18 June 2004
Powell Asserts Iraqi Contacts with Al-Qaida, but Denies 9/11 Link
Cites Iraqi financial support to families of suicide bombers
Secretary of State Colin Powell said there were ties between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein's Iraq, but denied that the Bush administration has ever claimed that Iraq was involved in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Speaking to journalist Michael Medved June 17, Powell said "there were clear connections and ties over time between al-Qaida and the Hussein regime."
"The question is ... how strong were those contacts? Were they responded to on the Iraqi side? And what we have been saying is that there were such contacts, and I don't think that's in dispute, frankly," Powell said.
However, he added, "We never made the claim, as some are attributing to us, that, therefore, Saddam Hussein and his regime had something to do with 9/11."
The secretary said there is evidence that Hussein's regime paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, which he described as an indirect financial support for terrorism because it provided "a reward to the families of the suicide bombers."
Despite the prominence of news reports concerning terrorist activity against Iraqi leaders and coalition forces in Iraq, Powell said most of the country "is trying to get on with life and normal business, and commerce is returning, jobs are being created."
In almost 14 months after the end of Hussein's regime, he said, an interim government has been put together and is about to assume sovereignty on June 30.
Powell said Iraq's new leaders are "very grateful" to the United States for overthrowing Hussein, but are also asserting their independence.
"They're talking about elections and how to run them. They're arguing with each other. They're disagreeing with some of our positions. This is terrific. This is what a sovereign government should do," he said.
Following is the transcript of Secretary Powell's interview with Michael Medved:
(begin transcript)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
June 17, 2004
INTERVIEW
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
On the Michael Medved Show with Michael Medved
June 17, 2004
Washington, D.C.
(5:06 p.m. EDT)
MR. MEDVED: Secretary Powell, thank you very much for making the time.
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you, Michael, good to be back on your show.
MR. MEDVED: I appreciate having you. I wanted to speak to you very directly and immediately about some of the controversy regarding the report yesterday by the 9/11 Commission. Some critics of the Administration have said that the President and the Secretary of State deliberately misled the American people about going to war. Your response to that?
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I don't think that's what they said at all, and it's certainly not anything the President, nor I, nor any of my other colleagues in the government did. What we said was that there were clear connections and ties over time between al-Qaida and the Hussein regime. We never made the claim, as some are attributing to us, that, therefore, Saddam Hussein and his regime had something to do with 9/11.
But, clearly, there were ties. I said so when I made my presentation at the UN last year, and I have seen nothing to suggest that there weren't ties. And the Commission, when it reported yesterday, said that there had been contacts over the years. The question is, well, how strong were those contacts? Were they responded to on the Iraqi side? And what we have been saying is that there were such contacts, and I don't think that's in dispute, frankly.
MR. MEDVED: No, it really isn't, I mean, or nor the public support by the Saddam Hussein regime for terrorism of various kinds. What --
SECRETARY POWELL: This is regime, Michael, if I may, that paid the families of terrorist bombers in the occupied territory. So if a Palestinian suicide bomber went out and blew himself up and killed 30 innocent Israeli citizens, they would get a stipend from this government.
MR. MEDVED: So there was no apology at all for there support for terrorism, of course?
SECRETARY POWELL: Not at all. They were financing it indirectly through giving a, frankly, a reward to the families of the suicide bombers.
MR. MEDVED: What aspect of the current situation in Iraq do you think that the American people need to know more about?
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I think what they see in their television sets every morning are the car bombs that are causing us trouble or the oil being shut down, and that is a problem, and we have to get the security situation under control. And that's what dominates our headlines and dominates our news.
Most of the country, however, is trying to get on with life and normal business, and commerce is returning, jobs are being created. And the American people should keep that in context, that schools are being opened, town councils are working and functioning, the ministries of government are starting now to do the work that ministries are supposed to do.
The other thing the American people should keep in mind is that we really are moving forward to a transfer of sovereignty on the 30th of June, where our current role as the government of Iraq will come to an end, and they will have their own government with their own leaders. It will be a caretaker government for the next six months to get the country ready for, and conduct elections, and that election will produce a transitional assembly, a transitional government; and then in 2005, they'll ratify a constitution and have a full election.
The American people should be proud that in just about 14 months, we have been able to put together this interim government and they're about to assume sovereignty. And we will have a regular embassy relationship with them, in the capable hands of Ambassador John Negroponte. And Ambassador Bremer, having done a great job, will leave. He will no longer be the government. The government will be the government of Iraq.
And it's fascinating that these new leaders of this government about to be installed are talking about freedom and democracy. They're not talking about terrorism. They're talking about elections and how to run them. They're arguing with each other. They're disagreeing with some of our positions. This is terrific. This is what a sovereign government should do.
But they are very grateful for what we have done. They have thanked us for liberating their country from Saddam Hussein, and they are thankful for the support we'll continue to provide them in the form of our troops that will remain there to help with their security until they can do it themselves, and the money we'll be providing from the generous American taxpayers.
MR. MEDVED: Well, one of things that President Bush said yesterday at his speech at MacDill Air Force Base --
SECRETARY POWELL: MacDill, mm-hmm.
MR. MEDVED: President Bush noted that there are the flags of 65 nations flying together in the coalition on war on terror. Why is it that so many Americans have this idea that we have gone it alone somehow, when there are 65 nations, which is a huge coalition? I'm not even sure we had 65 nations fighting alongside us in World War II, did we?
SECRETARY POWELL: I don't think so. But the fact of the matter is that when you talk about the war against terrorism, the civilized nations of the world realize that we have to come together to defeat this enemy. And maybe you saw 65 flags, as the President pointed out, down at MacDill, but there are even many more nations that are participating in other ways -- through law enforcement exchanges, through the sharing of intelligence, through going after terrorists in their own countries.
And so, this charge that we are unilateralists, and we go off and do this all by ourselves is just not right. We've got these nations, as you noted, working with us. And it was just a week or so ago, that we went to the United Nations, again, for yet another resolution to support this political process in Iraq and to bless what we are doing. And we got a unanimous vote, 15 to zero, in the Security Council. That includes France, and Germany and Russia, voting along with us for this resolution.
MR. MEDVED: I think Pakistan and Algeria too.
SECRETARY POWELL: Pakistan, Algeria, China, it was a solid, unanimous vote.
MR. MEDVED: And people need to be aware of that. Let me ask you, Secretary of State Colin Lewis* Powell, you see the President fairly regularly, do you not?
SECRETARY POWELL: Yeah, almost every day.
MR. MEDVED: We had a psychiatrist on earlier in this show, who has written a book. He's a professor at George Washington University. He's written a book, and in his book he says President Bush is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He writes, "Recent alarming signs that the President's façade of control may be breaking down, show intense danger for the country."
You see President Bush all of the time. Do you see any signs that he's on the verge of a breakdown?
SECRETARY POWELL: That's utter nonsense, and I think even the professor acknowledges he has never spent one minute with President Bush or talked to him. And I was with the President this morning for a long period of time, at a cabinet meeting. We had a one hour cabinet meeting, the whole cabinet was there, and I can assure you the President was solidly in control.
You saw him on television right after the cabinet meeting, and before the cabinet meeting, he and I had our weekly private conversation on foreign policy issues. And I can tell you, he was engaged, he was solid. And this is all part of the magic of living in Washington. These books come and these books go.
MR. MEDVED: Yes, I hope this one goes quickly, and it probably will.
You also worked as National Security Advisor with President Reagan. And I know you were there prominently mourning President Reagan during the week of funeral solemnities for President Reagan. Do you see any similarity between the polarizing nature of the Bush presidency and what you experienced in the Reagan presidency?
SECRETARY POWELL: You know, President Reagan took some tough positions in the course of his eight years in office, and they were wildly criticized by his opponents, as being unilateral and polarizing. When he decided in the early '80s, that it was important for us to put missiles in Europe, our Pershing missiles and our ground launched cruise missiles to check the Soviet SS-20 missiles, everybody was criticizing, all of Europe was up in arms over this, but he did it anyway. And he did it with the support of our European allies, but they had to pay a political price for it.
Well, guess what? I was privileged to be his National Security Advisor four years later, when we negotiated a deal with the Russians that removed their SS-20s and also took out the missiles we put in.
So, sometimes, you just have to take these tough positions and take the criticism that comes with it, if you know you're right and if you think the outcome will prove you right. Reagan used to do that all the time and President Bush is doing it now.
MR. MEDVED: And so is Secretary of State Colin Powell. I want to thank you. I hope you're aware that there really are millions and millions of us out there who appreciate what you do, who don't take seriously some of the material that is so much out there in public discourse about alleged splits and divisions in the White House.
Your service to your country has been a real inspiration to me, and I just want to thank you for it, and hope that we will have the opportunity to speak again for updates maybe a little bit over the heads of some of the mainstream media.
Secretary Powell, I greatly appreciate your joining us on the radio show. Obviously, you have a great deal to do. You were with the President in a cabinet meeting this morning. I do want to salute you for your willingness to engage in this kind of conversation regularly because you represent all of us in directing the foreign policy of the United States with the President of the United States. Secretary of State and General Colin Powell. We will be back with Disagreement Day coming right up.
SECRETARY POWELL: Thanks, Michael.
MR. MEDVED: Thank you, sir.
SECRETARY POWELL: Bye-bye.
MR. MEDVED: Bye-bye.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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