- President George Bush and the Prime Minister's Office
yesterday defied the independent US commission on 11 September and insisted
that there were links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qa'ida.
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- The report by the commission on Wednesday dealt a devastating
blow to the credibility to one of President Bush's reasons for going to
war against Iraq by finding there was no credible evidence linking Saddam's
regime to Osama bin Laden's terrorist organisation.
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- In a carefully co-ordinated riposte to the commission,
London and Washington both insisted that Saddam had allowed al-Qa'ida to
operate inside Iraq before the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.
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- "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship
between Iraq and Saddam and al-Qa'ida is because there was a relationship
between Iraq and al-Qa'ida," Mr Bush said. "This administration
never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al-Qa'ida.
We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al-Qa'ida."
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- A few hours earlier, Tony Blair insisted that Saddam
had created "a permissive environment" for terrorists and al-Qa'ida
operatives in Iraq.
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- "The Prime Minister has always said Saddam created
a permissive environment for terrorism and we know that the people affiliated
to al-Qa'ida operated in Iraq," said a spokesman for Mr Blair. "The
Prime Minister always made it clear that Saddam's was a rogue state which
threatened the security of the region and the world."
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- In contrast to the US administration, Tony Blair has
carefully avoided claims that Saddam was involved in the 11 September attacks.
Even the so-called "dodgy dossier'' avoided making such a claim.
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- Challenged by The Independent, the Downing Street spokesman
said the Government was not claiming a direct link between the attackers
on 11 September and Saddam, but insisted there was evidence that Saddam
had created a "permissive regime" in which al-Qa'ida could operate.
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- Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, also refused
to back down. He told al-Jazeera television there was a connection between
Iraq and al-Qa'ida. "We have seen these connections ... and we stick
to that," he said. "We have not said it was related to 9/11."
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- The link was a key factor in President Bush's justification
for the war. But it did not play a part in Mr Blair's argument for action,
which rested entirely on Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction.
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- In a further embarrassment for the Bush administration
yesterday, the independent commission reported that America's defence forces
failed to respond quickly enough on the morning of 11 September.
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- The ensuing chaos and miscommunications caused a crucial
delay in relaying orders for the planes to be intercepted and shot down.
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- "On the morning of 9/11, the existing protocol was
unsuited in every respect for what was about to happen," the report
asserted. "What ensued was a hurried attempt to create an improvised
defence by officials who had never encountered or trained against the situation
they faced."
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- Such was the lack of coordination between air traffic
controllers, military officials and senior members of the government, that
when Mr Cheney, the Vice-President, finally authorised shooting down the
planes they had already hit their targets. Yet, Mr Cheney briefly believed
that two of the planes had in fact been shot down.
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- "It's my understanding that they've already taken
a couple of aircraft out," Mr Cheney told the Defence Secretary, Donald
Rumsfeld, in a telephone conversation, the transcript of which was released
last night.
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- The panel also played segments of tapes carrying portions
of other conversations from that day. One apparently carried words spoken
by Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the hijackers, while he was at the controls
of American Airlines flight 11, which took off from Boston and was the
first plane to strike the World Trade Centre.
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- "We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you'll
be OK. We are returning to the airport," Atta is heard telling the
passengers. Later he warns: "If you try to make any moves, you'll
endanger yourself and the airplane."
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- The commission held its final public hearing yesterday
on the terror strikes before issuing a complete and final report next month.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=532654
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