On May 16, 2003, Director of Reconstruction in Iraq Paul “Bremer told Iraqi leaders that an interim government would not be formed by the end of the month [as was originally planned by Jay Garner when he was Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance]–and that the idea of an interim government with […]
Category: quotes
5/16/2003
“Following the US-led invasion of Iraq on 19 March 2003 there was a dramatic escalation of al Qaeda-linked attacks against European and Jewish targets. On 16 May 2003 suicide bombers killed forty-five and wounded up to 100 in coordinated attacks on a Jewish cultural center in Casablanca [Morocco].” – Abdel Bari Atwan, The Secret History […]
5/16/2003
From a list of attacks ‘believed to have been conducted by, or inspired by, al-Qaeda:’ “May 16, 2003: Casablanca, Morocco: A series of suicide bombings strike a Spanish restaurant, a hotel, a Jewish center, and the Belgian consulate, killing thirty-three people.” – Najwa bin Laden, Omar bin Laden, and Jean Sasson, Growing Up Bin Laden, […]
5/15/2003
Historian Timothy Naftali wrote: “Unbeknownst to any of the principal actors in this drama, May 2003 was the height of the Bush counterterrorism offensive. Iraq was under U.S. occupation, and three-quarters of the pre-9/11 leadership of al Qaeda had been captured or killed.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – […]
5/15/2003
“Since May 2003, a new branch of al Qaeda–al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula–has been active within Saudi Arabia, seeking to undermine the regime through a concerted campaign of attacks on domestic as well as foreign targets.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Abdel Bari Atwan, The Secret History […]
5/15/2003
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary”: “817. … -Following the resignation of Ms Clare Short, the [UK] International Development Secretary, and the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 1483 in May 2003, DFID assumed leadership of the UK’s reconstruction effort in Iraq. DFID would subsequently define, within the framework established […]
5/15/2003
“In May 2003, President Bush signed an executive order that provides oil industry companies–and only oil companies–unprecedented immunity against contractual disputes or lawsuits resulting from discrimination, labor law abuses, environmental disasters, and human rights violations. [As reported in the August 8, 2003, edition of The San Francisco Chronicle] ‘In terms of legal liability,’ says Tom […]
5/15/2003
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan wrote: “As [Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz would tell Vanity Fair in May 2003, [President] Bush and his national security team ‘settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on [for invading Iraq] which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason.’ Wolfowitz went on […]
5/15/2003
“After learning of the problem [an unguarded weapons dump in Baghdad] in May 2003, an internal IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] memorandum was written alerting Washington that terrorists might be in the process of helping ‘themselves to the greatest explosives bonanza in history.’ The White House, however, ignored the warning. Thus, intent on finding the […]
5/15/2003
In May 2003, “Vanity Fair magazine questioned Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz about the reason for attacking Iraq. He said that ‘for bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue–weapons of mass destruction–because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – […]