To the editor:

It seems many Kansans simply can’t handle the truth. Such is the case of Doug Nickel (Public Forum, June 21, “Bush background”). Doug reads the glossy headlines and “crawlers” of the New York Times, CNN, CBS and other partisan media affiliates, yet never bothers to get a full accounting. Doug and others can’t handle the fact that there were, indeed, links between al-Qaida and Iraq. Well Mr. Nickel, here are three examples of those links.

l 9-11 Commission chairman Thomas Kean, quote: “Were there contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq?” “Yes, no question.” 9-11 commission Co-chair Lee Hamilton, quote: “The vice president is saying, I think, that there were connections — we don’t disagree with that — just no credible evidence of Iraqi cooperation in the 9-11 attack.” (The administration never said there was a “direct collaboration” between Saddam, al-Qaida and Sept. 11.)

l A United Press International article quotes John Lehman, a member of the 9-11 commission, as saying documents captured in Iraq “indicate there is at least one officer of Saddam’s Fedayeen, who was a very prominent member in al-Qaida.”

l Russian President Vladimir Putin sent intelligence information stating emphatically that al-Qaida and Iraq were collaborating on a terrorist effort upon the United States.

It is good to see that the editorial staff actually investigates and digs, rather than using the headlines of their fellow journalists as fodder and propaganda for the left.

Maybe Doug and others need to read below “the fold” before writing letters in which they have no concrete evidence of what they write.

Robert M. Tyler,

Ozawkie