1/20/2005

President Bush delivered the inaugural address for his second term on January 20, 2005. ” ‘We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation–the moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome […]

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1/19/2005

“It took four years before anyone in the Bush administration admitted that the United States had failed to carry out nation building. ‘We didn’t have the right skills, the right capacity to deal with a reconstruction effort of this kind,’ said [National Security Advisor] Condoleezza Rice, speaking of both Iraq and Afghanistan in [January 19] […]

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1/16/2005

According to an article in Mother Jones magazine on January 16, 2005: “When asked if the TAL [Transition Administrative Law] would push Iraq into becoming an Islamic republic, [Director of Reconstruction in Iraq L. Paul] Bremer answered, ‘Don’t worry, this won’t be an Islamic constitution.’ ”  – Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq, Page […]

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1/15/2005

In an interview with journalist Peter Bergen in January 2005, the Taliban’s deputy minister of the interior, Mullah Khakshar, said: ” ‘There was a splinter group within the Taliban who did not want bin Laden in the country [Afghanistan]. We proposed to a group of moderate Taliban to go to [Taliban leader] Mullah [Mohammad] Omar […]

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1/15/2005

In January 2005, when asked about rumors of torture in the rendition program during his confirmation hearings for Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales chuckled “and noted that the [Bush] administration ‘can’t fully control’ what other nations do.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]  – Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Page 110 […]

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1/13/2005

“In January [13] 2005, the CIA’s internal think tank, the National Intelligence Council, concluded that Iraq had replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for a new generation of jihadist terrorists. The country had become ‘a magnet for international terrorist activity,’ said the council’s chairman, Robert Hutchings.”  – Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco, Page 430 […]

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1/13/2005

“According to a [January 13] 2005 report by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director’s think tank, ‘The al-Qa’ida membership that was distinguished by having trained in Afghanistan will gradually dissipate, to be replaced in part by the dispersion of the experienced survivors of the conflict in Iraq.’ ”  – Fawaz A. Gerges, The Far […]

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1/13/2005

“Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of ‘professionalized’ terrorists, according to a report released yesterday [January 13, 2005] by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director’s think tank. Iraq provides terrorists with ‘a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills,’ said David B. Low, the […]

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1/13/2005

Regarding the National Intelligence Council’s (NIC’s) January 13, 2005, report on terrorism in Iraq: “President Bush has frequently described the Iraq war as an integral part of U.S. efforts to combat terrorism. But the council’s report suggests the conflict has also helped terrorists by creating a haven for them in the chaos of war. ‘At […]

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