9/11 Commission: Failure No. 3

July 28, 2004

This is the third of a five-part series pointing out Five Things That the 9/11 Commission Got Wrong.

Thing Three . Despite some juicy tidbits about the Bush administration’s post-9/11 obsession with Iraq, the 9/11 Commission unconscionably lets Bush off the hook on this one. Nowhere in the report does it conclude, as virtually any fair-minded observer would, that the attack on Iraq had nothing to do with the so-called War on Terrorism. (In fact, even the fair-minded have concluded that the war on Iraq was a major setback to the battle against Al Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism.)

And nowhere does the commission say point-blank that Iraq was innocent of ties of Al Qaeda. It’s a glaring omission. And it allows Chairman Kean to get away with nonsense like this: “There was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda.”

With a straight face, the commission—whose chapters on Iraq seem to cite Bob Woodward’s book as much as the actual testimony and documents it received—reports many instances of Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith demanding attacks on Iraq. Best, of course, is the one reported in a footnote (page 559, Note 75), citing a memo to Rumsfeld “that appears to be from Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith.” Says the commission: “The author suggested instead hitting outside the Middle East in the initial offensive, perhaps deliberately selecting a non-Al Qaeda target like Iraq.” This, said the commission, “might be a surprise to the terrorists.” That is so hilariously stupid on so many levels that it almost doesn’t need comment—but yes, an attack on Iraq would have surprised the terrorists.

The report cites other new or authoritative examples of the Iraq obsession:

The secretary [Rumsfeld] said his instinct [on September 11] was to hit Saddam Hussein at the same time—not only Bin Laden… [Condi Rice] recalled that in the first Camp David session chaired by the president, Rumsfeld asked what the administration should do about Iraq. Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz made the case for striking Iraq during ‘this round’ of the war on terrorism… Powell said that Wolfowitz was not able to justify his belief that Iraq was behind 9/11. ‘Paul was always of the view that Iraq was a problem that had to be dealt with,’ Powell told us. ‘And he saw  this as one way to using this event as a way to deal with the Iraq problem.’ … President Bush ordered the Defense Department to be ready to deal with Iraq… Wolfowitz continued to press the case for dealing with Iraq, [saying that] the odds were ‘far more’ than 1 in 10 [that Iraq was involved].  (Page 335-6)

Charitably giving the president far more credit than he deserves, the commission notes that “as a former pilot” Bush suspected that the perpetrators of 9/11 were sophisticated and he “wondered immediately after the attack whether Saddam Hussein’s regime might have had a hand in it… He also thought about Iran.” (Page 334) There is no report that the president suspected those actually guilty of the attack, however.

The commission also debunks the theories of Wolfowitz, Feith and the seemingly deranged Laurie Mylroie that Saddam was also behind the 1993 attack on the WTC. We have found no credible evidence to support theories of Iraqi government involvement in the 1993 WTC bombing. Wolfowitz added in his memo that he had attempted in June to get the CIA to explore these theories.” (Page 559, Note 73)

And on page 228 (“Atta’s Alleged Trip to Prague”) the commission fudges a little on the question of whether Mohamed Atta, a 9/11 ringleader, met with Ahmad al Ani, an officer of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, but ends up concluding: “The available evidence does not support the original Czech report of an Atta-Ani meeting.”

It’s clear that the commission framed its report carefully in order not to embarrass the president or to give ammunition to his critics. Indeed, it’s being cited by conspiracy theorists from Vice President Cheney to the Weekly Standard’s Stephen F. Hayes (author of The Connection: How Al Qaeda’s Collaboration With Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America ) as proof of what they’ve been saying all along. Alas.