Amidst the Cedar Revolution and withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, which began in February 2005, “The resulting images of democracy on the march made for exhilarating days in the White House and temporarily won over some critics. Walid Jumblatt, a Lebanese Druze leader…credited [President] Bush for the wave of change sweeping the Middle East. […]
2/23/2005
“A key leader of the Lebanese democratic movement argued that his small nation might not have seen change had it not been for [President] Bush’s actions in Iraq. ‘I was cynical about Iraq,’ said Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Lebanese Druze population [in a Washington Post article on February 23, 2005]. ‘But when I […]
2/17/2005
A member of the press questioned President George W. Bush if Americans should be concerned about another war in Iran: “Well, first, Iran is different from Iraq — very different. The international community was convinced that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction — not just the United States, but the international community — and had passed […]
2/17/2005
President George W. Bush, when asked about the involvement of Syria in an assassination and its presence in Iraq: “And we’ve talked clearly to Syria about, one, making sure that their territory is not used by former Iraqi Baathists to spread havoc and kill innocent lives. We expect them to find and turn over former regime […]
2/17/2005
On February 17, 2005, “CIA Director Porter Goss said, ‘The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists.’ ” – Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Pages 111-112 […]
2/16/2005
“As CIA Director Porter Goss told the Senate in February [16] 2005, ‘Those [insurgents] who survive will leave Iraq experienced in and focused on acts of urban terrorism. They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks.’ ” – Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, The Next Attack, Page 58 […]
2/16/2005
On February 16, 2005, “new CIA director Porter Goss testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that ‘it may only be a matter of time before al Qaeda or another group attempts to use chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons.’ “ [Editor’s note: the author incorrectly identified the quote as having taken place in April 2005.] […]
2/15/2005
Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote: “I had the Defense Department’s comptroller, Tina Jonas, calculate the costs of recruiting, training, equipping, and deploying an American, an Iraqi, and an Afghan soldier. She reported [on February 15, 2005] that the cost of training and deploying one American soldier, approximately $107,000 per year, equaled the cost of […]
2/15/2005
“As of February 2005, the French domestic intelligence agency, Renseignements Généraux, estimated that about 5,000 GSPC [Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat] sympathizers and militants now reside in France, grouped around 500 hard-core members.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Bruce Riedel, The Search for Al Qaeda, Page 127 […]
2/14/2005
“Scott Horton, an expert on international law who helped prepare a report on renditions issued by N.Y.U. Law School and the New York City Bar Association, estimates that a hundred and fifty people have been rendered since 2001. Representative Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a member of the Select Committee on Homeland Security, […]