Dasmi, glad to see you're on my side. The links you present are useful ammunition against Riley's point of view about the Iraqi connection to 11 Sept., or lack thereof. Here is what Riley said:
There were no WMD's, Iraq was not involved in 9/11, there (was) no Al-queda in Iraq nor was Iraq any security threat to the U.S. In spite of all these facts with which the administration agrees, we continue to squander our resources, our young men and women and our money, in that rathole.
Did the administration claim, suggest, or imply that Iraq was involved in 9/11? Your links don't support the idea that they made such a claim, suggestion, or implication.
Does the administration still agree that Iraq was not involved in 9/11? Apparently so. So far as I know, they always have. Riley is half-right there, but he doesn't understand what this means. Are we only allowed to make war on nations that have already harmed us? This would reduce our foreign policy to some playground code of honor. Billy punches Timmy. Timmy punches back. In the real world, pre-emptive warfare is reasonable self-defense. By the same principle, CCW holders are not required to be physically hurt before firing.
Your first two links claim that Bush said a great many things, but don't supply the relevant quotations, so they are irrelevant.
The third is a speech given by the President, last month. Here is how he describes the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. Note that he does not ascribe any role to Iraq in the attacks of Sept. 11, or claim that they had any prior knowledge of them.
They complain when I say that the al Qaeda terrorists we face in Iraq are part of the same enemy that attacked us on September the 11th, 2001.
Al Qaeda in Iraq was founded by a Jordanian terrorist, not an Iraqi. His name was Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Before 9/11, he ran a terrorist camp in Afghanistan. He was not yet a member of al Qaida, but our intelligence community reports that he had longstanding relations with senior al Qaida leaders, that he had met with Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Zawahiri.
In 2001, coalition forces destroyed Zarqawi's Afghan training camp, and he fled the country and he went to Iraq, where he set up operations with terrorist associates long before the arrival of coalition forces. In the violence and instability following Saddam's fall, Zarqawi was able to expand dramatically the size, scope, and lethality of his operation. In 2004, Zarqawi and his terrorist group formally joined al Qaida, pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and he promised to "follow his orders in jihad."
The fourth link is an anti-war website that apparently distills the wisdom of a Congressional report into small paragraphs. These paragraphs are then used to rebut quotations from various administration officials. While it gives interesting opinions, and links to the report, it doesn't prove much by itself. I didn't have time to scan the quotations from every cabinet member, I did read all of the Bush quotations. In none of them did Bush portray Iraq as a major player in the 9/11 attacks, though they seem to think he tried. Eg:
"The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 -- and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men -- the shock troops of a hateful ideology -- gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September the 11th would be the 'beginning of the end of America.' By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation's resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed."
Source: President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended, White House (5/1/2003).
Their response:
This statement was misleading because by referencing the September 11 attacks in conjunction with discussion of the war on terror in Iraq, it left the impression that Iraq was connected to September 11. In fact, President Bush himself in September 2003 acknowledged that "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th."
This is an oft-heard complaint that has never held water. The President is not allowed to juxtapose the Iraq war with the 11 Sept. attacks, because you Americans are so stupid, you will think that Saddam was flying the planes. It is in fact the above quotation that is misleading, because its logic, well, isn't. And as icing on the cake, we have Bush clearly stating that he doesn't believe Saddam was involved with 9-11.
And finally, here is something from Bush's speech that supports one of Riley's points. Note that I did not disagree with this point. I merely asked for some confirmation.
Some note that al Qaida in Iraq did not exist until the U.S. invasion -- and argue that it is a problem of our own making. The argument follows the flawed logic that terrorism is caused by American actions.
