Ken Berwitz
Donald Trump crossed the line at the last Republican debate – twice: when he blamed President George W. Bush for 9/11, and when he boughtinto the “Bush lied” lie about the Iraq War.
“The World Trade Center came down during the reign of GeorgeBush,” Trump said, because the president “didn\’t listen to the advice of hisCIA.”
Sorry: The CIA missed it coming, as did the rest of the USintelligence community. The feds failed to connect the dots and ferret out theterrorists before they struck.
But al Qaeda actually grew – and planned the attack – on PresidentBill Clinton\’s watch. And Clinton-era restrictions on, for example, what theCIA could tell the FBI, helped keep those dots unconnected.
On Sunday, Trump tried to backtrack. “I\’m not blaming[Bush],” he said. Right.
…Trump went off the rails when he said Bush knew SaddamHussein had no WMDs.
“They lied,” he huffed. “They said there were weapons ofmass destruction … And they knew there were none.”
No: Every intel agency in the world thought Iraq had WMDs -because, even as Saddam publicly denied it, he was also bluffing that he didhave them, so Iran and other enemies would still fear him.
