Classified documents released
May 23, 2007 14:27:28 GMT -5
Post by Disgruntled70sHab on May 23, 2007 14:27:28 GMT -5
My question is if Bin Laden did have such a plan why didn't the intelligence community use this as evidence of Iraq-based terrorism aimed directly at the USA?
The timing for this release is too much of a coincidence for me. Bush vetos Congress's motion to pull out of Iraq and all of a sudden "new evidence" surfaces substantiating anti-US terrorism in that country. Colour me skeptical.
Bin Laden tried to create Iraq unit to strike in U.S.: Bush
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 | 1:34 PM ET
CBC News
Recently declassified U.S. intelligence reports show al-Qaeda views Iraq as a crucial battleground to plan and stage attacks against American targets at home and abroad, President George W. Bush said Wednesday.
Bush said the intelligence — released publicly on Tuesday — indicates Osama bin Laden ordered his senior operative in Iraq in early 2005 to form a unit to hit targets outside Iraq and told him the United States should be first in his sights.
"Among the terrorists, there is no doubt," Bush said during a commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.
"Victory in Iraq is important for Osama bin Laden, and victory in Iraq is vital for the United States of America."
The comments came as the Bush administration is locked in a battle with the Democrat-controlled Congress over spending for the unpopular war in Iraq, now in its fifth year.
Bush's comments and the declassified intelligence both expanded on a classified bulletin issued by Homeland Security in March 2005. The bulletin warned that bin Laden had enlisted Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his senior operative in Iraq, to plan potential strikes in the United States.
The bulletin was described at the time as credible but not specific. It did not prompt the administration to raise its national terror alert level.
The declassified intelligence showed that in January 2005, bin Laden tasked al-Zarqawi with organizing the cell. That spring, bin Laden instructed Hamza Rabia, a senior operative, to brief al-Zarqawi on a plan to attack sites outside Iraq, including the United States.
Around the same time, Abu Fajah al-Libi, a senior al-Qaeda planner, suggested that bin Laden send Rabia to Iraq to help al-Zarqawi plan the external operations. Rabia was killed in Pakistan in 2005, while al-Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. air strike in Iraq in June 2006.
"Successes like these are blows to al-Qaeda," Bush said, adding that the United States must "keep the pressure on the enemy by staying on the offence."
Patriot Act, Homeland Security 'working'
The president also paid tribute to U.S. successes in foiling terrorist plots, which he said were a testament to the Department of Homeland Security, formed after the al-Qaeda attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the renewal of the controversial law enforcement measures under the Patriot Act.
"There is a reason that these and other plots have thus far not succeeded," the president said to applause from a friendly audience of Coast Guard officials, graduates and families.
"These measures are vital, these measures are working and these measures have prevented an attack on our homeland."
Vietnam comparison doesn't fit: Bush
He also used his speech to lash out at critics at home and abroad who have compared the continuing conflict in Iraq with the Vietnam War.
"The enemy in Vietnam had neither the intent nor the capability to strike our homeland; the enemy in Iraq does," he said.
The information was declassified because the intelligence community has tracked all leads from the information and the players are either dead or in U.S. custody, according to Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House's homeland security adviser.
The Bush administration in the past has declassified and made public sensitive intelligence information to help rebut critics or defend itself against possibly adverse decisions in the Congress or the courts.
On a few occasions, the declassified materials were intended to be proof that terrorists see Iraq as a critical staging ground for global operations.
Democrats and other critics have accused Bush of selectively declassifying intelligence, including portions of a sensitive National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, to justify the U.S.-led invasion on the grounds that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. That assertion proved false.
Meanwhile, in Iraq on Wednesday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of nine American soldiers in roadside bombings and gun battles across the country.
Iraqi authorities also said a body found in a river south of Baghdad is believed to be that of one of three U.S. soldiers seized in an ambush nearly two weeks earlier. U.S. authorities have not confirmed the claim.
CBC link
The timing for this release is too much of a coincidence for me. Bush vetos Congress's motion to pull out of Iraq and all of a sudden "new evidence" surfaces substantiating anti-US terrorism in that country. Colour me skeptical.
Bin Laden tried to create Iraq unit to strike in U.S.: Bush
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 | 1:34 PM ET
CBC News
Recently declassified U.S. intelligence reports show al-Qaeda views Iraq as a crucial battleground to plan and stage attacks against American targets at home and abroad, President George W. Bush said Wednesday.
Bush said the intelligence — released publicly on Tuesday — indicates Osama bin Laden ordered his senior operative in Iraq in early 2005 to form a unit to hit targets outside Iraq and told him the United States should be first in his sights.
"Among the terrorists, there is no doubt," Bush said during a commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.
"Victory in Iraq is important for Osama bin Laden, and victory in Iraq is vital for the United States of America."
The comments came as the Bush administration is locked in a battle with the Democrat-controlled Congress over spending for the unpopular war in Iraq, now in its fifth year.
Bush's comments and the declassified intelligence both expanded on a classified bulletin issued by Homeland Security in March 2005. The bulletin warned that bin Laden had enlisted Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his senior operative in Iraq, to plan potential strikes in the United States.
The bulletin was described at the time as credible but not specific. It did not prompt the administration to raise its national terror alert level.
The declassified intelligence showed that in January 2005, bin Laden tasked al-Zarqawi with organizing the cell. That spring, bin Laden instructed Hamza Rabia, a senior operative, to brief al-Zarqawi on a plan to attack sites outside Iraq, including the United States.
Around the same time, Abu Fajah al-Libi, a senior al-Qaeda planner, suggested that bin Laden send Rabia to Iraq to help al-Zarqawi plan the external operations. Rabia was killed in Pakistan in 2005, while al-Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. air strike in Iraq in June 2006.
"Successes like these are blows to al-Qaeda," Bush said, adding that the United States must "keep the pressure on the enemy by staying on the offence."
Patriot Act, Homeland Security 'working'
The president also paid tribute to U.S. successes in foiling terrorist plots, which he said were a testament to the Department of Homeland Security, formed after the al-Qaeda attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the renewal of the controversial law enforcement measures under the Patriot Act.
"There is a reason that these and other plots have thus far not succeeded," the president said to applause from a friendly audience of Coast Guard officials, graduates and families.
"These measures are vital, these measures are working and these measures have prevented an attack on our homeland."
Vietnam comparison doesn't fit: Bush
He also used his speech to lash out at critics at home and abroad who have compared the continuing conflict in Iraq with the Vietnam War.
"The enemy in Vietnam had neither the intent nor the capability to strike our homeland; the enemy in Iraq does," he said.
The information was declassified because the intelligence community has tracked all leads from the information and the players are either dead or in U.S. custody, according to Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House's homeland security adviser.
The Bush administration in the past has declassified and made public sensitive intelligence information to help rebut critics or defend itself against possibly adverse decisions in the Congress or the courts.
On a few occasions, the declassified materials were intended to be proof that terrorists see Iraq as a critical staging ground for global operations.
Democrats and other critics have accused Bush of selectively declassifying intelligence, including portions of a sensitive National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, to justify the U.S.-led invasion on the grounds that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. That assertion proved false.
Meanwhile, in Iraq on Wednesday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of nine American soldiers in roadside bombings and gun battles across the country.
Iraqi authorities also said a body found in a river south of Baghdad is believed to be that of one of three U.S. soldiers seized in an ambush nearly two weeks earlier. U.S. authorities have not confirmed the claim.
CBC link
