Iraq & Afghanistan: Post-Invasion Chaos Blamed for Drug Surge

A new CIA assessment undercuts the White House’s claim that Saddam Hussein maintained ties to al-Qaida, saying there’s no conclusive evidence that the regime harbored Osama bin Laden associate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The CIA review, which U.S. officials said Monday was requested some months ago by Vice President Dick Cheney, is the latest assessment that calls into question one of President Bush’s key justifications for last year’s U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The new assessment follows the independent Sept. 11 commission’s finding that there was no “collaborative relationship” between the former Iraqi regime and bin Laden’s terrorist network. …

The Bush administration has clashed repeatedly with the CIA and other intelligence community agencies over Iraq and terrorism. …

Bush called the report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, a “guess,” but later amended his remarks to call it an “estimate.”

Note to abqjournal readers: the first few paragraphs of this article appeared in the Journal (no link available); the real article is much longer. Editors have the power to shape everything we know. mjh

CBC News: Al-Qaeda remarks ‘misunderstood’: Rumsfeld

U.S. Defence Secretary Don ald Rumsfeld said he was “misunderstood” when he claimed Monday night that there was no “hard evidence” linking Saddam Hussein and al- Qaeda.

Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Rumsfeld said, “To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two.”

But hours after his appearance, he issued a statement saying his comment “regrettably was misunderstood.”

“I have acknowledged since September 2002 that there were ties between al-Qaeda and Iraq,” Rumsfeld said in a statement on the Department of Defence website, posted hours after his appearance.

Note this common Radical Right technique of claiming a direct quote is ‘misunderstood.’ We heard this from Cheney, who assured us we were doomed if Kerry wins and then spun otherwise. Spiders spin. Remember that Cheney and Rumsfeld are from the Nixon Adminstration (if you don’t remember Nixon, he was more evil than Raygun, less evil than Bush — and that’s saying a lot). mjh