[Turkje]

September 12: Following his notes from the day before suggesting that 9/11 should be blamed on Iraq and not just al-Qaeda, Rumsfeld proposes to President Bush that Iraq should be "a principal target of the first round in the war against terrorism." Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and others support the idea. Bush and all of his advisors agree that Iraq should be attacked, but they decide such an attack should wait. Secretary of State Powell says, "Public opinion has to be prepared before a move against Iraq is possible." (There is still no evidence suggesting Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks.) Wolfowitz is given the task of finding, or creating, a justification for a war against Iraq to be given to the world during Bush's next State of the Union address. Former CIA Director James Woolsey, a member of the Defense Policy Board who backed an invasion of Iraq, theorizes that Saddam is connected to the World Trade Center attacks, and tells one journalist that no matter what, Iraq should be invaded because Hussein would likely be involved in future attacks. Woolsey goes to London to gather evidence to back up his theory, which has the support of Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, then the Defense Policy Board chairman. Wolfowitz, Perle, and other administration officials believe that, if they could tie Saddam to al-Qaeda, they could justify the war to the American people. As a veteran aide to the Senate Intelligence Committee observes, "They knew that, if they could really show a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, then their objective, ... which was go in and get rid of Hussein, would have been a foregone conclusion." Woolsey's main piece of evidence for a link between Saddam and al-Qaeda is a meeting that was supposed to have taken place in Prague in April 2001 between lead September 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence official, but none of the intelligence agencies could place Atta in Prague on that date. Atta was proven to be in the US during this time, traveling between Florida and Virginia Beach, Virginia. Eventually, Afghanistan will be chosen as an easier sell to the American people while public opinion is being manipulated to bring Iraq into focus as the next primary target. Many of these people, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Woolsey, Perle, and others, are members of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which has decided as an organization to use the attacks as justification for their long-desired invasion of Iraq. Woolsey makes several TV appearances in the days after the attack pushing the theory of Iraqi involvement, as does fellow PNAC member William Kristol on NPR. And Rumsfeld instructed his aides to start thinking about striking Iraq five hours after the Pentagon was attacked. (The New Republic, Online Journal, Asia Times, Truthout. The Atlantic)