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Mix-Ansicht- ot: Rumsfeld wollte Irak am bereits am 12.9.2001 bombardieren lassen (A) - kingsolomon, 20.03.2004, 08:48
ot: Rumsfeld wollte Irak am bereits am 12.9.2001 bombardieren lassen (A)
-->Ex-Bush Aide: Rumsfeld Wanted To Bomb Iraq Day After 9/11
03/19/2004
Dow Jones News Services
(Copyright © 2004 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
WASHINGTON (AP)--The Bush administration considered bombing Iraq in retaliation almost immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks against the U.S., according to a new first-person account by a former senior counterterrorism adviser inside the White House.
Richard Clarke, the president's counterterrorism coordinator at the time of the attacks, said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained on Sept. 12 -after the administration was convinced with certainty that al-Qaida was to blame - that,"there aren't any good targets in Afghanistan and there are lots of good targets in Iraq."
In an excerpt of an interview with CBS News, Clarke said that during a meeting with Rumsfeld that he attended on Sept. 12, the defense secretary was insistent on the need to bomb Iraq."But we all said 'no, no.' Al-Qaida is in Afghanistan. We need to bomb Afghanistan," Clark recalled of what transpired during the meeting.
A spokesman for Rumsfeld said he couldn't comment immediately.
Clarke makes the assertion in a new book,"Against All Enemies," which goes on sale Monday morning.
He told CBS News he believes the administration sought to link Iraq with the attacks because of long-standing interest in overthrowing Saddam Hussein; Clarke was scheduled to appear Sunday night on the network's"60 Minutes" news program.
"I think they wanted to believe that there was a connection" between Iraq and the al-Qaida attacks in the U.S., Clarke told CBS."There's just no connection. There's absolutely no evidence that Iraq was supporting al-Qaida."
Clarke retired early in 2003 after 30 years in government service. He was among the country's longest-serving White House staffers, hired in 1992 from the State Department to deal with threats from terrorism and narcotics.
He previously led the government's secretive Counterterrorism and Security Group, made up of senior officials from the FBI, CIA, Justice Department and armed services, who met several times each week to discuss foreign threats.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
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