GOP continues bogus connection between 9/11 and Iraq

Despite the release Friday of a Senate Intelligence Committee report showing that the Bush administration knowingly misled the nation about links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda -- in fact, the report shows that Hussein considered Al Qaeda a direct threat to his regime -- Senate Republicans on Friday showed their regret by continuing the misleading rhetoric.

Speaking in the Senate Friday morning, Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) used a floor speech ostensibly commemorating the five-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks to once again mislead and distort by linking those responsible for 9/11 with insurgents faced by U.S. troops in the Bush administration's war of choice in Iraq.

"On September 11, 2001, the American people learned there exists a group of killers, fueled by a twisted version of Islam, who want to destroy America," said Bond. "Today, we continue to fight the same group of killers not on an airplane over America but in a country in their own neighborhood, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East and around the world."

"It is the same enemy, the same determination, the same goal," he continued. "But today we are fighting the radical Islamists on their own turf because we have a President who knows if America doesn't fight back, another September 11 is inevitable."

Bond then went on to trot out the same tired, old cut-and-run theme, suggesting that Senate Democrats who believe we need to leave Iraq and begin a real offensive against Al Qaeda are weak.