In Search Of Utopia: Way to fight terrorism!

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May 01, 2006

Way to fight terrorism!

Let's see how the Right Blogsphere spins this one...

Two years ago, Jim Miklaszewski of NBC News reported that a few months after 9/11 the Pentagon drafted multiple plans to hit the camp of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda terrorist who had taken up residence in Iraq's northern no-fly zone, outside Saddam Hussein's control. George Bush, however, refused to authorize a military strike.
I've written about this multiple times (I used to jokingly called it my "monthly Zarqawi post"), but Miklaszewski's story always had a big problem: it was based on anonymous sources, which made it easy for the White House to ignore. Today, however, the Australian show Four Corners has gotten confirmation of the story from Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit:

He told Four Corners that during 2002, the Bush Administration received detailed intelligence about Zarqawi's training camp in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"Almost every day we sent a package to the White House that had overhead imagery of the house he was staying in. It was a terrorist training camp...experimenting with ricin and anthrax...any collateral damage there would have been terrorists."

So why wasn't Bush willing to hit Zarqawi, a known al-Qaeda terrorist in a known location? Scheuer says he was told it was because Bush was afraid of annoying the French — a theory that seems a bit of a stretch, non? Others believe it was because Zarqawi was politically convenient: having him alive allowed Bush to pretend that Saddam was "harboring terrorists," thus providing useful ammunition for the war.

Makes you wonder, how many people died in Iraq for the convenience...

Oh... I see how the Wingnuts are countering this story... As usual, by promoting fantasy. Compare that little ditty, and all the Right Wingers linking to it, to this.

But hey.... Look at all the schools we have opened.

Posted by David A at May 1, 2006 01:03 PM
Filed Under War on Terror | 311 Words

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Comments

The CIA missed the collapse of the Soviet Union and 9/11 and the WMD in Iraq. So Bush is wrong for not listening to them on Zarqawi?

If you want to blame Bush blame him for not being able to tell when the CIA is full of shit and when they really have something worth listening to.

Posted by: rjschwarz at May 1, 2006 05:04 PM

That is funny... Under that logic, why would a President go to war on intelligence that was clearly faulty. No, what Bush did was cherry pick intelligence that supported his own personal agenda. And every time you guys make these arguments it looks either foolish or naive...

Posted by: David Scott Anderson at May 1, 2006 05:58 PM

This is merely one piece of the whole decision-making puzzle. Regardless of whether or not you agree with the President's policies, it would seem a bit silly to demand that he possess a crystal ball which would show him what Zarqawi would become.

And that's without even addressing Scheuer's credibility.

Posted by: Boyd at May 1, 2006 07:23 PM

Well, since he used Zarquawi as one of his justifications "Iraq supported terrorist," I should think a Crystal Ball would not have been necessary? Hmmmm?

Posted by: David Scott Anderson at May 1, 2006 07:27 PM

It still seems disengenuous to insist on international support in 2003 (and despite the sneers from the left, it certainly seems reasonable to say that not hitting the Z-boy was a sop to the French to not discourage their support), and then again during the presidential campaign in 2004, then turn around and say "He should have taken out Zarqawi in 2002!" without the slightest consideration of the context.

Monday-morning quarterbacking is easy, ain't it?

Posted by: Boyd at May 1, 2006 07:37 PM