Left unattended by his masters for a brief moment, President Bush took questions from the press corps today and accidentally told the truth.  If you blinked you might have missed it.  Straying from his lovingly Rove-crafted set of focus-group tested slogans (we will stand down when the Iraqis stand up), buzzwords (Islamofascists), obfuscations (what did he say?), confabulations (gentlemen’s lies), and non sequiturs (many ad libbed or embellished by the President himself), the Commander in Chief offered up this unscripted exchange:

Crooks and Liars 8-21-06

QUESTION: A lot of the consequences you mentioned for pulling out seem like maybe they never would have been there if we hadn’t gone in. How do you square all of that?

BUSH: I square it because imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein, who had the capacity to make a weapon of mass destruction, who was paying suiciders to kill innocent life, who had relations with Zarqawi.
You know, I’ve heard this theory about, you know, everything was just fine until we arrived [in Iraq] and — you know, the stir-up-the-hornet’s- nest theory. It just doesn’t hold water, as far as I’m concerned.
The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East. They were …

QUESTION: What did Iraqi have to do with that?


BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?

QUESTION: The attacks upon the World Trade Center.

BUSH: Nothing. . . . .Except for it’s part of — and nobody’s ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a — Iraq — the lesson of September the 11th is: Take threats before they fully materialize.


The President then went on to state that no one in his Administration ever said that 9-11 was ordered by Saddam Hussein, or that the two were directly connected.

This is the second time that Bush has admitted the absence of a connection between 9-11 and Saddam Hussein.  Here is the BBC News headline from September 18, 2003:

BBC News 9-18-03

Bush administration on Iraq 9/11 link
US President George W Bush has explicitly stated for the first time that there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks.

And like today, Bush also took great care to inform us that he never technically lied us into war with Iraq.

“First, just if I might correct a misperception. I don't think we ever said, at least I know I didn't say, that there was a direct connection between the September 11th and Saddam Hussein. We did say that he was the state sponsor of terror."

"I was very careful never to say that Saddam Hussein ordered the attacks on America.”

Now I’m not a lawyer, but I guess it depends what the meaning of is is.  Here is a far from comprehensive list of quotes made by Bush and top Administration officials pertaining to 9-11 and Iraq.  Far be it for me to say that these statements are carefully worded false associations designed to conflate, confuse, and deceive; but approximately 70% of Americans at one time had the mistaken impression that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 9-11 attacks.  How could that have happened?   Judge for yourself.


_____________________________________________________________________________________


“Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror.  States like these, and their terrorists allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.”

“Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction.  Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since September the 11th.  But we know their true nature.”

President Bush in his State of the Union address, January 2002.


"After September the 11th, we've entered into a new era and a new war. This is a man [Hussein] that we know has had connections with Al Qaeda. This is a man who, in my judgment, would like to use Al Qaeda as a forward army."

"We know that Iraq and the Al Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy — the United States of America. We know that Iraq and Al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade."

“We also must never forget the most vivid events of recent history. On 11 September, 2001, America felt its vulnerability - even to threats that gather on the other side of the earth. We resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat, from any source, that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America.”

President Bush speaking in Cincinnati, Ohio, in October, 2002.


“Before 11 September 2001, many in the world believed that Saddam Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents and lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained. Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons, and other plans - this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take just one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known.”

“Today, the gravest danger in the war on terror, the gravest danger facing America and the world, is outlaw regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. These regimes could use such weapons for blackmail, terror, and mass murder. They could also give or sell those weapons to terrorist allies, who would use them without the least hesitation.”

“Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike?  Restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option.”

President Bush in his State of the Union address, January 2003.


“The use of armed force against Iraq is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."

Letter to the speaker of the House of Representatives and president pro tempore of the Senate dated March 21, 2003, notifying them of the use of military force in Iraq after the failure of diplomacy.


"We've removed an ally of Al Qaeda."President Bush on board the U.S.S. Abraham off the coast of San Diego during his Mission Accomplished speech, May 1, 2003.


“The terrorists have lost a sponsor in Iraq. And no terrorist networks will ever gain weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussein's regime.”

President Bush in his speech to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, September, 2003.


“For America, there will be no going back to the era before 11 September 2001, to false comfort in a dangerous world. We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength.”

“They are invited by the perception of weakness. And the surest way to avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans.”

“We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities.”

President Bush in a televised address to defend his administration's policy on Iraq, September 2003.


“I know that some people question if America is really in a war at all. They view terrorism more as a crime, a problem to be solved mainly with law enforcement and indictments. After the World Trade Center was first attacked in 1993, some of the guilty were indicted and tried and convicted, and sent to prison. But the matter was not settled. The terrorists were still training and plotting in other nations, and drawing up more ambitious plans. After the chaos and carnage of September the 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers. The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States, and war is what they got.  Some in this chamber, and in our country, did not support the liberation of Iraq. Objections to war often come from principled motives.”

President Bush in his State of the Union address, January 2004.


“We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases. And we know that after 11 September, Saddam Hussein's regime gleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America.”

“Some citizens wonder, after 11 years of living with this problem, why do we need to confront it now? And there's a reason. We've experienced the horror of 11 September.”

US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a presentation to the UN Security Council, setting out the US case against the Iraqi regime, February 2003.


“We don't know.”Vice-President Dick Cheney when pressed on whether there was a link between Iraq and 9-11 during a TV interview on Meet the Press with Tim Russert, September 2003.


“We will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who've had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11.”

Mr Cheney in the same interview, commenting on the war against Iraq.


“We've never been able to develop any more of that yet, either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it.”

Mr Cheney in the same interview, while recounting the controversial claim that one of the hijackers, Mohammed Atta, met an Iraqi official in Prague before the attacks.


“[Saddam Hussein posed a risk in] a region from which the 9/11 threat emerged.”

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice defending the reasons why the US went to war against Iraq, September, 2003. 



"Yes, there is a linkage between Al Qaeda and Iraq."

Donald Rumsfeld, September 26, 2002.