Misguided War on Terrorism

[varun]

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/columnists/guests/s_203417.html

By Robert Scheer
Sunday, July 18, 2004

Well, the CIA managed, barely, to get one thing right on Iraq: There never was a case for linking Saddam Hussein with Osama bin Laden or the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a key rationale for President Bush's invasion of Iraq...

...That bin Laden and Saddam were the unlikeliest of allies was long known by the CIA, as noted in the Senate report, and no facts unearthed have effectively challenged that. CIA analysts concluded, according to the Senate committee report, that Saddam "generally viewed Islamic extremism, including the (Saudi-based) school of Islam known as Wahhabism, as a threat to his regime, noting that he had executed extremists from both the Sunni and Shiite sects to disrupt their organizations" and "sought to prevent Iraqi youth from joining al-Qaida."

Meanwhile, Bush has consistently ignored the fact that al-Qaida had been largely funded and supported by powerful extremists in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, two "allies" his administration coddled both before and after 9/11. Pakistan was even exporting nuclear weapons technology to "Axis of Evil" countries Iran and North Korea, as well as Libya -- but not to Iraq...