good enough to hit saddam hussein. he asks the aide to get evidence from wolfowitz of a saddam connection with ubl, osama bin laden. >> we all looked at each other like, what are you talking about? who the hell -- saddam hussein? bin laden hates him. he's a her atick. there's no connection between saddam hussein and al qaeda. >> the word goes out to the cia, fbi and all the intelligence services. find the connection. >> first, though, the war on terror goes to afghanistan. to capture or kill osama bin laden and destroy the taliban regime that supports al qaeda. by november, the enemy is on the run, forced to flee into the mountains and across the border to pakistan. but while bin laden remains at large, washington's attention turns to iraq. to saddam. >> i think the united states, since "desert storm" has always had a, a, a various planning with respect to iraq. >> "operation desert storm." also known as the first gulf war. in 1991, following iraq's invasion of kuwait, a u.s.-led coalition of 34 countries drives saddam

for a long time dominated by baghdad and saddam hussein kurdistan dreams of achieving autonomy. the first customer the first passenger on our trip is a member of the new kurdish parliament. that's the. biggest you know with in iraq we can say that oil has always been a curse. but today in kurdistan that's changing. foreign oil companies are coming here to work with. the revenues of finally being used for reconstruction of what negative it's a huge difference for us as in saddam's times we never benefited from the oil money or. that he had any put is that. he went so it's quite simple we could spend for where iraqis where the i think they're very rapidly as soon as we have been able to create a stable basis for building a country ninety nine percent of people will vote for independence with. no one to one or the people who want their own country a country called could stand looking at it as that they want their own passport but there's no kurdish one i suppose you could stand. a land of shepherd's kurdistan is discovering well through its oil a nightmare for baghdad which had lon

a sonny like saddam hussein my driver khaled is. he didn't know or didn't want to know the terrible truth. look i'll show you the house where i was born yeah here on this hill the city is like a memorial to the village as it was before the tragedy it was here that the villagers came together every evening to talk to play backgammon and listen to the radio. i leave a comment to commemorate his life while. we continue towards the east and kirkuk the former capital of kurdistan today on iraqi territory. so what if that god be praised i'm not scared when the region was under american control i was afraid about it but as soon as the iraqi police and army took over things got much better if the americans didn't know the region they were afraid and trigger happy that they didn't hesitate to fire anyone who approached them but you know like the passenger foreigner anyone. on this road has seen a lot of drama how many times did the american shoot down iraqis here for no reason gotta go. through the windscreen the first iraqi checkpoint appea

the main prayer takes place in hussein most.the interim sermons a political resonance and a broadcast throughout iraq and the shia world and. the shias today are imposing their numbers and their power. in the prayers always and with cries to the glory of the prophet hussein the son of ali allegedly designated by mohammed to be his only successor you know that there. was. many on the underside a million shias were detained and many of them were assassinated then thrown into mass graves and center by myself your servant spent twelve years in iraqi jails my family only received news of me one or two years after i was released. i was even afraid of my own brother i thought he was an officer who come to interrogate me yes we suffered and the prisons were filled with shias only when you be. leaving kabbalah is like crossing a graveyard. everywhere all portraits of shia mountains fall in for the glory of the prophet hussein mohammed they're. little bit. possible. on the baghdad bass run highway in the middle of the desert our faithful

as we leave tikrit we come to a village the heart of saddam hussein's kingdom. well he was finally caught. on december fourteenth two thousand and three saddam was captured at dawn in his hideout in a farmyard a miserable rattle two meters underground. disheveled and distraught he surrendered to the american forces. in his possession with two kalashnikovs and seven hundred fifty thousand dollars. by the. other are those taxis a gas guzzler and we need more petrol. but it was here. we seek out the black market a parallel business which fills the coffers of a few politicians civil servants and terrorist groups to. the oil money benefits everyone apart from the iraqi people. not. enough of. the temperature hits more than forty degrees on the machines a cool down with a hose. for the men it's time to wash and pray before sitting down for a meal. that surprised by my presence but soon opened up. for the sunny customers the whole affair was an american manipulation. movement the greek word the ideal weight plays a key role in the arab world and. the americans use the

here once through the absolute symbol of power a statue of saddam hussein. on april ninth two thousand and three it was torn to the ground of the united states believed it of wonderful. nine years have passed the square is empty and the city appears to be in a state of siege. oh is that our passenger alley a theater director back from exile in paris waited for a long time to see his enemy fall and return to his native city. where i was thrown in prison and when i got out i was given five days to leave baghdad and iraq. but folly the combat continues. and is through theater that he hopes to win it is methodist to reinvest the public with a sense of resistance and a taste for life. i met out. today i see a country filled with weapons the overriding color in the city is khaki the color of soldiers was i see young people with no future men and women deprived of any feeling of citizenship the grown people have forgotten their rights and their duties. as if they were lost with them but i can. last. night's. more time to be doing your shoulder but more than that. i

simply stated, there is no doubt that saddam hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.ere is no doubt that he is amazing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us. >> i had a seat on the stage next to the lectern where he was speaking. i bolted that. >> iraq can be a great nation once again. >> vice president's dick cheney's speech is the opening salvo of the bush add palestinian stragses a effort to sell to the american people what white house insiders people call "the product." >> thank you very much. >> was a shock. a total shock. i couldn't believe the advice president was saying this. on doing work, all of the briefings i heard at langley, i heard saw one piece of credible evidence that there was an ongoing program and that's when i began to believe that they are getting serious about this. they want to go into iraq. >> two weeks after the speech, cheney again makes his case, on national television. >> what we know is just bits and pieces we gather through the intelligence system but we know he is using his are curement system to acquire th

hussein abuali lost his 13-year-old son in april. he was killed by a shell on his way to a friend's house. >> translator: this sadness is terrible. my son did nothing wrong. >> reporter: a stream marks the border with syria. there are no fences. only a flag and the occasional presence of syrian soldiers are signs that it is syria's territory. pro-assad hezbollah ferry militants and weapons across the border. back on the lebanese side, we were allowed to talk with a hezbollah militant. >> translator: anti-assad rebels have driven our people from their homes. they've killed our women and children. we will fight to the death. >> reporter: each death on either side of the sectarian divide feeds a vicious cycle of revenge and further bloodshed. the violence in syria has spilled over into lebanon. and there seems to be no end in sight. sho beppu, nhk world, tripoli and hermil, lebanon. >>> the japanese economy has been called stagnant. in recent weeks it's shown signs of life. the stock market is up. so our earnings for major companies. no

of the iraqi republic saddam hussein in one nine hundred eighty eight inaugurated the restored city of babylon first built by nebuchadnezzar between six o four and five sixty two b.c. . at the height of his power like the ancient kings before him. built his palace in the heart of the legendary city. his tower of babel crashed down around him and the dust of pride and ambition his memory has been left to the ravages of time and the insults of his survivors. told him a language of war but i will only react to situations i have read the reports and let me know for sure and know i will be there to stapling to comment on your latter point i come on to say get sick yeah because i'm not talking. to you no more weasel words when your vain a direct question be prepared for a change when you have to punish the ready for a battle freedom of speech and little down to freedom to question. more news today is once again flared up. and these are the images cold world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations are all day. i. i. i. at the end of the road lies come the mecca o

lincoln and declared victory over saddam hussein and his allies the speech happened just two months after american troops stormed into the country a massive mission accomplished banner actually hung in the back but on the anniversary of this infamous speech let's take a look back at what the u.s. has actually accomplished in iraq and where the country stands today by the time president bush made this speech in this battle we have fought for the cause of liberty. and for the peace of the world. our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment the u.s. had conducted a massive bombing campaign and engaged in skirmishes with iraqi troops the stated goal for entering this war were to topple saddam hussein and free the iraqi people with saddam hussein on the run in baghdad overrun by coalition forces president bush moved on to his next goal finding obtain weapons of mass destruction. we have difficult work to do in iraq. we're bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. we're pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime who will be held to account for their cri

and free the iraqi people well with saddam hussein on the run and baghdad overrun by coalition forces president bush moved on to his next goal finding obtain weapons of mass destruction we have difficult work to do in iraq. we are bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. we're pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime who will be held to account for their crimes. we've begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated the only problem is that there weren't any eight months after president bush made that speech we were asked weapons inspectors actually reported that w m d's didn't exist. so in a sense mission accomplished well but even sense those infamous speech and later admissions of the lack of w m d's the u.s. stayed in iraq sacrificing money and resources and also human lives on a mission that was already declared a victory now let's look at the money of this in september two thousand and two white house advisers estimated that the conflict would cost somewhere between one hundred

the majority of the theater chose the threat of saddam hussein. president bush had to make a choice, one, seek another u.n. resolution, two, lead an international coalition to remove saddam, three, accept saddam hussein will remain in power. you are about to get expert advice. you'll have to weigh conflicting points of view. okay, we're ready to start. work fast, the clock is ticking. >> with a literal drum beat, actual drum beat to war coming out of the speakers in the theater, you get advice from members of the intelligent community, while you're getting those briefings, you get interrupted by ominous breaking news developments. >> if we act to depose him, other countries could use our actions to wage unjustified wars in the future. >> chemical warheads. >> this is the first really solid evidence. >> after you deal with all the breaking news interruptions about new weapons that weren't disclosed before being discovered and get advice from your fake actor experts, it's finally time to make this decision. they do set up three options to choose fro

. >> narrator: the president needed a convincing reason for war with saddam hussein. george tenet and the cia said they had no evidence saddam had helped al qaeda, but secretary rumsfeld did. a secret unit at the pentagon claimed it had found a connection. >> goodman: they needed an office that would produce the intelligence that the cia wouldn't produce. rumsfeld said, "i can solve your problem," and they created the office of special plans. >> benjamin: so they're going to do their own analysis. they're going to show what the cia's been missing all along about the true relationship between saddam and al qaeda. >> narrator: they worked in a vault deep inside the pentagon. they had what is known as "all source clearances"-- total access to intelligence information. >> maloof: i went into the system, our classified system, to see what did we know about terrorist groups and their relationships, as well as their connection, associations with not only al qaeda but also with state sponsors. >> narrator: the information was rarely vetted. instead, it moved up the chain of c

and somehow managed to make that attack happen even though saddam hussein had nothing to do with 9/11? rumsfeld is german for promoting a narrative because it fits your hopes and what you want to be the case. it is the rare german word that is actually shorter than the thing it is describing. so, no! you alone don't get to come to the victory parade for the republicans. you're the only guy who doesn't get to weigh in. >> i think it's one of the worst incidents frankly >> jon: did i say one guy? is that he whose name i dare not speak. the one who sets off my cheney-dar. who led our country astray-dar? shot his friend in the fay-dar? has the heart of gray-dar? don't. you. dare. >> i think it's one of the worst incidents that frankly that i can recall in my career. they claimed it was because of a demonstration video so they wouldn't have to admit that it was really all about their competence. they lied. >> jon: you do not get to use the l-word. in fact, you don't even get to watch the l-word. dick. which i can call you because that's your name. after the the lines you told, you don't ge

you could argue whether or not saddam hussein started it way invaded kuwait but the reality is we broke this country and you were one of the people tasked with putting it back together or at least participating with something that was to look like we were putting them back together what is the what is the situation like now in iraq and and to what extent is that the consequence of our successes or failures the cracks that we're seeing right now in iraq were starting even while i was there in two thousand and nine and two thousand and nine we were just coming off of the surge which was supposed to have won the war for us and one of the signature parts of the surge was the sons of iraq and he made up organization made up by us were basically we paid the right more radical sunni's money to stop killing us stop fighting us and to sit back and see if the political process could work this is the pay off the warlords exactly it's in one of my jobs was to help the transition from the us paying the sunni's to the iraqis paying the sunni's and this was also to include that the iraqis were suppose

chris: what about the actual fact, bob, you know this, everybody does, but you acutely, saddam hussein tried to kill his father. >> right. >> and that's -- that's part of the back story here. but i don't think it was a motivation. i think it was -- he wasn't -- this wasn't a vengeance war. there was an atmosphere then of gee, we're still in danger. let's go do something. this is going to be simple. and the afghan war initially looked like it was going quite well. and made sense. and the c.i.a. and the military had delivered. so let's lean on them again. >> bush wasn't supposed to be the son that became president of the united states. it was supposed to be jeb. jeb was the star. bush was kind of the na'er do well. chris: it often happens. chris: welcome back to more of our special show on the george w. bush presidency. our next huge question, describe the influence of dick cheney. elisabeth. it's a big one. >> the influence in the first term was overpowering. very powerful. and the second term, it was much -- very much a lot less. to the point where they had a big fight about -- bush an

saddam hussein didn't have much of a social basis. what he had is terror and they were being depleted. he lost his international respect. previously he had the support of countries including the united states and france and so on. he lost all of that. he lost any agreement with saudi arabia said he was isolated. on top of that, he had a number of uprisings, which proved that the regime wasn't universally popular. and of course northern iraq to basically become a kurdish state. so, i think the regime is vastly week than it appeared to be. and the fact that when there was a threat of war they were talking about going to release all of these political prisoners or we are going to have a vote on something but the point was that they felt we needed to make these gestures. i think it is a week regime and it would have crumbled under a few minutes. you can never second-guess these things but one thing i would always say is given what happened in iraq as a result of the invasion with the excess deaths that resulted and the chaos and the ethni

troops toppled saddam hussein he's also been is a u.s. congressman who believes america must clean up the mess read. up think we have an obligation to stay engaged with iraq. diplomatically and developmentally militarily quite honestly i don't i am i am not convinced that we can meaningful improvement to the supposed me some point our role in iraq militarily need to come to him and even if there is horrible military violence going on there i mean the question needs to be raised is our reengagement going to help i don't i doubt that seriously but what i think we do need to do is to remember that we'll create these conditions and we have an ongoing obligation and you know we've got to make sure that i mean if we can play a diplomatic role to help cease the violence we should and if we can certainly help rebuild this country i think we have a moral obligation to do so because we are to par. well stocked up more on this with an expert on post-war iraq dirt every ensigns who joins me now from belgium thanks very much for joining us sir now we

in bakuba iraqi sunnis say they've been persecuted in marginalized ever since the fall of saddam hussein keith ellison is a u.s. congressman who believes that america must clean up the mess it created in iraq i think we have an obligation to stay engaged with iraq. diplomatically and developmentally. militarily quite honestly i don't i am i am not convinced that we can meaningful improvement to the situation with some point our role in iraq militarily needs to come to an inn and even if there is horrible military or of violence going on there i mean the question needs to be raised is our reengagement going to help i don't i doubt that seriously but what i think we do need to do is to remember that we helped create these conditions and we haven't are going obligation and you know we've got to make sure that i mean if we can play a diplomatic role to help seize the violence we should and if we can certainly help rebuild this country i think we have a moral obligation to do so because we are part one expert on post-war iraq told our t. that some nations are trying to use the sectarian divis

high profile pakistani politician has been shot dead in the city of karachi zora shahid hussein was a member of pakistan's movement for justice one of the country's main parliamentary parties she was shot by two unidentified gunmen outside her home and died while being taken to a hospital killing comes on the eve of a controversial the run of the recent general election last saturday's poll of the bloodiest in the country's history with over one hundred politicians killed in the run up to the vote. in ukraine thousands of protesters have been demanding the release of the country's jailed former prime minister yulia timoshenko the strong rally in the capital kiev turned violent and at least ten people were injured a machine that was sentenced to seven years in prison in two thousand and eleven for abuse of office while signing a gas deal with russia two years earlier. in southern yemen at least four suspected terrorists have been killed and several others injured in a drone strike on a vehicle official said that the operation took place around dawn in the province there's been a dramat

in bakuba iraqi sunni say they've been persecuted and marginalized ever since the fall of saddam hussein if ellison is a u.s. congressman who believes america must clean up the mess that it created in iraq. have an obligation to stay engaged with iraq. diplomatically and developmentally. militarily quite honestly i don't i am i am not convinced that we can add meaningful improvement to the situation with some point our role in iraq militarily needs to come to an inn and even if there is horrible military by our of the violence going on there i mean the questions being raised is are reengagement going to help i doubt that seriously but what i think we do need to do is to remember that we'll create these conditions and we haven't are going obligation and you know we've got to make sure that i mean if we can play a diplomatic role to help cease the violence we should and if we can certainly help rebuild this country i think we have a moral obligation to do so because we are apart one expert on post-war iraq told r.t. that some nations are trying to use the sectarian divisions there to desta

torture and shelling both in public and behind prison walls which was also the case under saddam hussein but i think that by most measures the magnitude has been the u.s. in a worse in the last ten years and going forward the prospects look very grim i think that the united states government should be apologizing to the american people for the lies and especially to the iraqi people because of so much. death and injury that continues to take place because of and in the aftermath of the invasion occupation. millions of orthodox believe. in church ceremonies all around the world it's one of orthodox christianity is most important. the resurrection of jesus christ immense crowds of gathered at russia's main vigil at the cathedral of christ the savior in downtown moscow for celebrations there for us medina cancian of. price does freeze and that's the phrase our two dogs believers greet each other with the celebration continues early on saturday you believe. in the church of the holy sample in jerusalem and the fly is described by our two dogs believers as a miracle that happens alfre year on

higher and in 2012 they clearly think that iran was the big winner because iraq was defeated, saddam hussein was the biggest nemesis to iran was defeated and is now emboldened in the broader region. but it goes beyond that though. they see the role in what came which something here in the u.s. is a matter of saudi propaganda that the public opinion seems to think that iran is involved. whether it is or not the perception, this is what my mom used to tell me all the time. i wasn't doing anything. she said it doesn't matter people think you are doing something take a look at what you are doing. so it doesn't matter if it is real they say that it is real and the nail in the coffin and the public opinion is syria. the country's the has surveyed believe the role in iraq is now decidedly negative in their judgment of iran. so there was a gap at some point in the public opinion and the arab leadership. the leadership oppose iran and supported iran and the gap has now been he raced. that is something that whether one likes it or not as i said that the messaging come you have to pay attention to that

- and i remember clearly when it came time to make tough decisions, like on the removal of saddam hussein, his-- his-- his words were very comforting. he said, "son, i know how hard a decision it is for you. i have made a similar type of decision and god be with you." the relationship was not one of adviser to adviseee. the relationship was one of loving dad to his son who was giving it his all. >> rose: we continue with can saf who has a new book called "the savage" which includes his time at enron. >> i think we have lost our way in terms of recognizing we have to, number one, take care of the clients and they'll take care of us. without doing that we lose the trust we built up with them and that's one of the problems we have. as i travel around the world today, it's not like it used to be in the 70s when i would travel. if you were an american investment banker, everybody wants to follow you. now we're held in a little less high regard. >> rose: we conclude with pe, the tightrope artist. >> if you want for some reason it to be more solid, you take a little more of the end and you pass

with every to you when teen but included commercial of materials, earned an rewrite's and lots of hussein's i have a half he but that leads me to the fifth and final point* of the and nec corporation -- the from but we have secret meetings, private meetings come even those of commercial leaders like we did with the soviets. what we did and they will stop in richmond and they will say before the a great to us if they have not done anything and that is so way to achieve progress but your expertise with the commission to change sayings that mean says the owner i'd bet -- and not share who can reveal to them later. these are the it could negotiating principles was the principal cubby feel stronger at that point* and it is true we negotiated but the attacks us of the eden did hurt an ion and and but to negotiate after the weapons but it will be a much more difficult problem. and you think about the complexity of keeping the world safe. of the cold war but to get the idea of what we will face is the great avenue and there is a cause to get nuclear weapons the saudi, the turks and the egyptians, a

i think the hussein regime was a lot worse, but not just worse. by the time, 2002-2003, it was weaker in many respects. partly, this has got to do with how well they have a broad social basis. it fell in the same way, the social basis narrowed and kept narrowing to a smaller and smaller elite so that larger numbers of people were excluded from the regime, and they couldn't be contained within it. issaddam had terror. the means of terror were depleted. he lost his international respect, you know, previously, he had the support of cries like the united states, france, and so on. he lost all that. he lost any agreement with saudi arabia. he was isolated internationally and regionally. on top of that, a number of uprisings that proves the regime was not pop pew -- popular, and, of course, lost northern iraq, and basically is a kurdish state led, so i really think the regime was vastly weaker than it appeared to be, and the fact that they, the threat of war, they talked about we're going to release all the political prisoners or we're going to have a v

also, we had a reaction to the stories of saddam hussein gassing his own people, saddam hussein killing own people. and i think it was very human and very understandable that these stories just absolutely horrified us. and so the idea of hey, we can do something, we should do something i think was very appealing to people. and it also came after a decade -- i can remember in 1991 when we had the first gulf war, we relatively speaking, there weren't a lot of casualties in that for the united states. and i can remember the drumbeat throughout the '90s, the only mistake that the first bush administration made in iraq, in kuwait, was not finishing the job, not going into baghdad and taking out saddam hussein. it fed this idea in my mind that war was easy. >> and there was a concern we hadn't reacted in rwanda, hadn't acted fast enough in kosovo. there were things that were not easy but doable and didn't destabilize whole regions. you kind of carried that lesson into iraq where it turned out not to have any validity whatsoever. >> and there were successful interventions in the 1990s. >> righ

pops up on the screen and starts making the case of all the overwhelming evidence against saddam husseinidence that has since been thoroughly discredited ten years later in what's supposed to be a library is being taught as fact that saddam hussein was an imminent threat who must be dealt with unilaterally if necessary. so there is a certain shock value to the new bush library. but if the iraq war isn't exactly your thing if you want to relive the glory of another bush decision, the george w. bush library gives you the opportunity to do that. >> take a look at the list of scenarios in front of me. first, you will select which one you want to tackle. the majority of the theater chose hurricane katrina. >> yep, hurricane katrina. what is the decision point that the bush library asks you to confront when it comes to hurricane katrina? a disaster in which nearly 2,000 americans died, many in their own homes. what's the decision point that's laid before you at the bush library? >> officials in new orleans are overwhelmed. the president can send in troops, but those troops would serve in suppo

they did say there were red lines over iraq, and saddam hussein, being saddam hussein, crossed them. can't doubt their sincerity of desire to go to war. the weapons of mass destruction were overstated. they did in fact invade iraq. >> yeah, they were incapable of changing course in their predetermined desires of what to do, no matter what kind of information came their way, there wasn't any kind of intelligence that could derail them from where they were going in iraq. >> which is why exactly john mccain is saying we need to do it all over again. the outcome wasn't exactly what they planned. maybe the do over is the right thing. in all seriousness, what the president said was that his calculation would change. right now, the calculator in the president's brain is turning over in some random fashion. i tell you what has changed. what has changed the last couple days, israel has attacked targets inside syria without apparently losing any planes to syrian air defense. that is part of the calculation. one of the things the president learned from the disaster that was iraq, the disaster t

there was a no-fly zone in iraq after the 1991 gulf war, because sadaam hussein was intent on tryingcontinue to cleanse the north of the kurdish population. he committed terrible atrocities against the shia population in the wake of the iraq war. that experience in some ways certainly motivated paul wolfowitz and neoconservatives day said they needed to finish the job in iraq. in syria, the question then becomes, you start with the no- fly zone, but will it eventually turn into we have inherited another country, the 51st state again? host: a tweet -- presse associated reporting this morning with the headline -- guest: well, we could respond to the tweet. it is true, he did not specify what the consequences are, but it's a little bit like being on the playground and telling a bully if you keep taking this kids' lunch money, you're going to get it. and then when you do not think, you say i did not say what i meant. red line means there will be serious consequences. it is understood. don't have to spell it out. people understand the consequences of crossing. if you are iran, you are fea