Pentagon report finds no link between Hussein and al Queda

earth_as_one

Time Out
Jan 5, 2006
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Five years ago, the US launched started the Iraq war. The unprovoked attack on Iraq was justified by Iraq's possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction and links to the terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks.

Since then, Iraq has been searched thoroughly for WMDs and none have been found. In fact what has been found in Iraq fully supports Iraq's claims that it did not possess WMDs.

Recently the US military released a report which concludes that Iraq had no links to the terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks.

Official US study denies Saddam had links with al-Qaida

A US military study officially acknowledged for the first time yesterday that Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to al-Qaida, undercutting the Bush administration's central case for war with Iraq.

The study, based on more than 600,000 documents recovered after US and UK troops toppled Saddam in 2003, concluded there was "no 'smoking gun' [direct connection] between Saddam's Iraq and al-Qaida".

George Bush and his senior aides have made numerous attempts to link Saddam and al-Qaida in their justification for waging war against Iraq...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/13/saddam.alqaida

You would be hard pressed to find coverage of this report which the US military has deemed too policitally sensitive to post publicly.

Does anyone who supported this invasion initially still believe they weren't deliberately misinformed and manipulated?

If our news misinformed and manipulated us then, how likely is it that the news still misinforms and manipulates us now?

The Bush Regime is probably responsible for as many Iraqi deaths as the Hussein Regime:

January 2008 - Update on Iraqi Casualty Data

Further survey work undertaken by ORB, in association with its research partner IIACSS, confirms our earlier estimate that over 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which started in 2003.
Following responses to ORB’s earlier work, which was based on survey work undertaken in primarily urban locations, we have conducted almost 600 additional interviews in rural communities. By and large the results are in line with the ‘urban results’ and we now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been of the order of 1,033,000. If one takes into account the margin of error associated with survey data of this nature then the estimated range is between 946,000 and 1,120,000.

Further information about the research, our calculations, questionnaire wording and data tables is available by clicking on the links below. Also available is an article providing background on IIACSS and its founding director Dr. Munqith Dagher.
Revised Casulaty Data - Press release.doc
New Casualty Tabs.pdf
MRS story.pdf


http://www.opinion.co.uk/Newsroom_details.aspx?NewsId=88

Does anyone still believe that this invasion has improved the lives of ordinary Iraqis?

BBC
Monday, 17 March 2008


Bleak picture of Iraq conditions

Iraqi hospitals lack qualified staff and basic drugs, the report said

Millions of Iraqis have little or no access to clean water, sanitation and healthcare, five years after the US-led invasion, according to the Red Cross.
The Swiss-based agency says Iraq's humanitarian situation is "among the most critical in the world".
It warned that despite better security in some areas, millions had been left essentially to fend for themselves.
Some families spend a third of their average monthly wage of $150 (£75) just buying clean water, the report found.
'Worse than ever'
An even worse humanitarian crisis in Iraq will only be averted if much more attention is paid to the everyday needs of Iraqi citizens, the report by the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Many Iraqis still lack basic sanitation


Healthcare in Iraq was "now in worse shape than ever" and the services that are available are too expensive for many people, the report said.
Iraqi hospitals lack qualified staff and basic drugs, facilities are not properly maintained and public hospitals provide only 30,000 beds, less than half of the 80,000 needed, the Red Cross reports.
The agency said the current situation had been exacerbated for the 27m population by decades of previous conflict and economic sanctions.
Vanishings
The report also says that tens of thousands of Iraqis had effectively disappeared since the start of the war.
"Many of those killed in the current violence have never been properly identified, because only a small percentage of the bodies have been turned over to Iraqi government institutions," it said.
Despite security gains, many Iraqis still suffer bloodshed


Violence rates in the country have fallen 60% since last June, although the US military commander there, Gen David Petraeus, says the security gains are fragile and could be easily reversed.
But Beatrice Megevand Roggo of the Red Cross said: "Better security in some parts of Iraq must not distract attention from the continuing plight of millions of people who have essentially been left to their own devices." Tens of thousands of Iraqis - nearly all men - are in detention, according to the agency, including 20,000 inmates at Camp Bucca near Basra, which is run by US-led multinational forces. Iraq is the Red Cross's largest operation worldwide with an annual budget of $106m (£52m) and 600 staff.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7299914.stm

A war wasn't required to improve the lives of Iraqis. Simply lifting economic sanctions imposed on Iraq for possessing WMDs would have done it. Those sanctions imposed on Iraq long after Iraq no longer possessed WMDs probably killed as many Iraqis as this war.

So there it is in plain sight. Every justification for this war has been exposed as fabrications and manipulations.

If our current PM had a majority government at the time, I have no doubt that Canada would also be bogged down in Iraq.
 
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MikeyDB

House Member
Jun 9, 2006
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People in Canada and the United States have been conditioned to accept as "truth" anything their governments tell them. There are many participants here at Canadian Content who firmly believe that if they hear something from the lips of their governing congressmen, ministers and corporate madarins that whatever is being said is the truth. From the urgent necessity of the American invaison of Iraq to the "urgent need" for gun registry as a panacea for crime, it must all be "true". For these people to believe otherwise so undermines their belief in the "reality" of their world-view that consideration of the opposite is completely and unimaginably offensive. Baa Baa Baa
 

normbc9

Electoral Member
Nov 23, 2006
483
14
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California
I think the Pentagon knew the answer to this question long before it became of topic of discussion in the Congress. It is my feeling the "in depth look" was just to salve some damaged ego's. The longer we get from the Iraqi Freedo. date invasion the more it is apparent to me just how little our government truly knew about Iraq or it's varying cultures. I also think the Rumsfeld and Co. had a big idea that this wouild be a cake walk e and he'd get promoted to other higher position. His interests were self serving as is his mentor Dick Cheney. Cheney is now on a surprise Iraqi visit supposedly to urge the Iraqi giovernment to get more pro-active in the insurgent elimination business. One question. Just what motivates them to get their immediate family members killed? I think Cheney is there to look over the progress of the oil pipeline security since a Yemeni firm took over that task. He smarts from the loses his group suffered when the Iraqi's changed that contract. The continuance of the practice of denial is still rampant in Washington, DC.