  Amazing but true stories Former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., told United Press International that the White House did not want the "9/11" report made public before launching military action in Iraq. He said the administration feared publication might undermine the administration's case for war, which was based in part on the allegation that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had supported Osama bin Laden -- and the attendant possibility that Iraq might supply al-Qaida with weapons of mass destruction.
http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=20030723-064812-9491r Throughout 2002 and early 2003, Rice repeatedly insisted that the Administration sought a peaceful solution to the Iraq conflict and that war was only a last resort. In October of 2002, she said, ? ?We're going to seek a peaceful solution to this. We think that one is possible?? [CBS, 10/20/02]. Then in November of 2002, she said, ? ?We all want very much to see this resolved in a peaceful way??
[Briefing, 11/21/02]. In March of 2003, she claimed ? ?we are still in a diplomatic phase here?? [ABC, 3/9/03]. However, according to Richard Haas, Bush? ?s director of policy planning at the State Department, the decision had already been made by July of 2002. When asked exactly when he learned war in Iraq was definite, Haas said, ? ?The moment was the first week of July (2002), when I had a meeting with Condi.
I raised this issue about were we really sure that we wanted to put Iraq front and center at this point, given the war on terrorism and other issues. And she said, essentially, that that decision's been made, don't waste your breath. And that was early July. So then when Powell had his famous dinner with the President, in early August, 2002 [in which Powell persuaded Bush to take the question to the U.N.] the agenda was not whether Iraq, but how?? [New Yorker, 3/31/03] http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/07/25_condi.html 
