Roger talking about Stephen Hayes new book connections. Here is the comment I left on his marvelous blog.
Roger L. Simon: Saddam and Al Qaeda : “Roger it matters very much that we make the case of the linkage between Saddam and 9/11 since in the American Publics mind we are fighting a war on terror. They are all for going after the bastards who did 9/11. They are NOT for going off to war on complex United Nations resolutions that only staffers from Foggy Bottom enjoy reading. To 70% of the American Public Saddam DID have something to do with the 9/11 terror attacks. This justified the war in their minds.
Then the Bush administration when faced with Vice President Cheney on Tim Russert saying he understood why the American Public believed Saddam had something to do with 9/11, immediately denied the linkage for some bizarre reason. Perhaps they confused evidence with proof, certainly we might fashion a case in a court based on all the circumstantial evidence that would convict Saddam but we have no smoking gun proof. The Bush administration perhaps believed that unless they had proof they couldn’t say the issue was up in the air. When in fact that is exactly where the issue is, up in the air just as Cheney described in his interview with Tim. The affect of the Bush administration denying the linkage was immediate and devastating to the cause of the war. Many of you are idealists who like to believe that it is noble and wonderful to go to war for high notions, I don’t believe the American people share your view. To you the idea of going to war for UN resolutions may have made sense, to the mom saying goodbye to her son as he left for Iraq it makes very little sense since she has little desire to understand the UN and if she had taken the time to try she would hold it in contempt, but link Saddam to 9/11 and she will be sad but understand.
Edward Epstein does indeed name names of those in the Czech government who believe that Atta met with Al Ani see his great article on Slate for more info. http://slate.msn.com/id/2091354/ But the case is far deeper than one meeting in Prague between an operator and his control. But let me share one little bit that I came across that may be the smoking gun that people are looking for. Central to the thesis of Saddam not being linked to terror is the supposed impossibility of his using terrorists to attack us. Only problem with that theory is his interview with Ambassador Glaspie before the Kuwaiti invasion in 1990. In that interview which has been used generously by the left to claim that we authorized the war is this little tidbit of information. Small and un-noticed but fairly damning to the idea that Saddam wouldn�t think of using terrorists. “If you use pressure, we will deploy pressure and force. We know that you can harm us although we do not threaten you. But we too can harm you. Everyone can cause harm according to their ability and their size. We cannot come all the way to you in the United States, but individual Arabs may reach you.” http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/glaspie.html
Thanks for listening.
Pierre Legrand
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