Vol. 56, Issue 1 - Howard University School of Law

Cognitive Foreign PolicyCommenting on Bush’s surprise that the public held false perceptionsabout links between Iraq and al-Qaeda, former Pentagon DIAofficer Karen Kwaitkowski stated that these are “[t]he very things thata year later President Bush himself denies, and feigns his surprise, ‘Idon’t know why everybody thinks that.’” 216 After she resigned,Kwaitkowski spoke publicly about her experience in the Pentagon’sOffice of Special Plans (“OSP”), and noted that appointed officials inthe OSP specifically advocated this “story-line” between al-Qaedaand Iraq and “selling it to everyone who would listen” even thoughthe accusation had no basis in the intelligence. 217 Indeed, it was theBush administration that maintained there was a definitive alliancebetween Iraq and al-Qaeda, whereas the Intelligence Community wasmore reserved and offered a range of postulations based on uncertaindata. 218 Similarly, on September 14, 2003, Cheney was asked on Meetthe Press if he thought it was surprising that two-thirds of Americansbelieved that Iraq was involved in 9/11 and he stated,No, I think it’s not surprising that people make that connection.You and I talked about this two years ago. . . At the time I said no,we didn’t have any evidence of that. We learned a couple of things.We learned more and more that there was a relationship betweenIraq and al-Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decadeof the ‘90s, that it involved training, for example, on BW and CW[biological weapons and chemical weapons], that al-Qaeda sent personnelto Baghdad to get trained on the systems that areinvolved. 219It seems that anytime certain top officials in the Bush administration“learned” something new—i.e. were briefed on a new classifiedrumor—they broadcasted it to Americans. After completing its fiveyearinvestigation, the SSCI’s determined: “Iraq and al-Qaida did nothave a cooperative relationship . . . . Most of the contacts cited betweenIraq and al-Qaida before the war by the intelligence communityand policymakers have determined not to have occurred . . . .” 220SSCI Chair Rockefeller remarked that the Bush administration was sotransfixed on Iraq after 9/11 that “top Administration officials made16/ip.00.html. But see McLeod, supra note 95, at 117 (pointing out the falsity of Cheney’s claimthat there is “‘overwhelming’ evidence of ‘long-established’ links” between Iraq and al-Qaeda).216. HIJACKING CATASTROPHE, supra note 202.217. Conspiracies: Iraq (Sky television broadcast 2006).218. Bejesky, Intelligence, supra note 21, at 855-76.219. Fox News Spins 9/11 Commission Report, FAIR (June 22, 2004), http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1577.220. SSCI/2008, supra note 138, at 72.2012] 37