Apparently eager to show us all what a complete failure his post-9/11 response was, President Bush decided to let the world know about an al Qaeda plan to set up base in Iraq for purposes of attacking America from there.
This information expanded on a classified bulletin the Homeland Security Department issued in March 2005. The bulletin, which warned that bin Laden had enlisted al-Zarqawi to plan potential strikes in the United States, was described at the time as credible but not specific. It did not prompt the administration to raise its national terror alert level.
Bush said that in the spring of 2005, bin Laden also instructed Hamza Rabia, a senior operative, to brief al-Zarqawi on an al-Qaida plan to attack sites outside Iraq.
“Our intelligence community reports that a senior al-Qaida leader, Abu Faraj al-Libi, went further and suggested that bin Laden actually send Rabia, himself, to Iraq to help plan external operations,” Bush said. “Abu Faraj later speculated that if this effort proved successful, al-Qaida might one day prepare the majority of its external operations from Iraq.”
One of these days he should just come out and say it plainly: I didn’t catch any terrorists or dismantle any terrorist groups, and the War in Iraq has only served to help them coordinate with one another, turning multiple disorganized groups into one giant network. All done in a nation that was previously rather devoid of terrorism.
