“Paul R. Pillar was the CIA’s national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia… According to him [in the March/April 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs], the ‘greatest discrepancy between the [Bush] administration’s public statements and the intelligence community’s judgments’ was with respect to ‘the relationship between Saddam and al-Qaeda. …The reason the connection got so much attention was that the administration wanted to hitch the Iraq expectation to the ‘war on terror’ and the threat the American public feared most, thereby capitalizing on the country’s militant post-9/11 mood.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Ian S. Lustick, Trapped in the War on Terror, Page 64