Regimes that Harbour Terra

Porter Goss this week: [blockquote]In his first interview since becoming CIA head, Porter Goss assures Time, "I have an excellent idea of where [Osama bin Laden] is." He's hard to capture however, because, "When you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play."[/blockquote]

President Bush, September 14, 2001: "We make no distinction between terrorists and those who knowingly harbor or provide aid to them."

President Bush, September 20, 2001:

We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.) From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.

A couple of leftie sites have objected to the contradiction, but in a way the contradiction is a good thing. The September 14, 2001 statement was literally insane. No distinction between terrorists and those who knowingly harbor them? Was Bush committed to rounding up Musharraf, Mubarak, and President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, detaining them indefinitely, torturing them, letting them be seen by physicians and then using medical information to refine the torture? Probably not.

The statement of Sept. 20, 2001 leaves the impression that any country that granted visas to the 9/11 terrorists should be bombed mercilessly. Oh wait....

UPDATE: Sort of relevant. Mark Leon Goldberg on Hit and Run just re-linked to the transcript of an AEI event discussing Stephen Hayes' book, alleging a meaningful connection between al Qaeda and Saddam before March 2003. Peter Bergen:

[blockquote]So even if we accepted that every single thing that Stephen Hayes has said is correct, I don't think we can point to a single outcome of a serious terrorist operation that involved Iraq and al Qaeda together....[snip] So when I was researching my book, another thing struck me. There were no Iraqis. There were more Americans than Iraqis. Al Qaeda had deeper roots in Brooklyn than in Baghdad. Al Qaeda had a main headquarters office in Brooklyn, on Atlantic Avenue above the unfortunately named Fu King Restaurant, and that was closed down only in '93. In fact, some very senior members of al Qaeda were Americans, not Iraqis--Ali Mohammed [ph], after all, the main trainer of al Qaeda; also, Wadi Al Haj [ph], bin Laden's personal secretary, and the list goes on. When I say this, I'm not making an argument for bombing downtown Brooklyn. I'm simply saying that there are lots of, lots of different nationalities in al Qaeda and very few Iraqis.[/blockquote]

Thu Jul 7, 2005 6:49 pm MST by robertll | Email Article |

Return to Main Page

Regimes that Harbour Terra