Bush Causes Brains To Explode

[sierra_le_oli]

I really should stop being shocked. The following is from Britain and the Netherlands' great ally, George Bush:
"First, just if I may correct a misperception. I don't think we ever said -- at least I know I didn't say -- that there was a direct connection between Sept. 11 and Saddam Hussein."
The rest at the excellent Making Light.

Comments

[gmh]

I suspect that the USG's comments on the subject do go beyond simple lie-by-omission and into active misdirection.

In September 2001, a US-based poll (for which I have no precise citations, alas, although I can probably dig them out) indicated that 3% of respondants believed that the Iraqi regime had anything to do with September the 11th.

By January 2003, a similar poll indicated that 44% of respondants thought there was a link.

To the best of my knowledge, Bush never did say that Iraq was responsible for 11/9/2001. What he did say was things like:

" We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11th. What the Vice President said was, is that he has been involved with al Qaeda. And al Zarqawi, al Qaeda operative, was in Baghdad. He's the guy that ordered the killing of a U.S. diplomat. He's a man who is still running loose, involved with the poisons network, involved with Ansar al-Islam. There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties."

(17/9/2003)

However, Cheney on multiple occasions asserted a link between the hijackers and Iraqi intelligence;

"GLORIA BORGER (CBS News contributor): Well, you know that Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the hijackers, actually met with Iraqi intelligence.

CHENEY: I know this. In Prague, in April of this year, as well as earlier. And that information has been made public. The Czechs made that public. "

14/11/2001 - a CBS interview

and

"TIM RUSSERT (host): The plane on the ground in Iraq used to train non-Iraqi hijackers. Do you still believe there is no evidence that Iraq was involved in September 11?

CHENEY: Well, what we now have that's developed since you and I last talked, Tim, of course, was that report that's been pretty well confirmed, that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack. Now, what the purpose of that was, what transpired between them, we simply don't know at this point. But that's clearly an avenue that we want to pursue."

9/12/2001 - an NBC interview.

What the USG did was to talk up the events of 11/9, the danger of Iraq, and some dubious intelligence, bring it out in public, and let the news media make the link.

When the link was made, the USG interviewee would refuse to be specific, asserting that the evidence was incomplete or inconclusive, but in such a way to imply that the news media had drawn the correct conclusion.

This creates an enthymeme leading to the classic 'Empire State Building = carrot' syllogism.

1. Al-Q'aeda was responsible for 11/9/2001
2. Iraq has definite links with Al-Q'aeda dating prior to 11/9/2001.

3. (implied) Iraq was involved with 11/9/2001.

Given the bits of 2001-vintage policy briefing that have been leaking out over the last few years, I would say that the USG government had every intention of creating this implied third; and that this constitutes a deliberate distortion of the truth.