

True, the media has done an abysmal job of informing the public up to now. If that weren't so, then these poll results would be something other than what they are.

[Norquist Nemesis]

38. I agree with nolabels...but

you're absolutely right in your analysis of people accepting of misinformation, etc. I, too, think Kerry needs to state the facts and let his messengers define and inform with a vengeance.

Notice how the polls are going up since Bush started getting kissy-faced with Karen again? The Rove machine is highly skilled and well oiled (no pun intended). Kerry's machine needs to get into maximum overdrive and I'm just not seeing or hearing it up to now.

[FreakinDJ]

5. I think many are scared to voice dissenting opinions

I was regularly sending articles from DU to a fairly large group of WWII veterans that were concerned Bush was blowing it in Iraq.

Most of them knew the Weapons of Mass Destruction scam was false and felt No. Korea was the real threat. Some of these guys had actually fought in No. and So. Korea and genuinely recognize them as the real threat in the world today with the nuclear proliferation.

Then they all started to become silent, fearing reprisals from the Right / Neocons. These are guys that have stared down Kamikaze pilots in the eye trading 20 mil shells at each other. They are genuinely scared to voice descent against this Patriot act bunch of NeoCons

[Just Me]

30. It's okay,...they will find their power as this movement gains momentum.

Of course, they fear reprisal. We all do in this difficult life. Support for one another is gaining momentum, though. Life is worth living when we have both a common goal and eachother. Life is hardly worth living when we have nothing to pursue but mere survival because we are so much more than that,...aren't we?

[bpilgrim]

7. the media must be PROUD

i see some fat bonus checks for the 'golden mic' crew at EIB ;->

peace

[daleo]

8. The U.S. has enormous power

When you have enough power, you can afford to live in a dream world, and believe whatever suits your fancy. Add in a constant drumbeat of subtle and not-so-subtle propaganda, and a population can be manipulated.

In the regular world, we all get the odd 'reality check', which as individuals keeps us from getting too deluded or self engrossed. Currently, the U.S. population is too powerful to receive sufficient reality checks to make them stop and think, and realize reality isn't whatever they want it to be. This doesn't apply to everyone, of course, as is proven by the existence of the Democratic Underground, among other things. But there is a worrisome nucleus of the population that is deluded in just this fashion.

But, according to the ancient Greek dramatists, reality checks eventually come to everyone. Their thesis has stood the test of time.

[tedzbear]

15. 9-11 was a definite reality check...

unfortunately, most Americans have accepted the hawks' solution (IMHO).

Whatever happened to the dove???

[alcuno]

10. I believe that a solid 25% are telling a lie to the pollster.

They consider their lies to be a way to support *. That means we have to educate 32%; a much smaller number.

[FreakinDJ]

11. I believe your numbers to be accurate

Maybe we should set up a Web Site for answers in debunking the claims of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism ties.

Give hard facts and strategies involved in arguments for the truth. the more people readily armed with accurate information the better

[nagbacalan]

19. Lies and liers.

It's well known that 32% of the people lie 47% of the time.

[Taylor Mason Powell]

41. and...

roughly 28 percent of those people make up fake statistics to support their lies.

welcome to DU! :hi:

[markses]

12. They're not stupid - so we should stop saying that

They are living out the horror of what was done to Iraq in the only way that will square the action with the feeling of America that is produced and reproduced from early childhood and thereby constitutes American identity. For of course the US action in Iraq was one of rapine and murder, a barbaric undertaking - and of course the feeling persists that American identity is the opposite of those things. We are no longer in a field where mere information is sufficient to persuade people otherwise. Information has never worked against a feeling. You need other feelings to overturn a feeling. Nobody was ever persuaded to quit smoking by an information campaign (as much as people like to believe they made a "rational decision" to quit). Rather, another feeling imposed itself on the feeling of pleasure that smoking produced - a competing feeling (the affects set loose by the impending birth of a child, or, alternatively, the severe fear set loose by a diagnosis, or a physicians warning). It is always another feeling, another affect, one that works counter to the prevailing affect. Anyone who thinks that major decisions are made based on "facts" is ignorant: Even on our side, feelings of pity, feelings of outrage, feelings of compassion imposed themselves on feelings of anger and revenge. That the facts aligned was secondary, and little more than a "confirmation" of the feelings that perform the real action.

Point being: It is insufficient and generally useless to bemoan the "stupidity" of Americans for still "believing" these incorrect facts, since their belief has nothing to do with whether the facts are correct or incorrect, and no amount of information will change these beliefs unless it is coupled with a stronger and opposing feeling. Rather than calling people stupid, or sheeple, we must mobilize affects differently, set loose an alternate feeling that will combat the feeling of martyrdom and revenge that explain the factual contradictions.

[tedzbear]

17. Exzzzzzzzzzzellent post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I never thought of it that way. Do you think our peaceful anti-war marches are a sufficient expression of our "feelings?" Or should we do more, like peaceful disobedience? San Francisco sure did a lot of that last year, and it felt good.

[markses]

21. I don't mean

"feelings" in quite the way the term has been degraded under a vapid quasi-liberal program where people "speak about their feelings" and "get in touch with their feelings." I don't even mean it in the way that X "feels good" or "feels bad." I mean it more in the sense of a visceral or bodily affect produced by types of actions and perceptions, as intensities. So, it's not enough to say X feels good; the question is more about how bodies of individuals and populations are drawn into certain habits; habits of thought are always secondary. The GOP knows how to mobilize such intensities, and how to hook a program up to habits. The long preparation for the war was a masterful ramping up of a kind of collective war fever that was all about managing bodily anticipations: a little more, a little more, a little protest, a little counterclaim, a little more, more, more, more, MORE! MORE! MORE! And then the release. They're not kidding about shock and awe, though both were reserved for their domestic constituencies: it's all about the intensity of the light show as a discharge of the pent up and worked up intensities preceding the release. The evidence was unnecessary, or even obviously insufficient to the point of being insulting, because the bodily affects were perfectly managed. How people responded in polls was not an index of their thought, but an index of their relative inclusion in a collective feeling. This is also why people think that they are never affected by advertising, a notion that leaves advertisers richer than ever, and laughing all the way to the bank. Yes, of course, they will say: Nobody is affected by advertising. Then they engineer your body a little more, laughing all the way.

[Poiuyt]

27. Advertisers target emotions

Remember the book, "The Hidden Persuaders?" It made you feel like an idiot for the way that advertisers can manipulate you.

You are right about people not being stupid. But they like the feeling of being with a winner, militarily as well as otherwise. America wanted to "beat up" someone after 9/11 and bush picked Iraq to beat up. bush has made mainstream America feel good about being patriotic. What Kerry and the Democrats have to do is to hit on a different emotion since people are not paying attention to the facts.

[CookieD]

25. Thank you, that was very thought provoking

:-)

[are_we_united_yet]

28. OK

Let get 1000 busloads of freeper flag waivers and parachute them into Fallujah. Maybe that will catalyze that "feeling".

[markses]

29. ????

I think the freeper flag wavers are the clearest indication of the case: in their case, that is, it is clearly a question of feeling. The harder case is folks in the middle, who at least appear to be acting on the basis of some "belief" or "information" alone.

[jeanmarc]

13. 57% of people are criminally ignorant

Something has to be done about the purposeful distortion of the truth.

[ramapo]

14. Makes me sick

Sometimes I feel hopeless

[0007]

18. I know the feeling but we got to keep trucking

.....we all must work toward the common goal of unveiling ignorance

[Ratty]

16. This country is far less safe

Instead of dedicating his presidency to fighting terrorism Bush made it his personal mission from God to settle a family feud.

He has embroiled over 100,000 troops at the cost of billions of dollars every month and over 600 American lives in one of the few places in the Middle East we were certain there were NO terrorists. And now we'll have to stay there to make sure we haven't "liberated" them into the hands of another Taliban.

On the plus side, huge deficits are great for business in the short term, and as for the long term? Well, somebody else will be president and he and Cheney will have made their fortunes so who cares, right?

[aquart]

20. It's called The Big Lie, one of Hitler's proven techniques.

[osaMABUSh]

22. People (rightly) think the only rational for a war with Iraq is 9/11

Ok, let's say you are like the majority and really have no idea what's going on but you do know two things:

1) 9/11 terrorism occurred

2) we are at war with Iraq

so you're conclusion would be we are at war with Iraq because of terrorism and Iraq being behind 9/11.

The rational for an Iraqi War because of their involvement in 9/11 is sound.

Of course, the only problem with that is it isn't true. But if you are like most Americans there are at least three reasons why you don't know or don't want to know it isn't true:

1) you are too lazy to read or seek out the truth

2) your media is not spoon feeding you the correct story

3) you do not want to believe that the President of the United States has lead America into the wrong war for the wrong reasons

[WLKjr]

26. Tell any RWnger This One and Watch the Reaction on Thier Face

First, start by asking them 'who' exactly.....well let's say this instead. Ask them the ethnicity of those who flew the 2 planes into the WTC towers, and I almost bet 9 out of 10 will reply "Iraqis' did". Then confront them with the fact that all of the bastard hijackers (who's mommas apparently didn't give them enough attention while growing up), were Saudis'. And the look you will get will be a 'so what' look and then just add what all of you have heard or have been told that RWngers say about Terra....whoops, I mean Terror and you will hear the exact spew you will hear from * and all of the 'Librul' media. Try it out sometime on our conservative friends, I have stumped all of mine and just the other day almost successfully converted a good friend of mine to come back to the light side by doing this and questioning him repeatidly on why he supports *, it really does work! :)

[unionjack]

32. Why waste breath...

...the Repubs have all their bases covered on Iraq.

If you succeed in persuading everybody but Hannity that Eye-rack wasn't behind 9/11 they'll just avail you of several other reasons why they invaded.

They don't give a shit WHY the people think it was right, as long as they think it.

[2Design]

33. this is a problem

the gop has stated from the beginning they are inter related. And then when hard pressed in the last couple of months...say no they are not related and that they never said that....

Then you get the Iraq general on the tv who says the insurgents are al gieda..... so then you have back the assumption they are in iraq and everyone has conveniently forgot they came from saudia arabia..

and since this president is willing to kick butt.....it must be a good thing and ......it is like sunday afternoon footballl game....or a day at the race track......they like the convenience of the belief.... so they go along with it...

their church says they are to vote for Bush and repubs....so they do. End of story......

Unfortunately they see the rest of us as chicken littles....until it is too late and even then .....they go into the stockhom syndrome and identified with their torturers and believe they are doing this for their own gooo.....

So it does seem that no matter how bad Bush preforms, lies, suckers, and takes the country down the tubes.....they think he is a great guy and strong and personable......and he isn't doing someone else in the WH.......that is all that matters.....

this is truly sad.

[ConcernedCanuk]

34. Hmm - I 'm the only one that didn't know who juancole was

.
.
.

yeah I found the link - even went so far as to the original article:



so it's still true?

[Minstrel Boy]

36. I wonder what percentage know the US gave substantial support to

both Saddam and al Qaeda.

[Barkley]

37. The pen is mightier than the sword!

Even before the war started Bush kept feeding the media false information about the Iraq's WMD and terrorism.

Now Americans believe it!

These stats should be compared with people in the UK or Canada.

I would also like to see how these stats break-down in terms of sex, race, region and income.

[w4rma]

40. Al Queda wanted Saddam out of power. They tried to assassinate him.

This link between Islamist zealot and secular fascist just doesn't add up
…
Moreover, an al-Qaida-Saddam alliance defies common sense. Osama bin Laden is an Islamist zealot who despises secular fascists such as Saddam. I heard from Bin Laden himself that he is no fan of Saddam. When I met with the Saudi exile in Afghanistan five years ago he volunteered that he thought the Iraqi dictator was a “bad Muslim”. For Bin Laden, that's as bad as it gets.
…
This leader is identified as Abu Musab Zarqawi, who, curiously, is so important that he does not appear on the FBI's list of the 22 most wanted terrorists. Indeed, key US investigators tell me that Mr Zarqawi is not a significant player in al-Qaida. In fairness, European intelligence officials do believe that Mr Zarqawi may have played an important role in al-Qaida operations in Europe.

If al-Qaida's connection with Iraq is far from proven, its links with Saudi Arabia are real. This is not to suggest that the Saudi government, which is also a target of al-Qaida, has actively supported the group. However, Saudi citizens have provided financial and logistical support to al-Qaida and the Saudi government has been unwilling or unable to stop them.

Despite the fact that most of the September 11 hijackers were Saudi, the government is barely cooperating with the US investigation into the attacks. The printable words US investigators use to describe the Saudi attitude towards their inquiries are “obstructionist”, “useless” and “despicable”.
…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,885139,00.html

DUBAI - A taped message believed to be from fugitive militant Osama bin Laden on Tuesday warned Arab nations against supporting a war against Iraq as threatened by the United States -- but branded Saddam Hussein an infidel.
…
But the statement did not express support for Saddam. It said Muslims should support the Iraqi people rather than the country's government.

Concern that the United States has not made a valid case for war against Iraq has already divided the NATO Western alliance, with France, Germany and Belgium refusing to back preparations to assist fellow-member Turkey in the event of war.

A NATO official in Brussels said after two days of deadlock that efforts to break the impasse in the alliance would continue through the night, with a meeting of its North Atlantic Council set for 3:45 a.m. EST on Wednesday.

While urging Muslims to support the Iraqi people and repel any attack on their country, the tape said Saddam's secular “socialist” government had lost credibility.

“Socialists are infidels wherever they are,” the statement said. But it added: “It does not hurt that in current circumstances, the interests of Muslims coincide with the interests of the socialists in the war against crusaders.”
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0211-11.htm

FBI website: The 19 suspected hijackers (Note 8 of them are listed as “Possible Saudi national” and Iraq or Iraqi is not found anywhere on the page)
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/092701hjpic.htm

Ghost of al-Qaeda left out of story

Links between Saddam and the terrorist group were cited among reasons to prosecute a war. Jason Burke finds little to support the claims
…
A report published last week by a US congressional committee makes hard reading for them and for all those who, like Blair, appear to have sucked in their propaganda. Not for what it includes, but for what it omits. The report runs to nearly 900 pages and is as comprehensive an account of the unfurling of the plot to attack the Twin Towers as is likely to be published in the near future. But, even in the 28-page special section that is being kept secret, it does not mention Iraq. The foreign nation singled out for criticism is Saudi Arabia.
…
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1006663,00.html

White House 'delayed 9-11 report'

WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- A member of the independent commission set up to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks has accused the Bush administration of deliberately delaying publication of an earlier congressional inquiry into the attacks.

Former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., told United Press International that the White House did not want the report made public before launching military action in Iraq. He said the administration feared publication might undermine the administration's case for war, which was based in part on the allegation that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had supported Osama bin Laden -- and the attendant possibility that Iraq might supply al-Qaida with weapons of mass destruction.

“The administration sold the connection (between Iraq and al-Qaida) to scare the pants off the American people and justify the war,” said Cleland. “There's no connection, and that's been confirmed by some of bin Laden's terrorist followers ... What you've seen here is the manipulation of intelligence for political ends.”

Cleland accused the administration of deliberately delaying the report's release to avoid having its case for war undercut.

“The reason this report was delayed for so long -- deliberately opposed at first, then slow-walked after it was created -- is that the administration wanted to get the war in Iraq in and over ... before (it) came out,” he said.

“Had this report come out in January like it should have done, we would have known these things before the war in Iraq, which would not have suited the administration.”
…
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030723-064812-9491r

[4_Legs_Good]

43. OMFG - Question 43a)

This is, I believe, EXACTLY where we should make our anti-war stance and EXACTLY where we can win and wake people up...

Q43a. Please just give your impression. About how many Iraqi civilians do you think were killed
in the war in Iraq during March and April 2003?
Median .............................................................................800

The actual number, as reported by iraqbodycount.com and others was up around 9,000 during the Invasion. I know there's a lot of debate on this number, but 800???

This displays the criminal job the media is doing and the PHENOMINAL job the Pentagon is doing by keeping images of war and the bodies of our service men and women out of the news.

I think that if the public was made aware of the carnage that this war has created, they'd quickly change their views. If the media were to run a ticker on the ratio of Iraqi civilians dead to the number killed in the terrorist attacks of 2001, I think the sense of "patriotism" might diminish a little.

The Lie: 800/3,000 = 26.7%

The Truth: 9,000/3,000 = 300%

e.g. the devistation we caused to Iraq = 9/11 + Pearl Harbor + >3,000.

The only way someone can justify this kind of carnage is by concluding that Iraqi lives are worth much, much less than American lives.

gah!

david

P.S. If you look directly at the results of a lot of the questions, though the lies are still prevalent, there's a lot of good news in there too.

[maddezmom]

44. because everyday the US military makes comments like these:

U.S. Marines also surround the mostly Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah west of Baghdad, and continue to exchange fire there with what the U.S. says are foreign terrorists and members of Iraq's military elite during Saddam Hussein's regime. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an alleged al-Qaeda fighter the U.S. says may be helping to stage terror attacks, may be hiding in the region, the U.S. has said.


http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a5LxdZeaV1lg&refer=top_world_news

And the media repeats it over and over like it is fact.