Thursday, June 17, 2004
Rumsfeld: Bush's best evidence of Hussein-al-Qaeda link, Zarqawi, not al Qaeda
Yesterday, a reporter asked Bush for the best evidence of a link between Hussein and al Qaeda:
Q: The Vice President, who I see standing over there, said yesterday that Saddam Hussein has long-established ties to al Qaeda. As you know, this is disputed within the U.S. intelligence community. Mr. President, would you add any qualifiers to that flat statement? And what do you think is the best evidence of it?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Zarqawi. Zarqawi is the best evidence of connection to al Qaeda affiliates and al Qaeda.
Today, however, when asked about the alleged Hussein-al-Qaeda link, Donald Rumsfeld directly contradicted Bush's "best evidence":
The other thing I would say is that it appears -- I guess I don't know if I should say this or not, but I -- I suppose I can -- it appears that Zarqawi -- who is, everyone in the intelligence community seems to agree, is engaged as a significant leader of a network in Iraq and has in his past been identified by at least some intelligence as being a leader with respect to terrorist activities in other countries, not just Iraq -- may very well not have sworn allegiance to UBL. But he -- maybe, because he disagrees with him on something, maybe because he wants to be “The Man” himself, and maybe for a reason that's not known to me.
Now, therefore you probably -- someone could legitimately say he's not al Qaeda.
Rumsfeld placed an asterisk by his statement, noting that he was "not in the intelligence business". Then again neither is Bush.
// posted by Erik @ 6/17/2004 06:37:00 PM
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