The Dems, with signifigant help from that whacky blog-o-sphere, are finally doing a decent job defending themselves from the outrageous claims of the "Path to 911." Yet, we still haven't learned from the GOP's most sucessful tactic: Never play defense, always play offense. It is not enough to simply say, "That's not true." The GOP always finds a way to claim (falsely) that Dems are the one's doing exactly what Democrats are accusing the ReThugs of doing.
Let's not forget that while the story about Sandy Berger not allowing the CIA and Northern Alliance to capture or kill bin-Laden is a complete fabrication, the story about Bush not letting the CIA and Pentagon take out Zarqawi really did happen.
The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council killed it.
Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi's operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.
Or
this :
"Almost every day we sent a package to the White House that had overhead imagery of the house he was staying in. It was a terrorist training camp . . . experimenting with ricin and anthrax . . . any collateral damage there would have been terrorists."
It has been the most important ignored story of Bush's time in office. The he said-she said nature of The Downing Street Memo may be hard to soundbite, but the simple fact that Bush could've killed a terrorist, but allowed him to live as an excuse for war is straight forward and incredibly damning.The story about Bush Playing Politics With Terror (should be the Dems attack slogan by the way)should be a talking point for every Candidate. By allowing Zarqawi to hideout in the Kurdish region of Iraq and develop cyanide and ricin Bush took a chance that AQ could've unleashed a massive attack in Europe. Luckily, it was POLICE WORK -- that horrible "law and order" that doesn't stop terrorism -- that prevented the attack.
Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe.
<snip>
In January 2003, the threat turned real. Police in London arrested six terror suspects and discovered a ricin lab connected to the camp in Iraq.
So just to be clear, Bush knew Zarqawi was part of AQ, and that they were developing poisons for an attack in Europe, but chose not to attack because he wanted to be able to claim an Iraqi connection to AQ. The irony is that new information shows that while Bush was ignoring Zarqawi, it was Saddam who actually was trying to capture or kill him.
It said al-Zarqawi was in Baghdad from May until late November 2002. But "postwar information indicates that Saddam Hussein attempted, unsuccessfully, to locate and capture al-Zarqawi and that the regime did not have a relationship with, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi."
Before his death, Bush described Zarqawi this way:
The terrorists affiliated with or inspired by al Qaeda are the smallest, but most lethal group. They are led by a brutal terrorist named Zarqawi. He's al Qaeda's chief operations officer in Iraq. He has stated his allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
Bush claimed that Zarzqawi had killed "thousands" in Iraq -- men, women, children, Americans, Iraqis, UN officials -- and said, "Now Zarqawi has met his end and this violent man will never murder again." Of course, had Bush not been Playing Politics With Terror, this violent man would have never murdered.
I'm not satisified with narrowly gaining the House, or coming close with the Senate. We have a President who allowed the terrorist to murder thousands over the past few years. He truly had the terrorists in his sites and refused to pull the trigger. Some cowboy. Can we please get this as a talking point! The GOP clearly plan to play the terrorism card again, instead of just discussing the nuances of security within constitutional boundaries, we should really put these bastards on the defensive. The bottom-line is that by Playing Politics With Terror, George W Bush let thousands of people be killed. According to King George's own reasoning, thousands of people, including many Americans (sadly, they are the only ones that matter to the press)would be alive today if Bush hadn't called off the attack dogs a staggering three times. Bush Plays Politics With Terror and we all lose. Let's remind the country of that and win.
Updated: Per wise comments