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Report: Iraq Document Details Bin Laden Contacts (Reuters/Yahoo)
Reuters via Yahoo ^ | 25 June 04 | No byline

Posted on 06/25/2004 9:32:54 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraqi intelligence agents contacted Osama bin Laden when he was in Sudan in the mid-1990s as part of an effort by Baghdad to work with foes of the Saudi ruling family, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing a newly disclosed document.

U.S. officials described the document as an internal Iraqi intelligence report detailing efforts to seek cooperation with several Saudi opposition groups, the newspaper said.

The contacts described in the report came before bin Laden's al Qaeda organization had become a full-fledged terrorist group, the Times said.

The document states that Iraq agreed to rebroadcast anti-Saudi propaganda, and that a request from bin Laden to begin joint operations against foreign forces in Saudi Arabia went unanswered, the newspaper said. There was no further indication of collaboration, the Times said.

President Bush insists that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had a dangerous relationship with al Qaeda.

But the bipartisan commission probing the Sept. 11 attacks has said there was no evidence of a "collaborative relationship" even though there were contacts between Iraqis and al Qaeda, including a Sudan meeting between bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence officers.

The newspaper said the newly released document was obtained from the Iraqi National Congress as part of a trove that the exile group gathered after Saddam was toppled last year. Some of the intelligence provided by the group has been discredited.

A U.S. government task force studied the document and concluded it appeared authentic, the newspaper said.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaedaandiraq
Nah, Osama and Saddam would never let go of that old "Tastes great--Less filling" argument.
1 posted on 06/25/2004 9:32:54 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
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To: Mr. Silverback

Can't be. The NYSlimes says otherwise. /sarcasm


2 posted on 06/25/2004 9:39:34 AM PDT by BushisTheMan
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To: Mr. Silverback

So?


3 posted on 06/25/2004 9:41:14 AM PDT by agooga
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To: Mr. Silverback
Saddam's links with Al Qaeda are well known. The American media is pushing their heads more deeply into the sand every day.

Saddam's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons were smuggled out of Iraq via Syria: Iraq's WMD were smuggled all over the world as far away as Holland. Last month, the Canadia PM made the statement, "Saddam's WMDs are now in the hands of terrorists." Reports Here

I do not understand why the White House is not making statements like Canada's PM. Or, if high officials are making these arguments, U.S. news media reporters are ignoring their statements. ABC, SeeBS, NBC, and CNN are too focused on "abuse" of Iraqi prisoners to report this very disturbing news.

4 posted on 06/25/2004 9:46:57 AM PDT by ex-Texan
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To: Mr. Silverback

Nope, no relationship at all.

5 posted on 06/25/2004 9:47:44 AM PDT by TomB ("The terrorist wraps himself in the world's grievances to cloak his true motives." - S. Rushdie)
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To: Mr. Silverback

"But the bipartisan commission probing the Sept. 11 attacks has said there was no evidence of a "collaborative relationship" even though there were contacts between Iraqis and al Qaeda, including a Sudan meeting between bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence officers.{"

The commission said no collaborative relationship in relation to attacks on America, but reuters would never lie on purporse.


6 posted on 06/25/2004 9:50:24 AM PDT by Pikamax
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To: agooga

Do you mean "So?" as in "no big deal they're connected," as in "we knew that," as in "so what if the NYT admits it," what?


7 posted on 06/25/2004 9:56:15 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Get in the fight today: Freepmail me to get on your state's KerryTrack Ping list!)
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To: BushisTheMan

Actually, the Reuters report is based on the NYT finally admitting it. But I'll bet they put it on page 23.


8 posted on 06/25/2004 9:57:35 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Get in the fight today: Freepmail me to get on your state's KerryTrack Ping list!)
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To: BushisTheMan
It's The New York Slimes that had this document -- which it conveniently ignored while blasting Bush for saying there was a connection. Can you say journalistic malpractice? Dishonesty? Fraud? I knew you could.
9 posted on 06/25/2004 10:04:50 AM PDT by CatoRenasci (Ceterum Censeo Arabiam Esse Delendam -- Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit)
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To: Pikamax

Why do they keep quoting the "bipartisan commission" when they are actually quoting a staff report? Didn't Kean say that the commission was not involved in the staff reports? Kean and Hamilton have both been quoted as saying there are links, regardless of what the staff report says.


10 posted on 06/25/2004 10:29:45 AM PDT by ravingnutter
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To: Pikamax
I was correct:

Writing in today's Times on what he calls "The Zelikow Report," Safire takes aim at the newly issued staff report that dismissed out of hand any real connection between Iraq and al-Qaida, which led to a media broadside claiming it was a conclusion of the Commission itself, which it was not.

"'Panel Finds No Qaida-Iraq Tie' went the Times headline," Safire wrote. "'Al Qaida-Hussein Link Is Dismissed' front-paged The Washington Post. The A.P. led with the thrilling words 'Bluntly contradicting the Bush Administration, the commission. ... ' This understandably caused my editorial-page colleagues to draw the conclusion that 'there was never any evidence of a link between Iraq and al Qaida. ...'"

Thrilling but untrue, the columnist notes. It was not the judgment of the commissioners, but merely an assertion of the "runaway" staff headed by ex-N.S.C. [National Security Council] aide Philip Zelikow. "After Vice President Dick Cheney's outraged objection, the staff's sweeping conclusion was soon disavowed by both commission chairman Tom Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton," Safire reported.

"Yesterday, Governor Kean passed along this stunner about 'no collaborative relationship' to ABC's George Stephanopoulos: 'Members do not get involved in staff reports.'"

Safire: 9/11 Commission's Runaway Staff

11 posted on 06/25/2004 10:37:30 AM PDT by ravingnutter
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