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Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Bush passed up chances to eliminate Zarqawi 

This story really cuts through the crap on Bush's "tough on terror" image. Over the past two years, Bush had at least three chances to raid an al-Qaeda camp led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist responsible for yesterday's bombings in Iraq that killed at least 117 people. The Pentagon repeatedly drafted plans to attack the camp, but the white house shelved them all:
"People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president's policy of preemption against terrorists," according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey....

Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi's operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.

UPDATE: Matt Yglasias has more details on Tapped.
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