Here Bush plays on two fears of the public: of Islamist holy warriorsand nuclear weapons. But Saddam runs a secular state and has no ties to Islamist terrorists such as al Qaeda (despite other lies to the contrary). As for nukes, Iraq's production capabilities had been destroyed completely by 1998 and today Elbaradei is in the process of verifying that Iraq has not taken even the first baby steps in what would be a mammoth effort to rebuild a nuclear infrastructure - an infrastructure that would be virtually impossible to hide.
Equally insidious on Bush's part is the mistranslation and misquotation. In "Counter-Dossier II", http://traprockpeace.org/weapons.html Dr. Glen Rangwala, observes that the speech Bush is referring to was delivered by Saddam "on 10 September 2000 and was about, in part, nuclear energy. The transcription of the speech was made at the time by the BBC monitoring service. Saddam Hussein actually refers to 'nuclear energy mujahidin,' and doesn't mention the development of weaponry. In addition, the term 'mujahidin' is often used in a non-combatant sense, to mean anyone who struggles for a cause. Saddam Hussein, for example, often refers to the mujahidin developing Iraq's medical facilities. There is nothing in the speech to indicate that Iraq is attempting to develop or threaten the use of nuclear weapons."
Was Bush aware of the mistranslation and misquotation? We'd have to inject him with truth serum to find out. Even if some senior intelligence official did the deed and kept the accurate quote and translation from Bush, it's obvious who is setting the deceitful tone in the administration. The official would have every reason to believe that this is just the sort of dirty trick - played on the unsuspecting American citizenry, not Saddam Hussein - that this president would love.
Equally insidious on Bush's part is the mistranslation and misquotation. In "Counter-Dossier II", http://traprockpeace.org/weapons.html Dr. Glen Rangwala, observes that the speech Bush is referring to was delivered by Saddam "on 10 September 2000 and was about, in part, nuclear energy. The transcription of the speech was made at the time by the BBC monitoring service. Saddam Hussein actually refers to 'nuclear energy mujahidin,' and doesn't mention the development of weaponry. In addition, the term 'mujahidin' is often used in a non-combatant sense, to mean anyone who struggles for a cause. Saddam Hussein, for example, often refers to the mujahidin developing Iraq's medical facilities. There is nothing in the speech to indicate that Iraq is attempting to develop or threaten the use of nuclear weapons."
Was Bush aware of the mistranslation and misquotation? We'd have to inject him with truth serum to find out. Even if some senior intelligence official did the deed and kept the accurate quote and translation from Bush, it's obvious who is setting the deceitful tone in the administration. The official would have every reason to believe that this is just the sort of dirty trick - played on the unsuspecting American citizenry, not Saddam Hussein - that this president would love.