“Congress passed a resolution just days after the September 11 [2001] attacks granting the president the authority to wage a global war on terrorism, and Bush administration lawyers later decided that the war resolution provided the legal basis they needed to support the NSA [National Security Administration] operation to eavesdrop on American citizens.” [The 15th […]
Category: quotes
9/15/2001
“…in an exhaustive debate at Camp David [on September 15, 2001], none of the president’s [Bush’s] top advisers recommended attacking Iraq as a first step in the terrorism war–not even Vice President [Dick] Cheney, who…said, ‘If we go after Saddam Hussein, we lose our rightful place as good guy.’ ” – Bob Woodward, Plan of […]
9/15/2001
“As [Secretary of State] Colin Powell told an interviewer a week after the 9/11 attacks [mid-September 2001], ‘Iraq isn’t going anywhere. It’s in a fairly weakened state. It’s doing some things we don’t like. We will continue to contain it.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Jeffrey Record, […]
9/15/2001
Shortly after 9/11, Chairman of the Defense Board Advisory Committee Richard Perle commented that Iraq bore the responsibility for the attack. Then-CIA Director George Tenet noted: “I was stunned but said nothing. On September 11 [2001], I had scanned passenger manifests from the four hijacked airplanes that showed beyond a doubt that al-Qa’ida was behind […]
9/15/2001
In a radio address to the nation on September 15, 2001, President Bush said: ” ‘We are planning a broad and sustained campaign to secure our country and eradicate the evil of terrorism.’ ” – Jeffrey Record, Wanting War, Page 139 […]
9/15/2001
On September 15, 2001, then-CIA Director George Tenet said, regarding a meeting with President Bush and the war cabinet: “We were going to strangle their [Al Qaida’s] safe haven in Afghanistan, seal the borders, go after the leadership, shut off their money and pursue al-Qa’ida terrorists in ninety-two countries around the world.” – George Tenet […]
9/15/2001
In a meeting at Camp David on the morning of September 15, 2001, “the war council participants had been given briefing materials that included a Defense Department paper specifying three priority targets for initial action in a war: Al Qaeda, the Taliban (which was the ruling regime of Afghanistan), and Iraq.” – Elisabeth Bumiller, Condoleezza […]
9/15/2001
Former CIA Director George Tenet wrote: “One of CIA’s senior Middle East experts recently told me of a meeting he had in the White House a few days after 9/11 [mid-September 2001]. A senior NSC [National Security Council] official told him that the [Bush] administration wanted to get rid of Saddam. Our analyst said, ‘If […]
9/15/2001
“At Camp David that morning [September 15, 2001], [Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz seized [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice’s opening about possible military campaigns beyond Afghanistan and launched into an argument for striking at Saddam Hussein. …He told the gathering at Camp David, according to one account, that there was a 10 to 50 […]
9/15/2001
While discussing a response to the 9/11 attacks at Camp David on September 15, 2001, ” ‘There was a long discussion during the day about what place if any Iraq should have in a counterterrorist strategy,’ he [Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz] said later. …’the disagreement was whether it [Iraq] should be in the immediate […]