Bush Says Zarqawi Killed Berg, Cites Saddam 'Ties'

[Ms. Clio]

President Bush on Friday blamed al Qaeda supporter Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for beheading American Nicholas Berg and cited him as an example of Saddam Hussein's "terrorist ties" before the U.S.-led war in Iraq.


Bush's revival of accusations linking Saddam to terrorism comes as the president faces growing doubts among Americans over his Iraq policy.


At a fund-raising lunch in Bridgeton, Missouri, Bush said Zarqawi was an example of the threat posed by the ousted Iraqi leader. "We knew he (Saddam) had terrorist ties. The person responsible for the Berg death, Zarqawi, was in and out of Baghdad prior to our arrival, for example," Bush said.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20040514/pl_nm/campaign_bush_dc

[Plaid Adder]

1. Oh good. Now he's finally got his Al-Qaeda link.

I'm so glad thousands of people died to give it to him.

:puke:

The Plaid Adder

[markses]

2. LOL! Are you fucking kidding me?!?

The FakePresident is either completely insane, or the biggest liar on the block. Maybe both. Bizarre claims with little or no logical connections. Not even the most devoted freeper could give credence to this nonsense.

[Philostopher]

3. Come live where I live.

Plenty of them not only can, but will. Let's just hope enough of them who have an IQ above room temperature have had their bullshit detectors tweaked by November.

[Ms. Clio]

5. Oh but they will

That's why he says it.

[keithyboy]

48. Well, the 9/11 attackers were sure as hell in the US before 9/11!

Does that mean they had ties to the Bush administration? Same situation, same evidence. The US was harboring terrorists and in some cases allowing their facilities to be used for training terrorists.
Can anyone argue with that fact?

Should we charge Bush with aiding abetting terrorists? They sure as hell had active cells operating within the US.

[JaySherman]

4. Shameless exploitation of the dead. Sickening.

There is a place in the deepest pit of Hell reserved for this man.

[Maddy McCall]

23. Yes, that's exactly my thoughts

[lucky777]

6. Randi Rhodes has him on tape denying the link!

On Wednesday she was playing it over and over -- Bush admitting that there was no proven link b/w Hussein and Al Qaeda.

This is like a bad novel where the five characters keep intersecting -- Hussein tied to Zarqawi tied to Moussaui tied to Berg tied to BinLaden.

[robbob]

39. Five degrees of separation

Terrorist style;

Let's see...Saddam had a sister who's hairdresser was married to this guy...

[charlyvi]

43. Hussein tied to Zarqawi tied to Moussaui tied to Berg tied to BinLaden...

And this was the house that Bush built.

[Just Me]

45. Proof that he no longer merely fabricates but is a LIAR, LIAR, LIAR! n/t

[progressivebydesign]

7. Didn't take the M.F. long, did it?

In an earlier thread, I wrote of how important it was for Bush to link, somehow, Al Quaida to Berg's death. Not that I"m a tin-foiler or anything.. but gosh, how fucking convenient!

[mike1963]

9. Um, I think you meant "...link SADDAM to Berg........"?

or did I get misconfusicated again?...
;-)

[progressivebydesign]

40. Yes... mighty misconfusicated.

Bush, by linking Berg's death to terrorists.. and Saddam, was reinforcing his imaginary link of Al Quaida=9/11=Berg=Saddam.

I was clearly unmiconfusicated. Bush was simply reinforcicating again. :)

[ozymandius]

8. So now we are to believe that Hussein had al-Zarqawi on payroll?

And as consequence, was my belief incorrect that a US-led invasion held the door open for all people who have a grudge against Americans and Jews in the middle east?

By the way, didn't Bush say al-Zarqawi was dead? Or was that another al-Zarqawi? What happened to that prosthesis he wore?

[azmesa207]

11. Al-Zarqawi

How do we know that it was really Zarqawi in the video just because the CIA Say its him they really Got WMD Intelligence right didn't they

[ozymandius]

22. You bet.

But then was that intelligence supplied by the CIA or the OSP? The Office of Special Plans might have a stack of CIA letterhead in the copy room.

[tuckessee]

35. Voice recognition, they tell us

But how could they get a good sample from the poor quality of the tape?

And where did they get the original sample of Zarqawi's voice to compare with the one from the decapitation tape?

Zarqawi is quite a mystery to the CIA et al.

Even the $10,000,000 reward "Wanted Poster" description http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/wanted_captured/Al_Zarqawi.htm of him is rather bare.

They lack such basic info as height & weight so somehow I doubt they have excellent quality voice samples of him.

[newyawker99]

41. Hi tuckessee!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Just Me]

47. Hi Ya' tuckessee *smile*,...

,...I am so glad to see another "explorer" on board! Hope you are fulfilled participating on this incredible forum.

:yourock:

[enough]

10. The more Bushco tries to pile on to this story,

the more preposterous they sound.

If they had just made a dignified statement saying: "It appears that the killing was carried out by ......etc." it would have been much more credible. But this constant reiteration and ratcheting up of the story makes it sound more and more suspicious.

[onehandle]

12. Like what he says is going to matter in a year.

Shut up and prepare to Rot in Crawford.

[Minstrel Boy]

13. Too fucking much! The CIA saw Ansar Al-Islam as collaborators! Look:

It's lazy and misleading to call al-Zarqawi "al Qaeda". He's Ansar al-Islam, which operated in the northern no-fly zone, which was a virtual US protectorate.

The founder of Ansar al-Islam is Mullah Krekar. He lives in Norway, and the United States has not sought his extradition.

What's more:

Ansar al-Islam leader threatens to document his links to US

DUBAI, Feb 1 2003 (AFP) - The suspected leader of a Kurdish Islamic extremist group threatened in an interview published Saturday to produce evidence of his contacts with Washington prior to the September 11 suicide hijackings.

"I have in my possession irrefutable evidence against the Americans and I am prepared to supply it ... if (the United States) tries to implicate me in an affair linked to terrorism," Mullah Krekar, who is believed to front Ansar al-Islam, told Al-Hayat newspaper.

He dismissed as "fabrications" reports linking his group to Al-Qaeda, saying they were designed to justify a strike against Iraq.

"I had a meeting with a CIA representative and someone from the American army in the town of Sulaymaniya (Iraqi Kurdistan) at the end of 2000. They asked us to collaborate with them ... but we refused to do so," he said.
www.lightscion.com/krekar.htm

And here:

"The Mullah claims he had a secret meeting with the CIA and US military personnel in Iraqi Kurdistan last year. Could this explain why US intelligence agencies were reportedly so concerned about Powell raising Ansar al-Islam as one of the key connections between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda?"

video interview available here:
http://www.insightnewstv.com/d80 /

[Ms. Clio]

20. So will the Mullah make good on his threat?

What sort of "irrefutable evidence" could he be talking about?

[NNN0LHI]

14. Bush seems to forget that the reason Zarqawi was supposed...

...to be in Baghdad was to have a leg removed after being wounded in Afghanistan. But that guy that was supposed to be Zarqawi in the Berg video had 2 legs so he left that part out to fit his lies.
Don

[CatWoman]

15. oh, give it up Chimpy!

It was the BOY who cried wolf, not the monkey.

Nobody is buying your bullshit any more.

[Shadder]

16. Idiot

Nothing else needs to be said

[Carni]

17. Fucking asshole

Now bush knows *who done it*???

This is the same witless bastard that delegated the capture of bin forgotten to the Northern Alliance, so that binny could ride out of Tora Bora on a mule...but the stupid MF *knows* now knows who killed Berg and they were definitely tied to Saddam?

LOL!

I can't take anymore of this swill from this foul administration--

I can't take it and I am just going to shut up or this post is going to draw SS attention...I am so pissed off and sick of these continual insults to my intelligence.

[maddezmom]

18. make up your mind chimp...

no connection or connection? What a pathetic mess for chimp to use the death of Berg to make his case for war. :eyes:

[Generator]

19. See my post in GD

also MSN article nails Bush as the terrorist lover.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2100549/

The second news story that heaves more burdens on the president comes from an NBC News broadcast by Jim Miklaszewski on March 2. Apparently, Bush had three opportunities, long before the war, to destroy a terrorist camp in northern Iraq run by Abu Musab Zarqawi, the al-Qaida associate who recently cut off the head of Nicholas Berg. But the White House decided not to carry out the attack because, as the story puts it:

he administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.

The implications of this are more shocking, in their way, than the news from Abu Ghraib. Bush promoted the invasion of Iraq as a vital battle in the war on terrorism, a continuation of our response to 9/11. Here was a chance to wipe out a high-ranking terrorist. And Bush didn't take advantage of it because doing so might also wipe out a rationale for invasion.

[TacticalPeek]

21. Linked? Perhaps in a mortal embrace.

Either al-Zarqawi or Saddam would kill the other given the opportunity.

[Postman]

24. Oh. then Zarqawi must have the magical mystery WMD's...

that could be "passed without fingerprints" to Al-Kayda

[Tuttle]

25. I've been trying to find the article

about Bush missing the chance to take out al-Zarqawi because it would have spoiled W's pre-invasion time line. I had read there were at least two clear shots at him and his 'training camp' but Bush would not allow it.

Can anyone help me out with this?

Tut-tut

[TacticalPeek]

26. See link at post #19. n/t

[creeksneakers2]

30. Here it is

I'm going to be sending E-mails to news organizations all weekend about this. This looks like the silver bullet to get Bush to me.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4431601

[jeanmarc]

27. Bush is a complete dick!

Anyone with a computer and internet access can understand that Zarqawi had zero to do with Saddam. I hate George W. Bush. I don't just hate his policies, I hate him.

He just took a complete piss on Berg's grave. No wonder he doesn't show up at funerals. He's a goddamned chimpanzee gone insane.

[oblivious]

28. Here's an old tidbit that caught my interest.

The president said some al Qaeda leaders had fled Afghanistan to Iraq and referred to one "very senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year." It was a reference to Abu Mussab Zarqawi, a Jordanian. U.S. intelligence already had concluded that Zarqawi was not an al Qaeda member but the leader of an unaffiliated terrorist group who occasionally associated with al Qaeda adherents, the sources said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19822-2003Jun21?language=printer

Also, you must read this well-researched article. Unbelievable.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO302B.html

[Ms. Clio]

32. Thanks for the excellent links

This caught my eye, especially, from the W Post piece:

The presidential address crystallized the assertion that had been made by senior administration officials for months that the combination of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons and a terrorist organization, such as al Qaeda, committed to attacking the United States posed a grave and imminent threat. Within four days, the House and Senate overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution granting the president authority to go to war.

And from the second essay:

The presence and activities of Islamic fundamentalist groups in Northern Iraq largely serve US interests.



For the Bushistas, Al-Z and Ansar al-Islam appear to be extremely ubiquitous and useful terrorists, indeed.

[killbotfactory]

29. You had THREE CHANCES to capture Zarqawi you assclown!

and you shitcanned them all because god told you to take out Saddam.

[dansolo]

34. Three? He had more than that.

Wasn't Zarqawi located in the no-fly area of Northern Iraq that has been patrolled since the first Gulf War? Bush could have taken him out at any time that he chose, even before the invasion. Bush was protecting Zarqawi *FROM* Saddam.

[peterh]

31. I guess when the ship is sinking….

The bizarre surfaces….it’s certainly been quite a day for the misadministration…

We have Powell saying that the Iraqis might actually like US occupation if only they would stop shooting at us and now we have the twit himself trying to give an old lie some oxygen or maybe it’s OxyContin to his rabid dittohead base….something to soothe the pain……bizarre….

[leesa]

33. Oh really. Of course, no proof of that claim will be offered, as usual.

Just like the never delivered "proof" of OBL's link with 9-11. All BS, all the time.

[daleo]

36. The sometimes one legged Saddam connection, sometimes two legged terrorist

When they needed this guy to establish a link to Saddam, he went to Baghdad for medical treatment, and had his leg amputated (according to U.S. intelligence sources, pre-invasion). Now that he is more convenient as a super-terrorist, they decided to give him back his leg. I noted that CNN had a story on this miraculous event on Apr 6, 2004. There was no explanation for the leg miracle, although I suppose the power of CIA prayer may have interceded on his behalf.

Berg was released from jail on or about that day, I think. Unlucky for Berg, that his ultimate killer was given back his leg that very day, which would come in handy for slaying him later.

Coincidence? Hmmmm...

[pfitz59]

It was Emmanuel Goldberg

and the forces of K.A.O.S.!

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[BiggJawn]

38. I used to have some Jerry Garcia ties...

Cool prints, but they were still neckties. That made them "terra-ist" in my book.

Here we go again, "Saddam supported Al-Ka-Seltzah, Saddam tried to kill my Daddy..."

Hey, Georgie! Look at your numbers! The Sheeple are waking up and they're tired of your fucking LIES...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

42. What a friggin' moron. LOL.

[0007]

44. junior also told us we'd never find the person in his admin

that leaked Joe Wilson's wife, Valarie Plame spy story to the press. junior also told the nation and the world about "Yellow Cake" from Niger. Which was a lie.

The world has nothing but contempt for junior. What country in the world has any respect for this war monger.

[keithyboy]

46. What shamful speculation and lying again.

If Zargawi was in Irag before, he sure as hell wasn't dealing with Saddam. He was probably dealing with the Kurds attempting oust Saddam.
This is why so many in US believe Saddam was responsible for 9/11 because they believe anything Bush, Rush, and Hannity tell them...and they all lie!