Major Address today

Gore speaks:

"Gore touched on many topics, but saved his sharpest critique for Bush's Iraq policies. He said evidence from the 9/11 commission and other reports shows the invasion of Iraq was Bush's first choice rather than his last.

Worst of all, Gore said, was that Bush and his Cabinet purposely created the false impression that Saddam Hussein was linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network and that the Iraqi leader was somehow to blame for the September 11, 2001, attacks -- a notion that 70 percent of the public once believed, according to polls.

'This was not an unfortunate misreading of the available evidence, causing a mistaken linkage between Iraq and al-Qaida,' Gore said. 'This was something else -- a willful choice to make a specific linkage whether evidence existed or not.'

The Republican National Committee dismissed Gore's criticism, saying, 'each time he speaks, Al Gore, like John Kerry, demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what it takes to protect America's homeland and win the war on terror.'"

You be the judge.