Speaking of Pre-War Intelligence

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Congressman Curt Weldon says that the Able Danger intelligence team uncovered four terrorist hijackers in 2000, but was prevented by the Department of Justice from passing the information to the appropriate authorities.

Jamie Gorelick, a prominent Democrat on the 9/11 Commission refused to remove herself from the investigation even after evidence was produced showing she had direct and personal involvement in the rules preventing information exchanges between the military, intelligence, and the FBI, a policy now broadly understood to have hurt security and prevented the capture of the Al Qaeda cells.

Sandy Berger was convicted in September 2005, of stealing classified documents from the National Archives on multiple occasions. The documents dealt with Clinton Administration security actions and intelligence in 2000.

It is understood after investigation, that the 9/11 attacks were developed over a period of years dating back to at least 1995, and were inspired by the lack of concern and attention by the Clinton Administration to the numerous attacks by Al Qaeda through 1999.

The available evidence, even now, demonstrates that Saddam Hussein was a sponsor and patron of a number of terrorist groups. Also, questions surrounding meetings between representatives for Saddam and Bin Laden in 1994 have never been satisfactorily answered. Some government officials have pointed to information indicating the Iraq-Al Qaeda links were far more numerous and significant than has been publicly announced, as shown by a 2003 briefing for leaders in both the Republican and Democratic parties. This group includes Senator Rockefeller, who personally read a sixteen-page memo supporting links between the Hussein regime in Iraq and Osama Bin Laden.

The intelligence community, not only the United States but also most major agencies, including the community in Britain, France, and Germany, agreed in 2002 that WMD existed in Iraq and represented a real threat.

The Left now argues, as they did fifteen months ago in another equally deceitful and malicious effort, that President Bush lied about the Intelligence information, and somehow tricked the nation. But we’ve already been there and answered that lie. David Kay, a man quoted by the Left when it suits them to take a comment out of context, clearly said “I think the intelligence community owes the president rather than the president owing the American people. We have to remember that this view of Iraq was held during the Clinton administration and didn't change in the Bush administration.”

As an example of world leaders of note, Tony Blair still believes the intelligence information is valid, saying “As for the existence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, there can be no doubt at all that those weapons existed, absolutely no doubt, because that is said not just by this government or the United States government. It was set out in detail over 12 years by the United Nations and by United Nations inspectors.”

Kay also observed that it was right to invade Iraq, because "I actually think what we learned during the inspection made Iraq a more dangerous place, potentially, than, in fact, we thought it was even before the war." Kay repeated that invading Iraq was actually vital to U.S. National Security, saying “I think Baghdad was actually becoming more dangerous in the last two years than even we realized. Saddam was not controlling the society any longer. In the marketplace of terrorism and of WMD, Iraq well could have been that supplier if the war had not intervened.”

Investigations into the pre-war intelligence have never found any evidence of pressure to reach a certain conclusion, and the statements made by President Bush were very similar to those made by leading Democrats and even President Clinton.

It’s obvious to me, that the attempts by the Left to once again smear the President amount to a shallow hope that people won’t notice that we had valid information, about Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, long before they began training for the 9/11 attacks. An honest investigation would not be trying once again to put Bush in the dock. There have already been enough commissions and investigations about him, and fishing season’s over. If we want to investigate pre-War intelligence, let’s focus on why Al Qaeda was allowed to grow from a two-bit radical shoot to an international organization. That, of course, would put a damper on a certain Senator’s ambitions to become President in 2008, but it seems to me that’s what the Democrats fear, so it’s also where we should start to look.