In an article for the Princeton Alumni Weekly on March 23, 2005, “When asked if U.S. strategies in the Arab world were shaped by the Cold War mentality, Thomas Kean, chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States–more commonly known as the 9/11 Commission–best expressed America’s predicament: ‘I think we’re moving […]
3/18/2005
On March 18, 2005, “To replenish their forces [in Afghanistan and Iraq], [defense] officials raised the age limit for enlistment from thirty-four to forty.” – Craig Unger, The Fall of the House of Bush, Page 334 […]
3/17/2005
Coalition Provisional Authority head L. Paul Bremer “found himself dealing with Philip Carroll–former Chief Executive Officer of the American operations of (Anglo-Dutch) Royal Dutch Shell in Houston–appointed by Washington as the Iraqi oil industry’s supreme boss. Carroll decided not to tinker with the industry’s ownership and told Bremer so. ‘There was to be no privatization […]
3/16/2005
President Bush and his stance on torture, “The post-9/11 world, the United States must make sure we protect our people and our friends from attack. That was the charge we have been given. And one way to do so is to arrest people and send them back to their country of origin with the promise […]
3/16/2005
President George W. Bush’s response to the observation that countries have begun to remove themselves from the situation in Iraq: “So I think what you’re going to find is that countries will be willing — anxious to get out when Iraqis have got the capacity to defend themselves. And that’s the position of the United States. […]
3/16/2005
“The Bush White House routinely claimed that when the United States rendered individuals to other countries it received assurances that, as President Bush asserted at a press conference in March [16] 2005, ‘They won’t be tortured. …This country does not believe in torture.’ “ – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 100 […]
3/15/2005
“In March 2005 a classified FBI assessment of the domestic terrorist threat…was leaked to the media… Its crucial finding was that ‘to date, we have not identified any true *sleeper* agents in the US… US Government efforts to date also have not revealed evidence of concealed cells or networks acting in the homeland as sleepers.’ […]
3/15/2005
“In March 2005, the Department of Defense released the National Defense Strategy of the United States. Describing U.S. ‘vulnerabilities’ in the ‘changing security environment,’ the Strategy noted that ‘our strength as a nation state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using international fora, judicial processes, and terrorism.’ […]
3/15/2005
In an interview with journalist Peter Bergen in March 2005, “Ahmad Zaidan, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Pakistan [said:] ‘What I believe is that al Qaeda succeeded to hijack Taliban ideologically. The evidence is that usually Afghans are very much alike in their politics. They never, ever thought, about international [politics]. And al Qaeda succeeded […]
3/11/2005
“On 11 March 2005 al-Quds al-Arabi published extracts from a document titled ‘al Qaeda’s Strategy to the Year 2020,’ which had been posted on the Internet by Muhammad Ibrahim Makkawi, al Qaeda’s main military strategist. …The document shows that al Qaeda has already started on its master plan, to pursue a long-term campaign of jihad […]