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Bush confuses Saddam, Osama
19/12/2005 23:04 - (SA)
Washington - United States President George W Bush on Monday did for just one second what critics have accused him of doing for two years: Mixing up terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and ousted Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein.
The momentary slip of the tongue came as Bush defended his decision to order spying on US citizens without court warrants and assailed the leak that brought the controversial programme to light as "shameful".
"In the late 1990s, our government was following Osama bin Laden because he was using a certain type of telephone. And then the fact that we were following Osama bin Laden because he was using a certain type of telephone made it into the press as the result of a leak," he said.
"And guess what happened? Saddam - Osama bin Laden changed his behaviour. He began to change how he communicated. We're at war. And we must protect America's secrets," Bush said during a year's end press conference.
The US president has drawn fire for accusing Saddam's regime prior to the March 2003 invasion of having close ties with bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, which carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks. No collaborative links have been found.
- AFP
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