“The rationale for supporting characters like [Northern Alliance commander] Hazrat Ali to operate unmolested was their supposed value as intelligence assets in the hunt for bin Laden and the rest of al Qaeda. While happy to hand over the occasional hapless victim–in exchange for cash–for interrogation or worse in one of the expanding network of […]
3/15/2002
In March 2002, President Bush “stuck his head into a White House meeting on Iraq that [National Security Advisor] Condoleezza Rice was having with some senators, and blurted out: ‘Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Todd S. Purdum and The New York […]
3/15/2002
“…the March [15] 2002 JIC [Joint Intelligence Committee] report on Iraq warned that the intelligence on Iraq was ‘sporadic’ and ‘patchy.’ What is then omitted is what it went on to say, which was: ‘But it is clear that Iraq continues to pursue a policy of acquiring WMD and their delivery means.’ ” – Tony […]
3/15/2002
According to information in an article in Time on March 22, 2003, in March 2002: “the president [Bush] poked his head into [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice’s office as she met with senators and heard them discussing the possibilities of dealing with Iraq through the United Nations or a coalition of U.S. allies in the […]
3/15/2002
According to an article in the March-April 2002 issue of Foreign Affairs, “The diminishing importance of the Saudi-American alliance is also underlined in two other significant developments: first, that Russia and Venezuela are competing to supplant Saudi Arabia as the leading exporter of oil to the United States, and second, that every Middle Eastern country […]
3/15/2002
“In March 2002, Treasury agents raided the northern Virginia headquarters of four Saudi-based charities: the SAAR Foundation, the Safa Trust, the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT), and the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO). Also included in the raid was the local headquarters for the Muslim World League, an umbrella group funded by the Saudi […]
3/15/2002
“In March [2002], [CIA Director George] Tenet met secretly with two individuals who would be critical to covert action inside Iraq: Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, the leaders of the two main Kurdish groups in northern Iraq. Tenet had one message for Barzani and Talabani: the United States was serious, the military and the CIA […]
3/15/2002
“On March 15 [2002], [Vice President Dick] Cheney flew to the USS John C. Stennis, the aircraft carrier stationed in the Arabian Sea with a crew of 5,000.” Cheney addressed the crew: ” ‘Our next objective is to prevent terrorists, and the regimes that sponsor terror, from threatening America or our friends and allies with […]
3/15/2002
“In March 2002, the largest engagement of the war [Operation Enduring Freedom] was fought, in the mountainous Shah-i-Kot area south of Gardez [Afghanistan], against a large force of al Qaeda jihadists. The three-week battle was substantially successful, and almost all remaining al Qaeda forces took refuge in Pakistan’s equally mountainous and lightly governed frontier provinces.” […]
3/15/2002
A senior CIA intelligence analyst at Guantanamo “spoke with Major General Michael Dunlavey, the top military commander in Guantanamo at the time. …the general agreed with him that easily a third of the Guantanamo detainees were mistakes. Later, Dunlavey raised his estimate to fully half the population. …When Dunlavey…took command of the base in March […]