“In the second half of March 2002…Deputy CIA Director John E. McLaughlin… told senior members of the president’s [Bush’s] national security team that the CIA was scaling back operations in Afghanistan. That announcement marked a year-long drawdown of specialized military and intelligence resources from the geographic center of combat with Osama bin Laden. As jihadist […]
3/25/2002
“Saddam Hussein is paying $25,000 to the relatives of Palestinian suicide bombers–a $15,000 raise much welcomed by the bombers’ families. In Tulkarm, one of the poorest towns on the West Bank, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council handed out the checks from Saddam. The payments have been made for at least two years, but […]
3/25/2002
Journalist Abdel Bari Atwan wrote: “I was told by one of bin Laden’s close associates that he had been staying in the same house as Abu Zubaydah, the al Qaeda member in charge of mobilization and recruitment who was arrested in Faisalabad [Pakistan] in March [28] 2002. This source said bin Laden had left the […]
3/25/2002
In journalist “Jeffrey Goldberg’s March [25] 2002 story in The New Yorker…he wrote that ‘Iraqi intelligence agents smuggled conventional weapons, and possibly even chemical and biological weapons into Afghanistan.’ ” – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 140 […]
3/25/2002
“On March 25, 2002, The New Yorker published an article by Jeffrey Goldberg on the Kurds. Goldberg had traveled to northern Iraq, spending time in an area governed by Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). PUK officials escorted Goldberg to visit a prison in Sulaimaniya, where they were holding members of Ansar al-Islam, a […]
3/24/2002
“On CNN’s Late Edition [on March 24, 2002], [Vice President] Dick Cheney first makes reference to Saddam’s nuclear ambitions: ‘This is a man of great evil, as the President [Bush] said. And he is actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time.’ ” – Frank Rich, The Greatest Story Ever Sold, Page 236 […]
3/22/2002
President George W. Bush, after a member of the press inquired if military action against Iraq was imminent and if that was what the administration had been telling our allies: “Let me put it to you this way, David — what we’re telling our friends is that Saddam Hussein is a man who is willing to […]
3/22/2002
Political Director of the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office Peter Ricketts wrote a memo to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on March 22, 2002, which was leaked to the press during May 2005 as part of the Downing Street Memos. It stated: ” ‘The truth is that what has changed [regarding our position on Iraq] […]
3/21/2002
“That day, March 21 [2002], and the next, [Central Command leader General Tommy] Franks gathered the component commanders of the services–Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines–at Rammstein Air Base in Germany, a large US and NATO airlift installation. …Franks was poised for war…either Saddam Hussein and his family were going to leave and turn his […]
3/21/2002
Following his meetings with Arab leaders in the Middle East, Vice President Dick Cheney “Had an early morning breakfast with the president [Bush] on March 21 [2002]. At about 8:15 am, they took questions from reporters in the Oval Office. One asked about what the Arab leaders had said about supporting strong action against Iraq. […]