Media Fail to Correct Obama’s Claim of No Al-Qaeda in Iraq Before Invasion (9/11, enemies)

[smd1998]

He has no clue what the heck is going on. McCain is right, Obama is dangerous!

Obama’s Claim of No Al-Qaeda in Iraq Before Invasion was wrong and a lie!!




Since Friday’s presidential debate, all three major broadcast networks have highlighted one of Barack Obama’s more commanding moments when he charged that John McCain was wrong in some of his pre-Iraq war predictions, but the media have so far ignored Obama’s incorrect assertion that "there was no Al-Qaeda" presence in Iraq before America’s invasion in 2003. Before the 2003 invasion, various news sources – some American, some from other countries – were already citing the governments of various countries as they reported that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, not only was already in Iraq plotting attacks to be carried out in Europe, but that he already had an association with Osama bin Laden and had spent time in Afghanistan. But during Friday’s debate, Senator Obama asserted: "Now, keep in mind that we have four times the number of troops in Iraq, where nobody had anything to do with 9/11 before we went in, where, in fact, there was no Al-Qaeda before we went in, but we have four times more troops there than we do in Afghanistan."
By contrast, ABC, CBS, and NBC have all played the following soundbite of Obama from the debate which is more favorable to the Illinois Democrat: "John, you like to pretend like the war started in 2007. You talk about the surge. The war started in 2003. And, at the time, when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy, you said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong. You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong. You said that there was no history of violence between Shia and Sunni. And you were wrong."
Notably, back in January 2003 and again in March 2004, the NBC Nightly News relayed claims that the Bush administration had "passed up several opportunities to take [Zarqawi] out well before the Iraq war began." The below was first posted on February 29 of this year, and lists some of the relevant reporting on Zarqawi from various sources and countries:

[gumbo31]

You should read the 911 Commission Report , the 911 commission says there are no links to Iraq and Al Qaeda

[artifice]

Originally Posted by gumbo31

You should read the 911 Commission Report , the 911 commission says there are no links to Iraq and Al Qaeda

No it says there were links but they were weak.

“Survey of Intelligence Information on Any Iraq
Involvement in the September 11 Attacks.” Rice’s chief staffer on Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, concurred in its conclusion that only some anecdotal evidence
linked Iraq to al Qaeda. It passed along a few foreign
intelligence reports, including the Czech report alleging an April 2001 Prague meeting between Atta and an Iraqi intelligence officer (discussed in chapter 7)and a Polish report that personnel at the headquarters of Iraqi intelligence inBaghdad were told before September 11 to go on the streets to gauge crowd reaction to an unspecified event.

[LordBalfor]

The problem with your argument is that the Al-Qaeda forces in Iraq were NOT based in territory controlled by Saddam, but rather in the quasi-independent region under the control of the Kurds (who were our ALLIES against Saddam - as bizzare as all that seems) in the north who ALLOWED them to operate there. Again, this was in territory NOT under the control of Saddam or the Iraqi government. Saddam was NOT an ally of Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq and in fact they were bitter enemies. In Iraq proper (those areas under the Iraqi government) Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq had almost no presence whatsoever. Once Saddam was overthrown THEN Al-Qaeda moved into Iraq proper.

Al-Queda-in-Iraq hated Saddam.

Ken

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by artifice

No it says there were links but they were weak.

Actually what the statement you posted said was not that the links were weak, but that the EVIDENCE that there even WAS a link (at all) was weak.

That's a BIG difference.

Ken