Ought Six
Membership Revoked
9/11 MYTH-BUSTERS
The New York Post
July 24, 2004 -- It's a good thing that the published ver sion of the 9/11 Commission's final re port appears to be flying off the bookshelves. Because the 567-page document explodes some of the more malicious myths surrounding the terrorist attacks.
Myth No. 1: There was no link between al Qaeda and Iraq.
The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes noticed a significant change between the commission's interim report — which garnered banner headlines — and the final version.
So he asked Chairman Tom Kean why the staff draft charged there was "no collaborative relationship" between al Qaeda and Iraq, while the final version qualified that to conclude there was "no collaborative operational relationship with regard to the attacks."
Kean's response: "Well, there is no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. . . . There were conversations that went on over a number of years, sometimes successful, sometimes unsuccessfully."
Indeed, he added, "there was a suspicion in the Clinton administration that when they fired that bomb at that factory, that if, in fact, there were chemicals there, they may have come from Iraq. So there was a relationship."
Contrast that to the media hysteria just a month ago when it was widely trumpeted that the commission had found "no link" between Iraq and al Qaeda, thus destroying "one of President Bush's central justifications of the Iraq war," as The New York Times put it — on Page One.
In fact, as Daniel McKivergan notes (on weeklystandard.com) the full report found that "the connection between Iraq and al Qaeda [was] more extensive than many critics of the administration have been willing to admit."
Despite the commission's stress on the lack of Iraqi involvement in 9/11, no one in the Bush administration ever alleged such a connection.
But the report cited numerous meetings into the late '90s, some involving bin Laden himself, with Iraqi intelligence officials.
Surely all this is significant. For as the CIA's Counterterrorism Center declared, "Any indication of a relationship between these two hostile elements could carry great dangers to the United States."
Yet President Bush — contrary to the popular myth — never used the Iraq-Osama connection as a primary reason for going to war. What he said was that Iraq's demonstrated ties to anti-American terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, along with its refusal to comply with U.N. resolutions on weapons of mass destruction, constituted a threat to U.S. security.
Myth No. 2: The Bush administration gave special treatment to 140 Saudis — including 26 members of bin Laden's family — by flying them to safety without any questioning immediately after 9/11.
This is one of the many blatant, but popular, falsehoods in Michael Moore's cinematic screed "Fahrenheit 9/11" — and the commission report exposes it as a wholesale lie.
Yes, the Saudis were allowed to leave, at the initial request of the Riyadh government. But only after FBI agents conducted face-to-face questioning of 30 people deemed to be "of interest" — including 22 of the 26 bin Laden relatives.
The Saudis also were allowed to leave on chartered flights only after U.S. airspace was reopened on the morning of Sept. 13, following the nearly two-day shutdown following the attacks.
In short, there was no special treatment given to the fleeing Saudis — and especially not to Osama's family members (who long ago disowned him, anyway).
Sadly, there is still a huge market of gullible people for outlandish conspiracy theories; one of the most popular books now available contends that the Bush administration staged the 9/11 attacks and that no plane hit the Pentagon but rather U.S. missiles.
That such noxious tripe continues to find an audience is dismaying. That the 9/11 Commission has managed to discredit some of it is welcome — but the sad fact is that there are many more lies still out there.
The New York Post
July 24, 2004 -- It's a good thing that the published ver sion of the 9/11 Commission's final re port appears to be flying off the bookshelves. Because the 567-page document explodes some of the more malicious myths surrounding the terrorist attacks.
Myth No. 1: There was no link between al Qaeda and Iraq.
The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes noticed a significant change between the commission's interim report — which garnered banner headlines — and the final version.
So he asked Chairman Tom Kean why the staff draft charged there was "no collaborative relationship" between al Qaeda and Iraq, while the final version qualified that to conclude there was "no collaborative operational relationship with regard to the attacks."
Kean's response: "Well, there is no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. . . . There were conversations that went on over a number of years, sometimes successful, sometimes unsuccessfully."
Indeed, he added, "there was a suspicion in the Clinton administration that when they fired that bomb at that factory, that if, in fact, there were chemicals there, they may have come from Iraq. So there was a relationship."
Contrast that to the media hysteria just a month ago when it was widely trumpeted that the commission had found "no link" between Iraq and al Qaeda, thus destroying "one of President Bush's central justifications of the Iraq war," as The New York Times put it — on Page One.
In fact, as Daniel McKivergan notes (on weeklystandard.com) the full report found that "the connection between Iraq and al Qaeda [was] more extensive than many critics of the administration have been willing to admit."
Despite the commission's stress on the lack of Iraqi involvement in 9/11, no one in the Bush administration ever alleged such a connection.
But the report cited numerous meetings into the late '90s, some involving bin Laden himself, with Iraqi intelligence officials.
Surely all this is significant. For as the CIA's Counterterrorism Center declared, "Any indication of a relationship between these two hostile elements could carry great dangers to the United States."
Yet President Bush — contrary to the popular myth — never used the Iraq-Osama connection as a primary reason for going to war. What he said was that Iraq's demonstrated ties to anti-American terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, along with its refusal to comply with U.N. resolutions on weapons of mass destruction, constituted a threat to U.S. security.
Myth No. 2: The Bush administration gave special treatment to 140 Saudis — including 26 members of bin Laden's family — by flying them to safety without any questioning immediately after 9/11.
This is one of the many blatant, but popular, falsehoods in Michael Moore's cinematic screed "Fahrenheit 9/11" — and the commission report exposes it as a wholesale lie.
Yes, the Saudis were allowed to leave, at the initial request of the Riyadh government. But only after FBI agents conducted face-to-face questioning of 30 people deemed to be "of interest" — including 22 of the 26 bin Laden relatives.
The Saudis also were allowed to leave on chartered flights only after U.S. airspace was reopened on the morning of Sept. 13, following the nearly two-day shutdown following the attacks.
In short, there was no special treatment given to the fleeing Saudis — and especially not to Osama's family members (who long ago disowned him, anyway).
Sadly, there is still a huge market of gullible people for outlandish conspiracy theories; one of the most popular books now available contends that the Bush administration staged the 9/11 attacks and that no plane hit the Pentagon but rather U.S. missiles.
That such noxious tripe continues to find an audience is dismaying. That the 9/11 Commission has managed to discredit some of it is welcome — but the sad fact is that there are many more lies still out there.