Global Security Newswire

Recently released documents indicate that the Bush administration was considering war with Iraq years before the March 2003 invasion, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, June 2).

Just hours after al-Qaeda struck the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talked about attacking terrorist network chief Osama bin Laden and Iraq, notes obtained by the nongovernmental National Security Archive indicate. The defense chief demanded that Pentagon legal personnel find "support" for a connection between bin Laden and Baghdad.

The Bush administration would assert such a link and Iraq's suspected possession of weapons of mass destruction in making its case for war against the Hussein regime. Washington would later admit that Iraq played no part in the Sept. 11 strikes, and no operational WMD stockpiles or programs were discovered in the Middle Eastern state following the invasion.

Iraq was on the administration's radar months before September 2001. High-level officials in June and July of that year argued that the interdiction of aluminum tubes heading to Iraq demonstrated the regime was seeking a nuclear-weapon capability, according to two State Department documents delivered to then-top diplomat Colin Powell.

One memorandum says Washington could benefit from "publicizing the interdiction to our advantage" and "getting the right story out" regarding the tubes, which shortly after were proven not applicable to nuclear weapons development, AFP reported.

Still, in a July 2001 memorandum to then-national security adviser Condoleeza Rice, Rumsfeld argued that "within a few years the U.S. will undoubtedly have to confront a Saddam armed with nuclear weapons."

"If Saddam's regime were ousted, we would have a much-improved position in the region and elsewhere," he stated. "A major success in Iraq would enhance U.S. credibility and influence throughout the region."

Rumsfeld was considering the invasion of Iraq in November 2001, shortly after the United States had gone to war in Afghanistan, according to one document. He noted a number of possible justifications for war against the Hussein regime, including conflict between Baghdad and U.N. weapons inspectors and uncovering of connections between Iraq and the Sept. 11 and anthrax attacks of 2001 (Dan De Luce, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 22).