Golly, Gee -- No Link Between Saddam & al-Qa'ida!

The Senate Intelligence Committee released a report today on Iraq and intelligence leading up to the war. Some brief quotes...

Postwar findings indicate that Hussein was distrustful of al-Qa'ida and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al-Qa'ida to provide material or operational support. Debriefings of key leaders of the former Iraqi regime indicate that Saddam distrusted Islamic radicals in general, and al-Qa'ida in particular. (p.105)

Postwar findings have identified two occasions, not reported prior to the war, in which Saddam Hussein rebuffed meeting requests from an al-Qa'ida operative. (p.105)

Prewar Intelligence Community assessments were inconsistent regarding the likelihood that Hussein provided chemical and biological weapons (CBW) training to al-Qa'ida. Postwar findings support the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) February 2002 assessment that Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was likely intentionally misleading his debriefers when he said that Iraq provided two al-Qa'ida associates with chemical and biological weapons (CBW) training in 2000. The Central Intelligence Agency's January 2003 assessment said the al-Libi claim was credible, but included the statement that al-Libi was not in a position to know whether the training had taken place. Postwar findings do not support the assessment that his reporting was credible. (p. 106)

Postwar information supports prewar Intelligence Community assessments that there was no credible information that Iraq was complicit in or had foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks or any other al-Qa'ida strike. (p.110)

Conclusion 8: No postwar information indicates that Iraq intended to use al-Qa'ida or any other terrorist group to strike the United States homeland before or during Operation Iraqi Freedom. (p.111)

Quite a start, eh? For the moment, we need to thank Olympia Snowe and Chuck Hagel for voting with the Ds to make this report as strong as it is.

"Big Time" Cheney will be on MTP for the whole hour on Sunday. This should be something to watch. Will Timmeh nail him or not? On NBC Nightly this evening, they showed the clip of Big Time assuring America that Saddam was intimately involved in 9/11. The clip is racked and ready to go on Sunday. We'll see....

THIS is why it's all about electing true Democrats this year. The only way this administration will be held accountable for misleading this nation into war is to elect:
Ned Lamont
Chris Murphy
Diane Farrell
Joe Courtney
And, of course, re-elect Rosa DeLauro and John Larson.