“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 […]
Category: quotes
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 […]
1/12/2005
Then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice wrote: “…we had acknowledged on January 12, 2005, that we had called off the search for weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq]…” – Condoleezza Rice, No Higher Honor, Page 297 […]
1/11/2005
Egyptian-born Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib was apprehended in Pakistan and tortured after accusations of being a terrorist. “On January 11 [2005], immediately after the Washington Post published a shocking front-page article on Habib’s case, the Pentagon, offering virtually no explanation, agreed to release him into the custody of the Australian government. …the CIA feared legal […]
1/11/2005
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary:” “715. In January 2005, Lt Gen Fry produced a thoughtful and realistic assessment of the prospects for security in Iraq, observing that “’we are not on track to deliver the Steady State Criteria (SSC) before the UN mandate expires, or even shortly thereafter’. He […]
1/4/2005
“Rebels assassinated the governor of Baghdad on January 4 [2005].” – Andrew Langley, Bush, Blair, and Iraq: Days of Decision, Page 40 […]
12/31/2004
“…by the end of 2004, the U.S. intelligence community would conclude that the invasion had turned Iraq into a new breeding ground for a fresh generation of tougher, more professional Islamic extremist terrorists.” [The 31st of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco, Pages 377-378 […]
12/30/2004
“On December 30, 2004…the [Bush] administration posted a document on the Justice Department’s Web site that sounded like a ringing denunciation of torture. …Bush and other top administration officials had expressed outrage at the lawlessness exhibited by low-level U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib [prison in Iraq] and had vowed to hold the perpetrators accountable. …Despite […]
12/30/2004
On December 30, 2004, Chief of the Office of Legal Counsel Dan Levin issued a “legal memo replacing the notorious torture guidance that had been written by [former Deputy Chief of the Office of Legal Counsel John] Yoo. Its opening line declared unequivocally: ‘Torture is abhorrent both to American law and values and to international […]
12/30/2004
“[T]he revised [torture] memo [written on December 30, 2004, by Chief of the Office of Legal Counsel Dan Levin] included two oddly contradictory lines. One was yet another description of torture that seemed specifically written to legalize waterboarding so long as the severe pain it produced was not of ‘extended duration.’ The other…evidently written to […]