Truth hurts, don't it? Hey, whenever attacked, call someone a liar.

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/18/sen-dodd-admits-adding-bonus-provision-stimulus-package/100days/

Alleged link between 9/11 and Iraq

Examination of pre-war intelligence claims by Bush administration

MSNBC

Updated: 6:51 p.m. ET Nov. 11, 2005

David Shuster

MSNBC Correspondent

� Profile

Just days after the 9/11 attacks, Vice President Cheney, on �Meet The Press,� said the response should be aimed at Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror organization not Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

When asked if any evidence connected the Iraqis to the operation, Cheney said, no.

But during that same time period, according to Bob Woodward's book, Bush At War, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was pushing for military strikes on Iraq and during cabinet meetings Cheney, expressed deep concern about Saddam and wouldn't rule out going after Iraq at some point.

That point started to come 11 months later, just before the first anniversary of 9/11.

The president and vice president had decided to redirect their war on terror to Baghdad. So, with the help of the newly-formed White House Iraq group, which consisted of top officials and strategists, the selling of a war on Iraq began and the administration's rhetoric about Saddam changed.

On September 8, 2002, not only did White House hawks tell The New York Times for a front page exclusive that Saddam was building a nuclear weapon, five administration officials also went on the Sunday television shows that day to repeat the charge.

He is, in fact actively and aggressively seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, Cheney told Tim Russert on �Meet The Press.

But the White House started claiming that Iraq and the group responsible for 9/11 were one in the same.

The war on terror, you can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror, said Bush on September 25, 2002.

We've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases, said Bush a few days later on October 7. He's a threat because he is dealing with Al-Qaeda.

In pushing the Saddam-Iraq-9/11 connection, both the president and the vice president made two crucial claims. First, they alleged there had been a 1994 meeting in the Sudan between Osama bin Laden and an Iraqi intelligence official.

After the Iraq war began, however, the 9/11 Commission was formed and reported that while Osama bin Laden may have requested Iraqi help, Iraq apparently never responded.

The other crucial pre-war White House claim was that 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in the Czech republic in April 2001.

Cheney stated, It's been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a Senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service.

Confirmed or unconfirmed by Vice President Cheney the 9/11 Commission said, We do not believe such a meeting occurred. Why? Because cell phone records from the time show Atta in the United States.

None the less, the White House strategy worked. In March of 2003, one poll found 45 percent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11.

On the eve of the Iraq war, the White House sent a letter to Congress telling lawmakers that force was authorized against those who, aided the 9/11 attacks.

Yet the Bush administration continues to say it never claimed Iraq was linked to 9/11.

I think I made it very clear that we have never made that claim, White House Press Secretary McClellan repeated on Sept. 17, 2003.

The brutal irony is that while implications, innuendo, or false claims if you will about a 9/11 connection helped take us into Iraq. The Iraqi war itself has created a real al-Qaeda/Iraq link that may keep us from getting out.

Doesn't mean she has to actually DO anything to earn the bucks. She got a great big raise (nearly triple - and still claimed they had trouble paying off their college loans) when he was elected to the senate. I imagine her primary duty at the hospital was simply to be Mrs. Senator Obama, so naturally no one could possibly replace her.

Whenever I see a photo of MO with that huge toothy grin I am reminded of a Kate Hepburn line as Eleanor in Lion in Winter. She describes one of her husband's former mistresses as having prominent teeth, ''She smiled to excess, but chewed with real distinction.''

The mean comments I made were how I genuinely felt, though. I sincerely feel there are mental issues that play into some of the postings I see. And I did feel as though someone had ------ on me at one point. That is how it felt, honestly. And I won't go into it beyond that.

That said, just because I felt desecrated and that there were mental issues affecting some people's judgment doesn't mean I had to make fun or allude to these conclusions. That was in poor taste.

because he said Barbara came up to him when he in fact went up to her. OMG! Down with Beck. He should be hung at high noon.

As for his answer when they asked him if he checked his facts out and he said no, he was answering the question of whether he was a journalist and he said no he wasn't....he is a commentator. All those women talk at once and he was still answering one question when Barbara asked him another.

That show is so pointless to watch. It has like one conservative person on the whole thing and the rest of liberal loons who attack all who lean conservative. I really don't know how Elisabeth Hasselbeck...or whatever her name is.....stands to be on that show.

I thought Rush might have learned something from his own bad judgments but I guess I was wrong. I actually felt sorry for him for awhile...I would not wish his situation on anyone. But it seems he is back to his Homeless Olympics-type comments - always blame whoever is on the other side of the fence. Now I know where all this rhetoric is coming from...straight from the mouths of the radio right reich.

Right-Wing Attacks American Evacuees: �Ingrates,� �Whining,� �Spoiled-Rotten Little Children�

The Bush administration�s evacuation of Americans in Lebanon has been disorganized and lagged behind the efforts of other countries. As of yesterday, only a few thousand had been able to evacuate, and they departed �two days after the first Europeans left on ships.� Denmark, for example, �evacuated more than 4,000 of its citizens� by Thursday.

Watch Fox & Friends (a Fox correspondent in Cyprus disputes Doocy�s account, describing the evacuation conditions as �really chaotic�):

She says she was kicked, beaten, punched and then thrown to the ground. The attacker could have been over her, upside down, when he did the carving.... just a thought to those who doubt the "backwards B."

they attacked her first, and then she tried to explain the first post in simple English.

This is the most I have posted on this board in the last 2 months but I just can't take all attacks against people just because they voted for the pubs. I said it yesterday, and I'll say it again today, STOP THE BASHING. IT DOESN'T GET YOU ANYWHERE. All it causes is hate.

P.S. Mrs. M is the one of the worse on here. I have never seen her post before today or yesterday (didn't look at the dates). I think she's just trying to stir the pot.

This guy is really nuts! Just because he has 1M foot soldiers, he thinks he can do what he wants.

Imagine that. I'm shocked.

Murtha Attacked by the Right For Quote Falsely Attributed to Him

UPDATE: Multiple ThinkProgress readers report that Gail Bulfin of the Sun-Sentinel admits the paper�s report was inaccurate and says a correction will be printed tomorrow.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported on Sunday that Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) had claimed that the United States is the greatest threat to peace in the world:

American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to a crowd of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon.

Though the Sun-Sentinel never provided a direct quote of Murtha, the story was featured on the Drudge Report and Murtha immediately came under attack from conservative pundits:

Bill O�Reilly, Fox News, 6/26:

Murtha has lost all perspective and did months ago, but his message is firmly entrenched in America�s far-left precincts. � [T]hat kind of extreme thinking, based on little evidence, by the way, is putting all Americans in danger.

Tucker Carlson, MSNBC, 6/26:

What is really going on here, and you know it as well as I, is that Jack Murtha has been intoxicated by the amount of publicity that he has gotten from his anti-war crusade, and he has become progressively more unreasonable, progressively more left-wing as the days go on, and he is in the thrall of people who, I think, have hostility towards the United States.

Newt Gingrich, Fox News, 6/26:

For an American congressman to say that is beyond any acceptable behavior, and I would hope the Congress would move to censure him.

One problem: Murtha apparently never said anything of the sort. What he did was cite a Pew poll released two weeks ago showing that people around the world, including in closely-allied countries like Great Britain, believe the U.S. is the greatest threat to peace.

A statement released by Murtha�s office today quotes an email from Melissa Sanchez of the Miami Herald, who also attended the speech, saying of the purported Murtha �quote�: �That was in reference to international polls. It was not so much his own conjecture, but a conclusion drawn from polls in various countries.� ThinkProgress confirmed with Murtha�s office that the email accurately reflects the views of reporters at the Miami Herald.

~~Email the Sun-Sentinel�s reader liason Gail Bulfin � gbulfin@sun-sentinel.com � and ask that the paper print a retraction.~~ See update above.