Home > The Plain Truth
It’s hard to imagine how the commission investigating
the 2001 terrorist attacks could have put it more
clearly yesterday: there was never any evidence of a
link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, between Saddam Hussein
and Sept. 11.
Now President Bush should apologize to the American
people, who were led to believe something different.
Of all the ways Mr. Bush persuaded Americans to back the
invasion of Iraq last year, the most plainly dishonest
was his effort to link his war of choice with the battle
against terrorists worldwide. While it’s possible that
Mr. Bush and his top advisers really believed that there
were chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq,
they should have known all along that there was no link
between Iraq and Al Qaeda. No serious intelligence
analyst believed the connection existed; Richard Clarke,
the former antiterrorism chief, wrote in his book that
Mr. Bush had been told just that.
Nevertheless, the Bush administration convinced a
substantial majority of Americans before the war that
Saddam Hussein was somehow linked to 9/11. And since the
invasion, administration officials, especially Vice
President Dick Cheney, have continued to declare such a
connection. Last September, Mr. Bush had to grudgingly
correct Mr. Cheney for going too far in spinning a
Hussein-bin Laden conspiracy. But the claim has crept
back into view as the president has made the war on
terror a centerpiece of his re-election campaign.
On Monday, Mr. Cheney said Mr. Hussein "had long-
established ties with Al Qaeda." Mr. Bush later backed
up Mr. Cheney, claiming that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a
terrorist who may be operating in Baghdad, is "the best
evidence" of a Qaeda link. This was particularly
astonishing because the director of central
intelligence, George Tenet, told the Senate earlier this
year that Mr. Zarqawi did not work with the Hussein
regime.
The staff report issued by the 9/11 panel says that
Sudan’s government, which sheltered Osama bin Laden in
the early 1990’s, tried to hook him up with Mr. Hussein,
but that nothing came of it.
This is not just a matter of the president’s diminishing
credibility, although that’s disturbing enough. The war
on terror has actually suffered as the conflict in Iraq
has diverted military and intelligence resources from
places like Afghanistan, where there could really be
Qaeda forces, including Mr. bin Laden.
Mr. Bush is right when he says he cannot be blamed for
everything that happened on or before Sept. 11, 2001.
But he is responsible for the administration’s actions
since then. That includes, inexcusably, selling the
false Iraq-Qaeda claim to Americans. There are two
unpleasant alternatives: either Mr. Bush knew he was not
telling the truth, or he has a capacity for politically
motivated self-deception that is terrifying in the
post-9/11 world.