On Wednesday night, Chris Matthews interviewed–make that, skewered–Ari Fleischer on Hardball, grilling him on George W. Bush’s legacy: a lousy war in Iraq sold to the public with false information and a lousy economy. At the end of the long segment, Fleischer said
But after September 11, having been hit once, how could we take a chance that Saddam might not strike again?
Strike again? Was Fleischer pushing the canard that Saddam Hussein had been involved in the 9/11 attacks? Matthews was busy closing out the segment and didn’t focus on this remark. But after watching the interview later, he decided this comment deserved attention.
Enter former Reagan Pentagon official Frank Gaffney and me. We were invited on Thursday’s show to discuss Fleischer’s comment and the claim–to which some neocons still cling–that Saddam was in cahoots with the 9/11 mass-murderers. The 9/11 commission said there was no link between Saddam and 9/11, but, yes, Gaffney still contends that Saddam was behind al Qaeda’s attack. His evidence? Gaffney cited circumstantial reports, a book by discredited neocon Douglas Feith, and, essentially, his own hunch. Here’s what happened:
