al-Qaeda Wanted To Use Iraq As Base To Attack US

Al-Qaeda wanted to use Iraq as a base to attack the US?  Get outta here:

President Bush, trying to defend his war strategy, declassified intelligence Tuesday asserting that Usama bin Laden ordered a top lieutenant in early 2005 to form a terrorist cell that would conduct attacks outside Iraq — and that the United States should be the top target.

Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said the intelligence bolsters the Bush administration’s contention that Al Qaeda wants to use Iraq as a staging area to launch terrorist attacks around the world, including the United States.

In January 2005, bin Laden tasked Al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was in Iraq, to organize the cell, Townsend said. Al-Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaeda’s Iraq operations, was killed there in June 2006 by a U.S. airstrike.

"We know from the intelligence community that al-Zarqawi welcomed the tasking and claimed he already had some good proposals," Townsend said.

She said that in the spring of 2005, bin Laden instructed Hamza Rabia, a senior operative, to brief al-Zarqawi on Al Qaeda planning to attack sites outside Iraq, including the United States. She did not disclose where in the United States those attacks were being plotted.

Around the same time, Abu Fajah al-Libi, a senior Al Qaeda manager, suggested that bin Laden send Rabia to Iraq to actually help al-Zarqawi plan the external operations, Townsend said. It is unclear whether Radbia went to Iraq, she said.

I’m shocked I tell ya!  Shocked!

Sigh….

Not like this is what we’ve been saying since day one.  We leave this country unable to defend itself and we hand the keys over to al-Qaeda.  The Democrats know this but they care little about it….as long as they get to sit in the bigger chairs.

UPDATE

Recall October of 2004, Osama warns the United States people that they better vote for the man who will stop fighting them….Kerry….or else:

(complete transcript here)

The election occurs, Bush wins, he is inaugurated and then Osama orders his men inside Iraq to make plans to attack the United States.