BREAKING:Pre-war Saddam Zarqawi links questioned (Newsweek-yesterday!!!)

[underpants]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9831216/site/newsweek /

Fabricated Links?

Updated: 7:07 p.m. ET Oct. 26, 2005
Oct. 26, 2005 - A secret draft CIA report raises new questions about a principal argument used by the Bush administration to justify the war in Iraq: the claim that Saddam Hussein was "harboring" notorious terror leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi prior to the American invasion.

The allegation that Zarqawi had visited Baghdad in May 2002 with Saddam's sanction—purportedly for medical treatment—was once a centerpiece of the administration's arguments about Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell cited Zarqawi's alleged visit in his speech to the United Nations Security Council. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld referred obliquely to Zarqawi's purported trip as an example of "bulletproof" evidence that the administration had assembled linking Saddam's regime with Al Qaeda.

But like the uranium yellowcake claims—since determined to be fraudulent—that are at the heart of the CIA leak case, the administration's original allegations about Zarqawi's trip also seem to be melting away. An updated CIA re-examination of the issue recently concluded that Saddam's regime may not have given Zarqawi "safe haven" after all.

The CIA declined to comment on the draft report. But officials tell NEWSWEEK that Zarqawi probably did travel to the Iraqi capital in the spring of 2002 for medical treatment. And, of course, there is no question that he is in Iraq now—orchestrating many of the deadly suicide bombings and attacks on American soldiers.

But before the American-led invasion, Saddam's government may never have known he was there. The reason: he used an alias and was there under what one U.S. intelligence official calls a "false cover." No evidence has been found showing senior Iraqi officials were even aware of his presence, according to two counterterrorism analysts familiar with the classified CIA study who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

An intelligence official told NEWSWEEK that the current draft says that "most evidence suggests Saddam Hussein did not provide Zarqawi safe haven before the war. It also recognizes that there are still unanswered questions and gaps in knowledge about the relationship."

[underpants]

1. SHOCKING!!!

Zarqawi Eclipsing Bin Laden in Prominence
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119700,00.html
In 1999, after being released from jail in Jordan, Zarqawi formed an alliance with bin Laden allowing Zarqawi to operate a training camp in Afghanistan for Arab fighters committed to the overthrow of Jordan's moderate monarchy.
During the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Zarqawi is believed to have been badly wounded in a U.S. airstrike and fled to Iran. Later, he ended up in Baghdad, where Saddam's regime allowed him to recuperate for several months after having his leg amputated.

But check out how CNN spins itself into the ground trying to cover for Bush five weeks earlier
Tuesday, April 6, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/06/us.zarqawi/
A U.S. official said Tuesday that al-Zarqawi traveled to Baghdad in May 2002 for treatment of a leg injury but, contrary to previous reports, appears not to have had a leg amputated. The official would not discuss the reason for the change in assessment.
Al-Zarqawi, an associate of Osama bin Laden, had been named by the Bush administration as an al Qaeda member who fled to Iraq from Afghanistan in May 2002 for medical treatment and then stayed to organize terror plots. He came to Iraq with about two dozen al Qaeda terrorists, according to the administration.
Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other administration officials pointed to intelligence that they said suggested al-Zarqawi had had his leg amputated in Baghdad.

Unfortunately a YEAR before that report CNN said:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/29/sprj.irq.terrorist.capture/index.html
Zarqawi was said to have received medical treatment in Baghdad in May and June of 2002 after being wounded in Afghanistan during the war. His leg was amputated, U.S. officials say, by a surgeon in Iraq.

[ozarkvet]

4. Well, they still have the Achele Laro (sp?)

Asshole who pushed the Jewish man in a wheelchair "off the plank" so to speak.

I don't know why that particular act sticks in my mind, but I have literally had nightmares about watching that happen and not being able to do anything about it.

[Career Prole]

5. This shit's why shrub & crashcart can't ever give sworn testimony.

They'd be fried by a big honkin' bolt of lightning as soon as they touched a bible.
:nuke:

[underpants]

7. The second one is taken out of context

read it and tell me that you can't just feel the writer getting to a certain point in the spin and just giving up. Just drops it and goes onto the next paragraph.

Read it- that is what I sense.

[Career Prole]

9. It was good Clancy (and Benson) gave up. Especially considering

that it was still early in '04.
Astoundingly there are still journalists roaming around who got lost in the spin and print what's in the releases, ultimately granting Zarqawi more legs than a spider and more lives than a cat.

"Harboring al Qaeda" was the last standing pretense for preemption.

That'll be a bitch to spin if they're called on it.

[SpiralHawk]

2. Exposing more BushCo Lies and Propaganda

k & R

[librechik]

3. no wonder they won't release it

poor Sen. Pat 'Ho' Roberts, chair of Republican-dominated Intelligence Committee--he's had his thumb in the dike so long it's gangrenous. Hope he's replaced in 06. He needs a rest.

[leesa]

6. Why is this really, really OLD news resurfacing now?

[underpants]

8. That is the actual point of this thread

My wife brought this BREAKING story home (printed it out) and I read it and said "We knew this over three years ago" she laughed and said that that was what she found so odd about it.


Okay maybe I am just basing that on several reported stories and oh I don't know COMMON SENSE!!

Geesh. Thanks Isikoff for that inciteful and deep digging journalism....three years later.

[Double T]

10. Is the Main Stream Media on a time delay???

[underpants]

11. It would seem so

Amazing isn't it?