9/26/2002

On September 26, 2002, President Bush “told journalists in the [White House’s] Rose Garden that ‘according to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes after the order is given.’ ”  – Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone, Page 210 […]

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9/26/2002

“At a Defense Department briefing [on September 26, 2002], Defense Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld discusses collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda: ‘We have what we believe to be credible information that Iraq and Al Qaeda have discussed safe haven opportunities in Iraq, reciprocal non-aggression discussions. We have what we consider to be credible evidence that Al […]

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9/26/2002

Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 26, 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell said: ” ‘There is evidence of linkage between al Qaeda and Iraq… There is no linkage to 9/11 that we are aware of, but I can’t dismiss that possibility.’ He reiterated the point moments later. ‘There’s no smoking-gun linkage […]

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9/26/2002

“At a Sept. 26 [2002] joint hearing of the House and Senate intelligence committees, Cofer Black, then head of the CIA Counterterrorist Center, spoke cryptically about the agency’s new forms of ‘operational flexibility’ in dealing with suspected terrorists [apprehended in Afghanistan]. ‘This is a very highly classified area, but I have to say that all […]

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9/26/2002

” ‘All I want to say is that there was *before 9/11* and *after 9/11,* said Cofer Black, the head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center [in testimony before the House and Senate intelligence committees on September 26, 2002]. ‘After 9/11 the gloves came off.’ ”  – Ahmed Rashid, Descent Into Chaos, Pages 305-306 […]

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9/26/2002

On September 26, 2002, “In a closed meeting with eighteen lawmakers…[President] Bush had also embraced another unfounded assertion. ‘Saddam Hussein is a terrible guy who is teaming up with al-Qaeda,’ he told the lawmakers, ignoring the lack of any hard evidence of such an alliance. One of the lawmakers asked him what would happen [in […]

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9/26/2002

The Downing Street Memo, a July 23, 2002, report from British intelligence, claimed Iraq had banned weapons and sought ‘significant quantities of uranium from Africa.’ “The CIA had warned the British against those claims, but [President] Bush would eventually adopt both of them. ‘According to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological […]

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9/26/2002

President George W. Bush, following a discussion with Congressional Leaders: “The danger to our country is grave. The danger to our country is growing. The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons. The Iraqi regime is building the facilities necessary to make more biological and chemical weapons. And according to the British government, the Iraqi regime […]

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9/26/2002

On September 26, 2002, Canadian telecommunications engineer Maher Arar was apprehended by the CIA because his name had been falsely implicated and placed on the terrorist watch list. He was taken to Syria, where interrogators “whipped his hands repeatedly with two-inch-thick electrical cables and kept him in a body-sized slot of a windowless underground cell…which […]

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9/26/2002

At the John Cornyn for Senate Reception, President George W. Bush had this to say: “And so now it’s up to the United Nations, and it’s up to Saddam Hussein to determine whether or not there will be peace, to determine whether or not the world’s worst leader — and remember, this is a guy who continues […]

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