Former New York Gove. Mario Cuomo charged Wednesday that President Bush made Saddam Hussein the U.S.'s No. l target in the war on terror in part because his family had business dealings with relatives of Osama bin Laden.
On hand to discuss the 2004 presidential election at a 21 Club breakfast with a panel of guests that included "60 Minutes" correspondent Leslie Stahl, radio host Monica Crowley, Democratic consultant Robert Zimmerman and commentator Bay Buchanan, Cuomo excoriated Bush for mishandling both the economy and the war on terror, complaining at one point:
"Who's winning the war on terrorism? The whole world is mad at us."
Then, addressing Bush in absentia, the former New York governor railed:
"You killed 60,000 Iraqis - most of them innocent - to start that war in Iraq. You lost 1,000 American men and women to start that war in Iraq - when the real war on terrorism was against Osama bin Laden, something that you knew well, whose family you had dealt with in Saudi Arabia."
Sounding eager to rejoin the political battle, the retired Democratic Party elder statesman continued to blast Bush:
"You left that battle and left al Qaeda there to fight a tyrant who was a pushover for us. And you're going to tell me you think the war on terror was a good thing?"
Asked to explain his claim that President Bush had dealings with the bin Ladens, Cuomo cited a New York Times report that noted that both Bush's father and members of bin Laden's family belonged to the Carlyle Group, a global investment company.
"The story astonished me," Cuomo said. "There's no question that Osama bin Laden's family was invested in Carlyle, Carlyle was invested in Mideast oil and everybody knows it. And so was the first president Bush."
Editor's note:
"CATASTROPHE" Reveals Bill Clinton’s Role in 9/11 - Click Here to find out more
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