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Dem: Bush Let Bin Laden Escape ... on Purpose

Needed to justify Iraq war, Hinchey says

By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 30, 2009 9:32 PM CST

(Newser) – A Democratic congressman today accused President Bush of purposely letting Osama bin Laden escape capture in order to justify the Iraq war—and, when given an out by MSNBC’s David Shuster, Rep. Maurice Hinchey reiterated, “I don’t think it’ll will strike a lot of people as crazy. I think it’ll strike a lot of people as accurate. That’s exactly what happened.”

Hinchey, who represents an upstate New York district, appeared to have been referring to a Senate report that the al-Qaeda leader had been within reach of US troops in 2001. “When our military went in there, we could have captured them. … But we didn’t, and we didn’t because of the need felt by the previous administration and the previous head of the military—that need to attack Iraq, which is completely unjustified.”

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-NY.
Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-NY.   (AP Photo)
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Rep. Hinchey's claim.   (MSNBC)
Rep. Hinchey's claim.   (MSNBC)

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 66 comments
RacingCowboy
Dec 3, 2009 11:19 AM CST
Curious, but why didn't this information surface any time during Bush's administration? Staff members for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic majority prepared the report at the request of the chairman, Sen. John Kerry, who was using such a claim as part of his failed 2004 campaign. Seems to me that he'd have loved to be able to bring this up again as in in-your-face to Bush. For instance, why was this not pursued or brought up in 2007 when both the House and Senate were controlled by the Dems, and the purported info could have been effectively used in an attempt to impeach the president? Why wait until it essentially becomes non-news with the left yelling "See??" and the right yelling back "Yeah, right!", and still leaving us no further ahead than when the whole war started?
IndependentThinker
Dec 2, 2009 8:23 AM CST
CHER>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I would never watch fox again. It was on for 5 min and took 10 years off my life. But if you want to provide me with any links to nonpartisan sites I would gladly read them. But so far you nor cedarkey have provided any.
Cher
Dec 2, 2009 4:57 AM CST
Well Clinton had his chance and didn't take it. How bright was that. The one and ONLY job for a president to do is keep our country safe and Clinton missed the boat. At least Bush tried. For heavens sake give him that much.

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