Someone is not telling the truth and it is incumbent on Congress to get to the bottom of this nonsense.
Until recently George Bush insisted that there was steady progress in decimating Al Qaeda:
1 May 2003 the President claimed:
From Pakistan to the Philippines to the Horn of Africa, we are hunting down al Qaeda killers. Nineteen months ago, I pledged that the terrorists would not escape the patient justice of the United States. And as of tonight, nearly one-half of al Qaeda’s senior operatives have been captured or killed.
A few months later, 7 September 2003, George Bush insisted:
Nearly two-thirds of al Qaeda’s known leaders have been captured or killed. The rest of them are dangerous, but the rest of them can be certain we’re on their trail. Our resolve is firm; the resolve of this nation is clear: No matter how long it takes, we will bring justice to those who plot against America. (Applause.)
And as the 2004 election approached Bush claimed that 75% of al Qaeda operatives were history:
Because we acted, the government of a free Afghanistan is fighting terror. Pakistan is capturing terrorist leaders. Saudi Arabia is making raids and arrests. Libya is dismantling its weapons programs. The army of a free Iraq is fighting for freedom, and more than three-quarters of al Qaeda’s key members and associates have been brought to justice.
Hat tip to Jon Stewart’s writers for latching on to this arithmetic triumph.
Maybe Bush pulled these numbers out of his ass, but White House sources insisted that the figures came from the CIA:
Pressed to explain how and when the estimate went up, a White House official told NEWSWEEK that the revised figure was based on a new CIA analysis that had been repeatedly sought by the White House in recent months and was provided to presidential aides only on Sept. 1, the day before Bush addressed the convention.
Now, in the last three years, Al Qaeda has regenerated and supposedly is capable of striking us again on par with the 9-11 attacks. If this is true, then President Bush is a complete failure in carrying out his duties to protect this nation’s security. He can no longer blame Bill Clinton for being asleep at the switch. His ineffectual policies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have injected new life into the nearly extinct corpse of Al Qaeda. They were down to 25% and now have rebounded.
In fact, Homeland Security Chief Chertoff says the sleeper cells are here or on their way.
This demands an explanation. Despite the insistence that the war in Iraq was necessary in order to keep Al Qaeda at bay, it turns out that very war has resurrected the jihadists.
Of course there is another, equally unsettling possibility–intelligence officers at the National Intelligence Council are playing with the intelligence and delivering news that enables Bush to play the fear card in order to keep Congress from pulling our troops from Iraq.
I don’t know the answer. But Bush and the intelligence community must be held accountable. Someone is lying or someone is incompetent. We suspect the answer but we need to know beyond any doubt.
