Ex-UK envoy: US focused on Iraq hours after 9/11

[Turborama]

Source: AP

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raised the issue of Iraq with the U.K. hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, Britain's former ambassador told an inquiry into the Iraq war Thursday.

Christopher Meyer, who served as then-Prime Minister Tony Blair's envoy to Washington between 1997 and 2003, said he spoke with Rice on Sept. 11, 2001.

"She said there's no doubt this was an Al-Qaida operation, we are just looking to see if there could possibly be any connection with Saddam Hussein," he told the panel.

The comments are important because they suggest that the United States quickly tied the attacks with Saddam's regime. Years later, President George W. Bush's administration was forced to acknowledge that they could find no connection between Saddam and the attacks

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h3md2ReGxE9CkpczxPehN4pM-z7gD9C773QG0

[marmar]

1. Try since Nov. 7, 2000.....

[on point]

2. Even before 9/11

The evidence is all over the public record that the Bush criminals were intent on regime change even before 9/11. They ramped up the propaganda and immediately started to vilify Saddam. The lies were obvious and everywhere.

One key piece of evidence was the change in status for a pilot lost in the first gulf war. This happened before 9/11. They changed his status from MIA, presumed killed to MIA, presumed captured, and then promoted him a rank. All of this done to vilify Saddam. When Saddam said he was not in custody, and offered to help search for him, or to let the Americans search for him; the Bush criminals turned down the offer. They were more interested in the propaganda opportunity than the return of the airman to his family.

BTW; regime change by force is an act of war. An act of war without just cause (ie by being attacked) is a war crime under both Nuremberg and UN treaties, both of which the US has signed (in fact helped draft and pushed for adoption)

Really, the only question is when and if they will be prosecuted.

[winyanstaz]

3. K & R....well of course they did.....that was why they HAD a 9-11...

duh....

[Canuckistanian]

4. "Go massive,", "Sweep it all up. Things related and not."

(CBS) CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq — even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.

That's according to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on Sept. 11 – notes that show exactly where the road toward war with Iraq began, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.

~snip

Now, nearly one year later, there is still very little evidence Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. But if these notes are accurate, that didn't matter to Rumsfeld.

"Go massive," the notes quote him as saying. "Sweep it all up. Things related and not."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/04/september11/main520830.shtml