Bush on Iran: "they're harboring al Qaeda leadership there"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Q: Thank you. We're hearing now that eight of the September 11th hijackers passed through Iran before attacking the United States. Do you think there's a September 11th link to Iran?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, listen, we want -- of course, we want to know all the facts. Acting Director McLaughlin said there was no direct connection between Iran and the attacks of September the 11th. We will continue to look and see if the Iranians were involved. I have long expressed my concerns about Iran. After all, it's a totalitarian society where free people are not allowed to exercise their rights as human beings. I have made it clear that if the Iranians would like to have better relations with the United States there are some things they must do.

For example, they're harboring al Qaeda leadership there. And we've asked that they be turned over to their respective countries. Secondly, they've got a nuclear weapons program that they need to dismantle. We're working with other countries to encourage them to do so. Thirdly, they've got to stop funding terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah that create great dangers in parts of the world.

No, this has been an issue that I have been concerned about ever since I've been the President. As to direct connections with September the 11th, we're digging into the facts to determine if there was one.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/2004071...

[Mr_Spock]

1. Yeehiii!!! Lets invade them too!! (since the last one was a bust)

Heck, let's start drafting 14 year olds! Woohoo!

[Union Thug]

2. Allow me to translate:

"The bombs start falling in October"

[NoPasaran]

3. So we invaded the wrong country

Iran, Iraq, who can tell them apart?

[Union Thug]

5. yeah, I mean, they all look alike, right?

God I hate BUSH!

[phillybri]

4. Here we go again!

[Generator]

6. Armageddon here we come!

Seriously, though folks if he invades Iran, America is over.

If you really want to take on the entire Islamic World and think that WW2 was a picnic, Bushowar is your guy. I mean who cares, anyway, heaven is so much better than this place, that's what the fundie Christians (like Bushowar) have in common with those darn terrorists. Death is the goalpost! Bring em on!

[Union Thug]

7. ...In heaven, everything is fine....

you've got your good things and i've got mine....

[iconoclastic cat]

8. Pixies?

[Union Thug]

14. Biscuit cheek radiator woman in Eraserhead... /eom

[ThirdWheelLegend]

18. covered by the pixies

http://www.davidlynch.de/headmusic.html


Music: Peter Ivers, Lyrics: David Lynch, vocals by Peter Ivers

TWL

[iconoclastic cat]

21. I was talking to Mrs. Cat about this last night! They're Death Cultists.

I really do believe that within the fundie groups of all the various Jehovah-based religions exists a strong core of Death Cultists. These people do not worship anything but annihilation of all life on Earth for the simple reason that they desperately want to escape the pain and humiliation of this reality. Life in heaven will be free of pain, worry, and people who don't look like/disagree with them.

The Christian Death Cults are the most dangerous because their belief system prohibits suicide; they can't simply strap on some fireworks and walk into a grocery store expecting 100 virgins to greet them after the blast. This tension causes the Christian Death Cults to actively pursue and sponsor Armageddon as their sole means of release.

As always, this is my opinion only!

[shadu]

23. I never thought of that

[iconoclastic cat]

25. You know, shadu, whenever someone says, "I never thought of that,"

I always have the feeling that they really mean that what I've said is fairly moronic. By the way, Dick Cheney uses that phrase when dismissing an idea (I'm looking for the link in which he explains that tack).

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

22. Yep, 3 Islamic nations in one administration = "out go the lights"

[Snoggera]

9. Let's see

Pakistan can blindfold Osama, take him into Iran, turn him loose, and...............well, you get the picture.

[ClintonTyree]

10. Just try.................

to put together another of your "coalitions" Georgie and invade them. Nobody will listen to you anymore you jackass. Once a liar, always a liar. You'd stand a better chance of getting your GOP buddies children to fight this war than you would getting any other countries to back you on another one of your escapades.

[killbotfactory]

11. And if there isn't a connection, we'll just make one up anyway

I'm a motherfuckin WAR PRESIDENT BIATCHES!

[redqueen]

12. Uh huh. Sure. How's the intelligence on that, Bu$h?

I wonder if America will belive this huckster and his choir of yes-men AGAIN!

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." -- Vice President Dick Cheney, Aug. 26, 2002.

"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons." -- President Bush, Sept. 12, 2002.

"The Iraqi regime possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons." -- Bush, Oct. 7, 2002.

"We've also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that would be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using the UAVs for missions targeting the United States." -- Bush, Oct. 7, 2002.

"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his 'nuclear mujahideen' -- his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past."-- Bush, Oct. 7, 2002.

"We know for a fact there are weapons there." -- White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, Jan. 9, 2003.

"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of Sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent." -- Bush, Jan. 28, 2003.

"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more." -- Secretary of State Colin Powell, Feb. 5, 2003.

"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." -- Bush, March 17, 2003.

"Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly." -- Fleischer, March 21, 2003.

"I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction." -- Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board, March 23, 2003.

"We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad." -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003.

"We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so." -- Bush, May 3, 2003.

"We based our decisions on good, sound intelligence, and the -- our people are going to find out the truth. And the truth will say that this intelligence was good intelligence. There's no doubt in my mind." -- Bush, July 17, 2003.

"And I said on my program, if, if the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clear he had nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again." -- Bill O'Reilly, March 18, 2003.

"I think I get is darn good intelligence and the speeches I have given are backed by good intelligence," George Bush

[DS1]

13. Thirdly? Said the turdly dictator in chief?

[truhavoc]

20. stewie rocks btw

[geek tragedy]

15. What bullshit.

If he has proof Iran is harboring AQ leadership, then he has every right (and some would say duty) to seek authorization from Congress to wage war against Iran.

But he doesn't, hence the casual reference.

[findyouranswers]

16. Where were you when the world stopped turning anyway?

Well, Alan Jackson admitted in that conservative theme song that he couldn't tell the difference between Iraq and Iran so why should our government?

[newyawker99]

30. Hi findyouranswers!!

Welcome to DU!!

[LeftHander]

17. Psst....Mr. President....the highjackers were from Saudi Arabia...

And they lived in Florida...

Are you going to attack them too?

[madrchsod]

19. are people free if they

live in a totalitarian society? george.you should have stayed somber in college-it`s oppressed people or an adjective like that..not "free" people

[jackstraw45]

24. READ this...if you doubt Bushco wants to bomb and then invade Iran

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/2002100...

President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat

"...We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade. Some al Qaeda leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq...Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists. Alliance with terrorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints."


Sound familiar?

[peekaloo]

38. Methinks Little Adolf is itchin' to try out a bunker buster this go round.

[Sagan]

26. Here we go again....

I'm sure they're floating trial balloons on this to try to make it a major issue by October.

[library_max]

27. In October, we'll be hearing the Bush Administration's justification

for invading France.

[historian]

28. oops iraq was a bust

now lets move on to iran and if that doesnt work theres always syria - in the worse case we can nuke the liberal states in the usa. That should ensure my re-election

[DieboldMustDie]

29. So now we're going to take on a country 2.5 times the size of Iraq...

that hasn't been softened up by a decade of economic sanctions. Yea! That's a great idea.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

31. Yep I just saw this on CNN

wow watching TV is cool! I actually know about this stuff the same time you guys do!

(Note to self: watch TV more often...)

So now THAT'S the new thing. Didn't take him long, did it? Letting people through their borders was pretty flimsy, so now it's "they are harboring members of al-Queda".

Geez. I remember before the bombing of Baghdad started, every night when I put my daughter to bed, I'd think about mothers in Baghdad putting their children to bed and thinking each night, "Will it be tonight? Will it be tomorrow night?" And I'd sit there and cry. For the mothers and the children. I had no such fear. I lived in the country of the invader, not the invaded.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

32. And another thing:

"Well, listen, we want -- of course, we want to know all the facts. Acting Director McLaughlin said there was no direct connection between Iran and the attacks of September the 11th. We will continue to look and see if the Iranians were involved. I have long expressed my concerns about Iran. After all, it's a totalitarian society where free people are not allowed to exercise their rights as human beings."

THE FREEDOM THING!!! THE FREEDOM THING!!! IT SPELLS DOOM FOR IRAN!! RUN IRANIS, YOU ARE NEXT!!!!

"I have made it clear that if the Iranians would like to have better relations with the United States there are some things they must do."

Um what if they don't give a crap about having better relations with us???

"For example, they're harboring al Qaeda leadership there. And we've asked that they be turned over to their respective countries."

That's a pretty sure statement there. Not "we think" or "they might" but "they're harboring". Wow. Is he as sure about this as about the weapons of mass destruction??

"Secondly, they've got a nuclear weapons program that they need to dismantle."

Don't we have a nuclear weapons program?? Why don't we have to dismantle ours? Why do we get to tell everyone who can have them and who can't? Who died and made us God?

"No, this has been an issue that I have been concerned about ever since I've been the President. As to direct connections with September the 11th, we're digging into the facts to determine if there was one."

Oh I'm sure you are, Chucklenuts, I'm sure you are. Problem is, facts aren't your friends. So what are you gonna do now?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

33. The post on this thread gave me an idea

since our regular volunteer (ha!) military is a bit overstretched at the moment (to make an understatement), how about if Chucklenuts wants to invade Iraq that he do it only with people volunteering specifically to go there!

Yep, that means if you voted for bush and you are halfway fit, there's a job for you in Iran!!! Line up, men on the left, women on the right! MARCH!

[merh]

34. Iran is trying to keep us out "Al-Qaeda 'dismantled' in Iran "

Iran says it has located and dismantled all branches of the al-Qaeda network in the country. Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi said his ministry had stopped al-Qaeda's terrorist acts, state TV reported.

However, the broadcast gave no details of the operation and did not say how many people had been detained.

Iran has previously denied allegations that it gave sanctuary to al-Qaeda fugitives who escaped the US-led invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan.

In January, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi announced that 12 suspected al-Qaeda members being held in Iran would go on trial, but he did not say when.

Among those possibly in Iranian detention are al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith and Osama Bin Laden's son, Saad Bin Laden, Saudi sources reported last year.

(snip)

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.b...

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/39037...

Published: 2004/07/17 19:35:33 GMT
=========================

Iran knew the admin would turn on them and they are trying to keep us from invading them by publicizing this before the U.S. could start its crap.

[Warren DeMontague]

35. George... You Know The Rules..

No New Invasions until you've cleaned up the last one!

[MattNC]

36. it is not a totalitarian society

read a book George.

[shraby]

37. Florida harbored terrorists,

why not clean Florida out, and other states who harbored terrorists. Same logic.