Why'd they do it?
Reported by Chrish - June 29, 2004 -
On June 28th's Fox News Live (3 pm EDT) Rick Fulbaum speculated that the Iraqi "handover" happened two days early to "surprise the terrorists, who a lot of people were saying were planning a full slate of terror attacks".
This speculation was repeated at 3:16 by Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute, who added that the terrorists may have wanted to steal the headlines of Iraq's happy day (with their presumed attacks). Republican Senator John Warner (VA) later (3:53) said that the early transfer may have saved lives.
Comment: Unless they heard from an official that this was the reason, to thwart feared terrorist attacks, this is not news, it's rumor-mongering. Perhaps it was done because after months of build-up the handover on the 30th would have been disappointingly anti-climactic and would make lousy television. Perhaps it was done to take attention from the astounding success of Fahrenheit 911 at the American box office. Perhaps it was done to get Bush's dismal performance at the Turkish summit off the front pages.
See, I can speculate too.
