“The intelligence summarized in the [Undersecretary of Defense Douglas] Feith memo [on October 27, 2003] included information that bin Laden’s top deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, ‘visited Baghdad and met with the Iraqi Vice President on 3 February 1998. The goal of the visit was to arrange for coordination between Iraq and bin Laden and establish […]
1/27/1998
” ‘It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.’ From the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, passed 360-38 in the House of Representatives and unanimously in […]
1/27/1998
“Although there was no CIA budget for providing arms and ammunition to the Taliban and Unocal [American oil exporter] did not channel military support to the Taliban, the USA did support the Taliban through its traditional allies Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, accepting their provision of arms and funding to the Taliban. ‘The US acquiesced in […]
1/26/1998
“In January [26] 1998, I [former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld] joined a group of former national security officials in signing a letter to President Clinton that called for stronger action against Saddam’s regime. ‘The only acceptable strategy,’ our letter read, ‘is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or […]
1/26/1998
“In all, thirteen out of the eighteen signatories to the [January 26, 1998] PNAC [Project for a New American Century] letter [urging the overthrow of Saddam] won appointments in the Bush-Cheney administration: Elliott Abrams, Richard Armitage, Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Bergner, John Bolton, Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, Francis Fukuyama (President’s Council on […]
1/26/1998
On January 26, 1998, “the neoconservative Project for a New American Century (PNAC) drafted a letter to President [Bill] Clinton calling for Saddam’s removal from power. …Specifically, it urged Clinton to ‘turn your Administration’s attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam’s regime from power. …If you act now to end the threat of weapons […]
1/26/1998
“[A] letter to President [Bill] Clinton of January 26, 1998, masterminded by the Project for the New American Century and signed by several prominent neo-conservatives, but with the addition of such names as [former Secretary of Defense] Donald Rumsfeld and [former Assistant Secretary of Defense] Richard Armitage… said: ‘The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates […]
1/26/1998
“Released in January [26] 1998, the PNAC [Project for the New American Century, a neoconservative think tank] letter to [President Bill] Clinton called for the removal of Saddam Hussein and his entire regime from power. Arguing that diplomacy had failed, the letter called for military engagement and focused on the threat Hussein posed to ‘a […]
1/26/1998
“Following [neoconservative Douglas] Feith’s call for a war against the occupied Palestinians, [former Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard] Perle, [former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Paul] Wolfowitz, [former Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld, and a small group of neocons signed a letter to President [Bill] Clinton [on January 26, 1998], pleading with him to make […]
1/26/1998
“Despite the intelligence community’s dim view of Hussein as a serious and immediate threat to the U.S., a small group of hardcore neoconservatives in [January 26] 1998 lobbied the Clinton administration to support regime change in Iraq–by force if necessary. The group…sent Clinton a letter urging his administration to implement ‘a strategy for removing Saddam’s […]