"China tells Bush to face facts on Iraq"

www.iol.co.za

Beijing - American President George Bush needs to start facing the facts on Iraq instead of "playing with reality", Chinese state media chided Friday after an official panel found no evidence linking al-Qaeda with Saddam Hussein.

"The United States would do itself and the world a huge favour by establishing a closer relationship with reality rather than wrestling with its own version of the truth, as the international credibility of American military intelligence is simply of zero value," said the China Daily.

"The truth is the United States used the threat of Iraqi WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and a connection to al-Qaeda as justification for launching the war against the regime of Saddam Hussein."

Despite an official inquiry into the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks finding no credible evidence of operational ties between Saddam and al-Qaeda, Bush Thursday held fast to one of his justifications for going to war in Iraq.

"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al-Qaeda is because there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda," Bush told reporters.

The English-language China Daily, often used as tool by the government to get its point across, said the US administration had failed to produce evidence showing Saddam was going to give whatever WMD he possessed to terrorists, despite treating it as a proven fact.

"It is likely the Bush team will face more backlash both at home and abroad," it said.

China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, opposed the US-led war in Iraq.

From: www.iol.co.za

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