“In February [13] 2002, the New York Times revealed to the public that a branch of the Defense Department headed by John Poindexter–a former National Security Advisor to [President] Ronald Reagan…was working on a secret program known as ‘Total Information Awareness [TIA].’ This program, under the motto ‘Knowledge is Power,’ aimed to design a gargantuan […]
Category: quotes
2/13/2002
“In February [13] 2002, eight months before the bombing of the French tanker Limburg, an online article appeared about the advantages of bombing tankers because ‘it is also well known that the American economy will not be able to endure whatsoever the rise in oil prices.’ ” – Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, The Next […]
2/13/2002
Ron Fournier: “Mr. President, your advisors have long said that there needs to be regime change in Iraq. Are you looking at military action to achieve that goal? How could Saddam be toppled?” President George W. Bush: “Ron, I meant what I said the other night, that there are some nations in the world which develop […]
2/12/2002
“On February 12 [2002], the DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] issued ‘a finished intelligence product,’ titled ‘Niamey [Niger] Signed an Agreement to Sell 500 Tons of Uranium a Year to Baghdad,’ and passed it to the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. Even though the CIA had dismissed the Niger claims, Cheney was able to give […]
2/12/2002
“President Bush has decided to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power and ordered the CIA, the Pentagon and other agencies to devise a combination of military, diplomatic and covert steps to achieve that goal, senior U.S. officials said Tuesday [February 12, 2002]. No military strike is imminent, but Bush has concluded that Saddam and […]
2/12/2002
On February 12, 2002, “regarding the threats that confront the United States, he [Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld] said, ‘There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t […]
2/12/2002
On February 12, 2002, Secretary of State Colin “Powell testified before the Senate Budget Committee. He took a hard line on Saddam, noting that since 1998 the policy of the United States had been ‘regime change’ in Iraq. ‘And we are looking at a variety of options that would bring that about,’ he said. And […]
2/12/2002
Regarding the supposed contract for Niger to supply Iraq with yellowcake uranium: “No one in the intelligence community bothered to ask the Italians [who had circulated the text] to see an actual copy of the Iraq-Niger contract. Nevertheless, the DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] distributed a report, on February 12, 2002, with an unambiguous title: ‘Niamey […]
2/11/2002
President George W. Bush remarks on a budget increase directed toward the War on Terror: “And our terrorists — and the threats to America not only are from the terrorist organizations that hate freedom and kill in the name of religion; our mission also includes countries which develop weapons of mass destruction, nations with a history […]
2/7/2002
On February 7, 2002, “The president [Bush] and his national security team met in the Situation Room. [Central Command leader General Tommy] Franks presented the refined Generated Start Plan for war with Iraq. It was the first time Bush saw an actual plan that he could order carried out….Under this plan, war with Iraq would […]