Secretary of State Colin “Powell said on December 17, 2001, that al-Qaeda had been destroyed in Afghanistan (wrongly, it turns out) and that the country was no longer a haven for terrorists, while [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld refused to back up this comment, insisting instead on further use of military force in that country.” […]
Category: quotes
12/17/2001
On December 17, 2001, “The results of a CIA-administered polygraph determine that Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, a civil engineer who claimed to have helped Saddam’s men secretly bury tons of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, was lying. Al-Haideri claimed the weapons were buried in subterranean wells, hidden in private villas, and stashed beneath the Saddam […]
12/17/2001
“By December 17 [2001], the battle of Tora Bora [Afghanistan] was over. Dalton Fury [pseudonym], the Delta [Force] commander on the ground, estimated that at battle’s end there were some 220 dead militants and fifty-two captured fighters, who were mostly Arabs, with a dozen Afghans and a sprinkling of Chechens and Pakistanis. Around twenty of […]
12/17/2001
“On December 17, 2001, it is believed that bin Laden and his remaining lieutenants crossed the [Afghan] border [at Tora Bora] into the lawless tribal region of Pakistan.” – Julian E. Zelizer, ed., The Presidency of George W. Bush, Page 73 […]
12/16/2001
” ‘We’ve destroyed al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and we have ended the role of Afghanistan as a haven for terrorist activity,’ Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said on the NBC News program ‘Meet the Press‘ [on December 16, 2001].” – John Kifner and Eric Schmitt, “Al Qaeda Routed From Afghanistan, U.S. Officials Say,” The […]
12/16/2001
On December 16, 2001, “one week after [Vice President Dick] Cheney told [Meet the Press host Tim] Russert that the contact between [lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed] Atta and [senior Iraqi Intelligence Service official] Ahmad al Ani had been ‘pretty well confirmed,’ an unnamed intelligence official confirmed the report, telling the New York Times ‘there was […]
12/15/2001
Appearing on Frontline on January 11, 2006, “Michael Scheuer, chief of the CIA’s bin Laden desk from 1995 to 1999, said the failure [to capture bin Laden in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in December 2001] was owing to ‘the abject fear of American casualties.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] […]
12/15/2001
Then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice wrote, regarding Osama bin Laden: “Some people contend that we had a chance to capture or kill him at Tora Bora [Afghanistan] in [December] 2001. In fact, there were conflicting reports about his whereabouts at the time, and as a result the military did not request additional forces to conduct […]
12/15/2001
“President Bush completed his first year in office with the highest public approval rating ever recorded for a president: more than 80 percent of the nation thought he was doing a good job [according to several news polls in December 2001].” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Karen DeYoung, […]
12/15/2001
In a December 2001 interview with Bob Woodward, President Bush said, regarding decisions to go after Iraq: ” ‘I know it is hard for you to believe, but I have not doubted what we’re doing. I have not doubted what we’re doing. …There is no doubt in my mind we’re doing the right thing.’ “ […]