God told Bush to invade Iraq, Afghanistan, BBC claims

US President George W. Bush allegedly said God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, a new BBC documentary will reveal, according to reports.

Bush made the claim when he met Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and then foreign minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003, the ministers told the documentary series to be broadcast in Britain later this month.

The US leader also told them he had been ordered by God to create a Palestinian state, the ministers said.

Shaath, now the Palestinian information minister, said: " President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God.

'God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan'.'

"And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq...' And I did.

"And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God I'm gonna do it'," said Shaath.

Abbas, who was also at the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, recalled how the president told him: "I have a moral and religious obligation...So I will get you a Palestinian state."

The series is due to be screened in Britain on October 10, 17 and 24.

The White House has denied such reports.

"That's absurd. He's never made such comments," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Thursday.

Ten plots thwarted

In a speech designed to revive flagging public support for the war in Iraq, the president said the United States and its allies had foiled at least 10 serious plots by the al-Qaida terror network in the last four years, including plans for September 11-like attacks on both US coasts.

He also said the US and its partners have stopped at least five more efforts by al-Qaida to case targets or infiltrate operatives in the United States.

"Because of this steady progress, the enemy is wounded, but the enemy is still capable of global operations," Bush said. "Our commitment is clear: We will not relent until the organized international terror networks are exposed and broken, and their leaders held to account for their acts of murder."

Bush said Islamic radicals are seeking to establish a "radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia" with Iraq serving as the main front. He singled out Iran and Syria as "allies of convenience" for Islamic radicalism.

Pentagon officials released a letter on Thursday evening they said was written from one terrorist leader to another that they said confirmed administration assertions that Iraqi insurgents have a detailed plan to force US withdrawal from Iraq and create an Islamic state there.

The White House released a fact sheet with a brief, and vague, description of each.

Three targets cited were in the United States, including plans to use hijacked airplanes to attack the West Coast in mid-2002 and the East Coast in mid-2003. The White House said at least one planner of the West Coast attack was a key figure behind the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

The third was the case of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who converted to Islam and allegedly plotted with top al-Qaida commanders to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a US city. Padilla, whose plot never materialized, was designated an enemy combatant by Bush and is being held without criminal charge at a Navy brig in South Carolina.

The White House said the other seven attacks included plans to:

Bomb several sites in Britain in mid-2004.

Attack Westerners at several places in Karachi, Pakistan, in spring 2003.

Attack Heathrow Airport using hijacked commercial airliners in 2003.

Carry out a large-scale bombing in Britain in spring 2004.

Attack ships in the Arabian Gulf in late 2002/2003.

Attack ships in the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow part of the Persian Gulf where it opens into the Arabian Sea, in 2002.

Attack a tourist site outside the United States in 2003.

Source: China Daily