The lie continues

FoxNews, in discussing the ongoing "controversy" over whether or not the Bush administration lied about connections between Sadaam and al Qaeda makes the following statement: "The independent Sept. 11 commission said Wednesday that no evidence exists that Al Qaeda had strong ties to Saddam Hussein." link Interestingly, at the end of the report, there is a clarification: "The Associated Press contributed to this report." Apparently the Associated Press will not only not admit that they lied, but they continue to insist that the lie is true.

Here's what the commission actually said in their Commission Statement 15, entitled "Overview of the Enemy" link

Page 3: With al Qaeda as its foundation, Bin Ladin sought to build a broader Islamic army that also included terrorist groups from Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Oman, Tunisia, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Somalia, and Eritrea. Not all groups from these states agreed to join, but at least one from each did.

Page 5: Bin Ladin also explored possible cooperation with Iraq during his time in Sudan, despite his opposition to Hussein’s secular regime. Bin Ladin had in fact at one time sponsored anti-Saddam Islamists in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Sudanese, to protect their own ties with Iraq, reportedly persuaded Bin Ladin to cease this support and arranged for contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda. A senior Iraqi intelligence officer reportedly made three visits to Sudan, finally meeting Bin Ladin in 1994. Bin Ladin is said to have requested space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded. There have been reports that contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda also occurred after Bin Ladin had returned to Afghanistan, but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship. Two senior Bin Ladin associates have adamantly denied that any ties existed between al Qaeda and Iraq. We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States.

We now know that Mohammed Atta met with the head of Iraqi intelligence just two months before the 9-11 attacks. Why didn't the commission pursue that lead?

Nowhere did the commission say, "no evidence exists that Al Qaeda had strong ties to Saddam Hussein", yet this lie keeps getting repeated. Nowhere did the commission say, "There were no ties between Sadaam and al Qaeda", yet this lie keeps getting repeated. And the evidence that there were ties keeps getting ignored. It's been six months! since Allawi's interview with the London Telegraph, and yet the mainstream press has never discussed that story or made the American public aware of its existence. Not CBS. Not NBC. Not ABC. Not FOX. Not CNN. Not MSNBC. Not API. No one!

What would it take for a mainstream American media organization to print the truth? Do they have any interest at all in reporting? Or are they simply propaganda machines for the views of their editors and owners?