[Peace-discuss] [Fwd: GW Bush, soft on terrorists]

[Alfred Kagan]

>Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 06:51:11 -0500
>From: "Maurice J. (Mitch) Freedman" <freedman at wlsmail.org>
>Subject: [Fwd: GW Bush, soft on terrorists]
>To: "S.Michael Malinconico" <mmalinco at slis.ua.edu>,
>         Mark Rosenzweig <iskra at earthlink.net>, Al Kagan <akagan at uiuc.edu>,
>         Elaine Harger <eharger at agoron.com>,
>         "John Nichols Berry III, Editor-in-Chief, Library Journal"
>  <JBerry at reedbusiness.com>,
>         Patricia Glass Schuman <pgs at neal-schuman.com>
>X-Accept-Language: en
>
>Another tribute to our commander-in-chief from 
>NBC-TV's pentagon correspondent.
>
>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject:  GW Bush, soft on terrorists Date: 
>Sun, 7 Mar 2004 16:42:32 -0800 From:  "Mitchell 
>Freedman" <mjfreedman at cox.net> To: 
><CFreed934 at aol.com>, <freedman at wlsmail.org>, 
><emerald57A at yahoo.com>,<joanmalkin at yahoo.com>, 
><futureworks2 at cox.net>
>
>This article from an NBC correspondent says Bush 
>held off going after a leading terrorist from 
>al-Qudea because he didn't want to interfere 
>with the psychological build up of Americans for 
>war against Iraq.  Pretty damning if true, but 
>not surprising unfortunately.  What is 
>surprising is that even with an NBC report the 
>media pundits on radio and television aren't 
>saying much if anything about this... 
>MJF3/7/04 Jim Miklaszewski
>Correspondent
>NBC News
>Updated: 7:14 p.m. ET March  02, 2004
>With Tuesday’s attacks, Abu Musab Zarqawi, a 
>Jordanian militant with ties to al-Qaida, is now 
>blamed for more than 700 terrorist killings in 
>Iraq.
>
>advertisement
>But NBC News has learned that long before the 
>war the Bush administration had several chances 
>to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps 
>kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the 
>trigger.
>
>In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence 
>had revealed that Zarqawi and members of 
>al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in 
>northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and 
>cyanide.
>
>The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the 
>camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and 
>sent it to the White House, where, according to 
>U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to 
>death in the National Security Council.
>
>
>
>
>‘People were more obsessed with developing the 
>coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute 
>the president’s policy of pre-emption against 
>terrorists.’
>— Roger Cressey
>Terrorism expert
>“Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we 
>had a country willing to support casualties, or 
>risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didn’t 
>do it,” said Michael O’Hanlon, military analyst 
>with the Brookings Institution.
>
>Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi 
>was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks 
>in Europe.
>
>The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and 
>the White House again killed it.  By then the 
>administration had set its course for war with 
>Iraq.
>
>“People were more obsessed with developing the 
>coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute 
>the president’s policy of preemption against 
>terrorists,” according to terrorism expert and 
>former National Security Council member Roger 
>Cressey.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>The United States did attack the camp at Kirma 
>at the beginning of the war, but it was too late 
>— Zarqawi and many of his followers were gone. 
>“Here’s a case where they waited, they waited 
>too long and now we’re suffering as a result 
>inside Iraq,” Cressey added.
>
>And despite the Bush administration’s tough talk 
>about hitting the terrorists before they strike, 
>Zarqawi’s killing streak continues today.
>© 2004 MSNBC Interactive


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20040308/7fd8677c/attachment.htm