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Bush rejects Saddam 9/11 link
excerpts from a report from BBC News. September 18, 2003
US President George Bush has said there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks.
The comments - among his most explicit so far on the issue - come after a recent opinion poll found that nearly 70% of Americans believed the Iraqi leader was personally involved in the attacks.
Critics of the war on Iraq have accused the US administration of deliberately encouraging public confusion to generate support for military action. At a time when the credibility of government intelligence and information is under the spotlight, President Bush probably had little choice but to scotch the confusion, says the BBC's Ian Pannell in Washington.
"We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the 11 September attacks," Mr Bush told reporters as he met members of Congress on energy legislation.
Many Americans believe that some of the hijackers were Iraqi - when none were - and that the attacks had been orchestrated by Baghdad. This confusion has been partly attributed to, at best a lack of clarity by the administration and at worst, deliberate obfuscation, correspondents say.
As recently as last Sunday, Vice-President Dick Cheney, refused to rule out a link between Iraq and 11 September, saying "We will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who've had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11."
Mr Bush denied there had been any attempt by his administration to try to confuse people about links between Saddam Hussein and 11 September.
You have been reading excerpts from "Bush rejects Saddam 9/11 link" from BBC News. You can read the entire piece here: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3118262.stm. We visit news.bbc.co.uk/text_only.stm often and we hope you will too.
excerpts from a report from BBC News. September 18, 2003
US President George Bush has said there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks.
The comments - among his most explicit so far on the issue - come after a recent opinion poll found that nearly 70% of Americans believed the Iraqi leader was personally involved in the attacks.
Critics of the war on Iraq have accused the US administration of deliberately encouraging public confusion to generate support for military action. At a time when the credibility of government intelligence and information is under the spotlight, President Bush probably had little choice but to scotch the confusion, says the BBC's Ian Pannell in Washington.
"We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the 11 September attacks," Mr Bush told reporters as he met members of Congress on energy legislation.
Many Americans believe that some of the hijackers were Iraqi - when none were - and that the attacks had been orchestrated by Baghdad. This confusion has been partly attributed to, at best a lack of clarity by the administration and at worst, deliberate obfuscation, correspondents say.
As recently as last Sunday, Vice-President Dick Cheney, refused to rule out a link between Iraq and 11 September, saying "We will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who've had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11."
Mr Bush denied there had been any attempt by his administration to try to confuse people about links between Saddam Hussein and 11 September.
You have been reading excerpts from "Bush rejects Saddam 9/11 link" from BBC News. You can read the entire piece here: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3118262.stm. We visit news.bbc.co.uk/text_only.stm often and we hope you will too.
