fossten said:
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
First, no proof about illegally diverting funds, so your assertion is merely speculation.
Critics question diversion of Afghan war funds to Iraq plan
Richard Simon, Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Washington -- Charges that the Bush administration had diverted $700 million to prepare for a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq without informing Congress drew criticism Monday from congressional Democrats, while Republicans contended that Congress had given the administration "unprecedented flexibility" in spending after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the administration "owes Congress a full, detailed and immediate accounting."
Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, called for an investigation, calling it "deeply irresponsible of the White House to secretly reprogram funds allocated by Congress."
The staffs of Republican and Democratic members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees scrambled over records to determine whether the administration had shifted money that had been allocated for the war in Afghanistan, whether it was required to notify Congress and, if so, whether it had done so.
A new book by Bob Woodward, an assistant managing editor at the Washington Post, says that in the summer of 2002, the Bush administration diverted money allocated for the war in Afghanistan for "preparatory tasks" in the Persian Gulf region, such as upgrading airfields in Kuwait.
"Congress, which is supposed to control the purse strings, had no real knowledge or involvement, had not even been notified the Pentagon wanted to reprogram money," Woodward wrote in "Plan of Attack."
"It is our understanding that Congress was kept informed," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters Monday, adding that the White House had asked the Pentagon comptroller and the Office of Management and Budget to document what had happened. Emergency spending legislation passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks gave the administration "broad discretion" in the use of funding, he said.
White House deputy press secretary Trent Duffy said in an interview Monday that the "significant buildup" at the time in the Persian Gulf region was not necessarily in preparation for an invasion. He said the administration wanted to be ready to aid weapons inspectors or pave the way for a quick response if Saddam Hussein fled.
Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said that Congress in most cases had allowed the Defense Department to allocate post-Sept. 11 funding with "unprecedented flexibility because of the dynamic combat environment and an unconventional terrorist threat."
Congressional Democrats said they planned to ask Defense Department officials for an explanation during hearings this week on Bush's Iraq policy. The controversy has emerged as continuing insurgency and U.S. military deaths in Iraq have presented Bush with new challenges to holding onto public support for the war as he seeks re-election in November.
fossten said:
Second, he hasn't stopped the job in Afghanistan, obviously, or we wouldn't have SEALS and helicopters there, duh!
I am referring to the fact that Shrub pulled troops and resources from Afghanistan before the job was finished, I didn't say he pulled all the troops. The Taliban and Al Quaida are on the upswing, and what happened to "Osama, wanted dead or alive". Shrub turned around and said that he wasn't concerned about Osama during the run up to the election last year, yet that sucker is still out there organizing his terrorists.
fossten said:
Third, what terrorist training ground? You are making no sense whatsoever.
CIA says Iraq is now a terrorist training ground
By Reuters
06/22/05 - - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA believes the Iraq insurgency poses an international threat and may produce better-trained Islamic terrorists than the 1980s Afghanistan war that gave rise to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, officials said on Wednesday.
A classified report from the U.S. spy agency says Iraqi and foreign fighters are developing a broad range of skills, from car bombings and assassinations to coordinated conventional attacks on police and military targets, officials said.
Once the insurgency ends, Islamic militants are likely to disperse as highly organized battle-hardened combatants capable of operating throughout the Arab-speaking world and in other regions including Europe.
Fighters leaving Iraq would primarily pose a challenge for their countries of origin including Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
But the May report, which has been widely circulated in the intelligence community, also cites a potential threat to the United States.
"You have people coming to the action with anti-U.S. sentiment ... And since they're Iraqi or foreign Arabs or to some degree Kurds, they have more communities they can blend into outside Iraq," said a U.S. counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the report's classified status.
Canada also released an intelligence report saying the Sunni insurgency in Iraq posed a global problem given that most of the world's Sunni Muslims live outside the Middle East.
"The current war in Iraq is creating a whole new set of extremists," the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said in a briefing document obtained by Reuters.
Meanwhile, a Pentagon official said the CIA report appeared to be a synthesis of intelligence information already known to military commanders in the Gulf region.
Iraq has become a magnet for Islamic militants similar to Soviet-occupied Afghanistan two decades ago and Bosnia in the 1990s, U.S. officials say.
Bin Laden won prominence as a U.S. ally in the war against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. He later used Afghanistan as the training center for his al Qaeda network, which is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on Washington and New York.
President Bush justified the invasion of Iraq in part by charging that Saddam Hussein was supporting al Qaeda. A U.S. inquiry later found no collaboration between prewar Iraq and the bin Laden network.
But since the invasion, Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has emerged as a key insurgent figure and pledged his allegiance to bin Laden.
While the Afghan war against the Soviets was largely fought on a rural battlefield, the CIA report said Iraq is providing extremists with more comprehensive skills including training in operations devised for populated urban areas.
"You have everything from bombings and assassinations to more or less conventional attacks," the counterterrorism official said.
"The urban warfare experience, for people facing fairly tight police and military activity at close quarters, should enable them to operate in a wider range of settings."
Vice President Dick Cheney has argued that the insurgency is in its last throes, despite reports that the guerrillas have grown more deadly.
CIA Director Porter Goss told Time magazine that the insurgency was not quite in its last throes, "but I think they are very close to it."
"Duh" ? Stop quoting Shrubs favorite line, you sound like his parrot.
I can see that you and Bryan are both wearing the Shrub colored glasses, you obviously get your news from Fox and Rush, ignoring all other sources.
