Excepts from Sec. of State Colin Powell's UN speech Feb 5th, 2003:

Sources
My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. I will cite some examples, and these are from human sources.
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Ladies and gentlemen, these are not assertions. These are facts, corroborated by many sources, some of them sources of the intelligence services of other countries.
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Nuclear Weapons
Let me turn now to nuclear weapons. We have no indication that Saddam Hussein has ever abandoned his nuclear weapons program. On the contrary, we have more than a decade of proof that he remains determined to acquire nuclear weapons
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The Al Quida Connection
Going back to the early and mid-1990s, when bin Laden was based in Sudan, an Al Qaida source tells us that Saddam and bin Laden reached an understanding that Al Qaida would no longer support activities against Baghdad. Early Al Qaida ties were forged by secret, high-level intelligence service contacts with Al Qaida, secret Iraqi intelligence high-level contacts with Al Qaida.

We know members of both organizations met repeatedly and have met at least eight times at very senior levels since the early 1990s. In 1996, a foreign security service tells us, that bin Laden met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Khartoum, and later met the director of the Iraqi intelligence service.

Saddam became more interested as he saw Al Qaida's appalling attacks. A detained Al Qaida member tells us that Saddam was more willing to assist Al Qaida after the 1998 bombings of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Saddam was also impressed by Al Qaida's attacks on the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000.

Iraqis continued to visit bin Laden in his new home in Afghanistan. A senior defector, one of Saddam's former intelligence chiefs in Europe, says Saddam sent his agents to Afghanistan sometime in the mid-1990s to provide training to Al Qaida members on document forgery.

From the late 1990s until 2001, the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan played the role of liaison to the Al Qaida organization.

Some believe, some claim these contacts do not amount to much. They say Saddam Hussein's secular tyranny and Al Qaida's religious tyranny do not mix. I am not comforted by this thought. Ambition and hatred are enough to bring Iraq and Al Qaida together, enough so Al Qaida could learn how to build more sophisticated bombs and learn how to forge documents, and enough so that Al Qaida could turn to Iraq for help in acquiring expertise on weapons of mass destruction.

And the record of Saddam Hussein's cooperation with other Islamist terrorist organizations is clear. Hamas, for example, opened an office in Baghdad in 1999, and Iraq has hosted conferences attended by Palestine Islamic Jihad. These groups are at the forefront of sponsoring suicide attacks against Israel.

Al Qaida continues to have a deep interest in acquiring weapons of mass destruction. As with the story of Zarqawi and his network, I can trace the story of a senior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these weapons to Al Qaida.
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The Threat to America
The United States will not and cannot run that risk to the American people. Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of mass destruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post-September 11th world.

Full Text with Graphics and Audio:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030205-1.html

Excerpt from 2003 State of the Union

The Al Qaida Connection
With nuclear arms or a full arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, Saddam Hussein could resume his ambitions of conquest in the Middle East and create deadly havoc in that region. And this Congress and the America people must recognize another threat. Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own.

Before September the 11th, many in the world believed that Saddam Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained. Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans -- this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known. We will do everything in our power to make sure that that day never comes.

Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option.

Badda-boom!
and awaaay we go!

again

__________________
past MB rides:
'68 220D
'68 220D(another one)
'67 230
'84 SD
Current rides:
'06 Lexus RX330
'93 Ford F-250
'96 Corvette
'99 Polaris 700 RMK sled
2011 Polaris Assault
'86 Yamaha TT350(good 'ol thumper)

Colin Powell = zero credibility

Limb-chipper of Iraq = gone.

Qhaaadaaaaffffiii = good boy. Pat him on cute little cap.

Democratic foment in Iran.

Pakistan reigning-in nuke salesmen.

Bad-hair Kim contained.

France and UN trying to figure-out how to be relevant.


Good for Powell and good for us.

B

That must be some kinda 'new math'. Your equations don't quite add up...they're sorta non sequitory. D'ya care to do a proof?

Its all coincidence.

Has nothing whatsoever to do with kicking the livin' ***** out of a despot, uncovering his miles of paperwork on every other despot with whom he did business.

Nuthin' at all to do with being right next door the the ayatollahs with the biggest, baddest army on the planet giving hope to the desparate and fear to the chief hatemongers of Islam.

All of course, disconnected from having the greatest growth rate in GDP in neearly three decades, outracing the moribund old-Europeans.

Coincidence that literally millions of hardworking, ambitious, freedom-loving poor person in the western hemisphere and China is literally dying to sneak into this country, knowing they can have a life undreamable in their own sorry country.

Coincidences. Gotta love'em.

B

That requires three lonely little letters of response: WTF?

Need I remind you? The news headlines are finally catching up with what many of us have known all along:

The case for war=zero credibility

The only country in which you detect democracy is the same country that revolted against the US imposed 'dictatorship' and deliberately determined to shake itself of the influence of the USA. See any irony in that?

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

You betcha I do. I hope the ayatollahs do, too.

What're you drinking tonight B? That makes no sense whatsoever...

Isn't it interesting how the democrats have been criticizing the Prez, and republicans over not being able to "connect the dots" prior to 9-11? Yet whan they try to " connect the dots" in relation to the war on teror, they are roundly condemmed and laughed at.
Seems to me that the democrats only real cry is " wahhh!--we want to be back in power.... Bush is wrong, and we'll figure out the details later"
It really does seem like its all about who is in power.
Patience is a virtue not present in any quanity among political types. Don't their arguments seem all self serving?

Irony is not asymmetrical here. Its ironic that the Shah's downfall and the ayatollah's downfall may both be related to their relations with the USA. What we see as irony they see as a malevolent ploy by the Great Satan. Ironic that the sanctimonious, God-fearing, shariah-following, butchering, exporters of terrorism will fall before Great Satan. How do they know which is Satanic, anyway?

My platform: Irony in every pot!

B

Aside from the January 2003, State of the Union address which referenced the 16 word phrase that Iraq had sought to buy significant quantities of uranium from Africa, in March 2003, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz assured Congress that the rebuilding of Iraq would be financed by its own oil revenues, “and relatively soon.”

President Bush, at a March 6, 2003 press conference, held in prime time, said of Saddam Hussein, “He has trained and financed Al Qaeda-type organizations before, Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.”

In an interview with David Frost for the BBC in November 2003, President Bush said “I’m very confident we got good intelligence.”

I could go find nice quotes from the Kay report as well, or perhaps his interview before congress. But that would be too easy, something about Kay acting the same way as the president did given the intel available...

What's more at issue is the giant rift that this intelligence issue has created among our fellow Americans. Tenet can swear that he wasn't pressured by the Bush administration, yet the dems call for an independent investigation. Kay can swear before congress that the president acted properly but that the intel was fundamentally flawed, again the dems cry fowl. Here’s an equation for you: election year politics+ dems = no logic.

Here is a question I would like answered: Why did Kerry vote for Gulf War II and not Gulf War I? Just curious

__________________
Jonathan
1998 S600
2001 E430
1994 E320
1991 560SEL
1994 Turbo R

I must have drank the same thing, because it makes perfect sense to me.

Mike

__________________
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1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
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1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
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1985 300TD
270,000 miles
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1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

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