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Baghdad Back FlipColin Powell's cynical reversal.

By William Saletan
Posted Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2003, at 4:28 PM ET

If you want to know why people don't trust what the United States says about Iraq, get a load of what Secretary of State Colin Powell said this morning.

On Oct. 7, 2001, Arab TV superstation Al Jazeera aired a video in which Osama Bin Laden suggested that he was fighting for Iraq and Palestine. "One million Iraqi children have thus far died in Iraq although they did not do anything wrong," Bin Laden protested. "Israeli tanks and tracked vehicles also enter to wreak havoc in Palestine … and we hear no voices raised."

When Powell testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee later that month, he dismissed Bin Laden's claims. "We cannot let Usama bin Laden pretend that he is doing it in the name of helping the Iraqi people or the Palestinian people," said Powell. "He doesn't care one whit about them. He has never given a dollar toward them. He has never spoken out for them."

That was then; this is now. Tuesday morning, Powell testified before the Senate Budget Committee. He warned that Al Jazeera would soon air a new Bin Laden statement in which "once again he speaks to the people of Iraq and talks about their struggle and how he is in partnership with Iraq. This nexus between terrorists and states that are developing weapons of mass destruction can no longer be looked away from and ignored."

You can write the next paragraph yourself. Sixteen months ago, Powell wanted to isolate Bin Laden from other Muslims, so he said Bin Laden was lying about being involved in Iraq. Now Powell wants to justify war against Iraq, so he says Bin Laden is telling the truth. Same claim, same media outlet, same speaker, same U.S. official assessing the claim, same congressional venue, different U.S. agenda, different result.

The punch line? Bin Laden was talking about hypocrisy.

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William Saletan is Slate's national correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War.

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Remarks From The Fray:

To be fair, I don't know why anyone believes that "Bin Laden" has released any of the tapes that have surfaced since his disappearance.

With that said, Powell hasn't been inconsistent. What Powell said back in 2001 was:

[W]e cannot let Usama bin Laden pretend that he is doing it in the name of helping the Iraqi people or the Palestinian people. He doesn't care one whit about them. He has never given a dollar toward them. He has never spoken out for them. He has used them as a cover for his evil, criminal, murderous, terrorist acts. And he has to be seen in that light.

(emphasis added). Today, Powell said:

[O]nce again he speaks to the people of Iraq and talks about their struggle and how he is in partnership with Iraq.

Both times, Powell said that Bin Laden pretends to have sympathy with the people of Iraq. However, I think it's fair to read into both that whatever relationship Bin Laden may have with Saddam, he doesn't show a lot of sympathy with the Iraqi people.

To put it another way, al-Quaida has ties to some of the Palestinian terror groups as well -- that doesn't mean that Powell was wrong when he said that Bin Laden doesn't have the Palestinian people's best interests at heart.

-- J_Mann

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Whether Osama is dead or alive, he is certainly not holding formal news conferences. How can he declare a win simply because he survived. ROFLMAO

And the beauty of this...Powell announced the tape before Al-Jazeera. What does that tell you?

It can't be fun huddled in some cave or hideaway trying to tell others how to win like you did.

-- marylb

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