Posted on 07/30/2004 3:33:08 PM PDT by beebuster2000
The 9/11 Commission Report is extraordinarily well written, reads like a gripping novel and contains many startling and astounding revelations. Probably most of what you think you know about 9/11 and the 15 years of terror activity leading up to it is wrong.
But no documentation from the report is more astounding, or has been more mis-reported than the links between Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. After the media blitz, you are probably under the impression that “no ties existed”?
How wrong you are, according to the report. Here are a few quotes from the body of the report:
Page 66:
“In March 1998, after Bin Ladin’s public fatwa against the United States, two al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraq intelligence. In July, an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan to meet first with the Taliban and then with Bin Ladin. Sources reported that one, or perhaps both of these meetings was apparently arranged through Bin Ladin’s Egyptian deputy, Zawahiri, who had ties of his own to the Iraqis.”
Page 66:
“According to the reporting, Iraqi officials offered Bin Ladin a safe haven in Iraq. Bin Ladin declined, apparently judging that his circumstances in Afghanistan remained more favorable than the Iraqi alternative. The reports describe friendly contacts and indicate some common themes in both sides’ hatred of the United States.”
Page 128:
On November 4, 1998, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York unsealed its indictment of Bin Ladin, charging him with conspiracy to attack U.S. defense installations. The indictment also charged that al Qaeda had allied itself with Sudan, Iran, and Hezbollah. The original sealed indictment had added that al Qaeda had “reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq.” This passage led (Richard) Clarke, who for years had read intelligence reports on Iraqi-Sudanese cooperation on chemical weapons, to speculate to Berger that a large Iraqi presence at chemical facilities in Khartoum was “probably a direct result of the Iraq-Al Qaida agreement” Clarke added that VX precursor traces found near al Shifa were the “exact formula used by Iraq”.
The 9/11 report does say that “no evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out attacks against the United States (page 66)” were documented.
But given the voluminous reports of repetitive contact between Iraq and al Qaeda, wouldn’t any responsible and forceful President of the Untied States correctly conclude that action against both al Qaeda and Iraq was prudent. And wouldn’t a bold and courageous leader take such action if International bodies failed to heed the warning and disarm Iraq according to their own numerous resolutions?
Oh, I guess a President did take such action.
(Excerpt) Read more at 9-11commission.gov ...
pretty hard to imagine they'd let a little thing like Allah get between them, since it seems neither is particularly devoted to the concept...just devoted to the historical impact they could have upon the world...
the Hitler Syndrome...
bump for later
Superb reporting - I am linking to your stuff in my article here:
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com/2004/07/saddams-regime-and-al-qaeda.html
This has 911 plus more sources.
I read the 911 report too -
you got most of them, here are some more quotes/cites:
p60: Bin Laden sought the capability to kill on a mass scale [attempted to buy uranium, but were hoodwinked]
p 61:To protect his own ties with Iraq, Turabi brokered an agreement that Bin laden would stop supporting activities against Saddam ... In 2001, with Bin laden's help they [Kurdish extremists] reformed into an organization called ansar al-islam. There are indications that by then the Iraqi regime .. may even have helped Ansar Al islam against the Kurdish enemy.
(NOTE: There is plenty of evidence linking Iraqi intelligence to Ansar Al Islam. That linkage has served the insurgency, and Zarqawi is one of those links!)
p61: With Sudanese Govt acting as intermediary, Bin Laden himself met with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer in Khartoum in late 1994 and 1995. Bin Laden is said to ask for space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but there is no evidence that Iraq responded to this request.(55)
NOTE: This last comment is infuriating,because in the footnote they cite direct sources that DID claim those requests were fulfilled, in particular that a bomb-making expert met with bin laden in 1996 and trained them on bomb making techniques. This piece of intelligence was passed to the US in 1996. In the footnote they discount this piece of evidence because it was 2nd hand source and the timing of the meeting seems to contradict Bin laden's timeline of leaving sudan for Afghanistan. But it is infuriating to see 'no evidence' masking the very footnote that contains it!
"Another option is that Al Quaeda, as with Saddam's nest of spies throughout the Middle East, were very cautious about how much was committed to paper."
Yup. Of course. If they wanted openness they'd hire em directly. Terrorism is about the unseen hand and the masked face.
And *another* option is that we get sources and evidence sent to the CIA and they *ignore* the evidence that doesnt fit the theory.
911 Commision report, chapter 2, footnote 55.
They have sourced evidence that Iraq intelligence and bomb-making experts visited Sudan and trained Bin laden and Al Qaeda on bomb-making. They have claims about Iraq helping Al Qaeda from foreign intelligence reported to the CIA. What does the CIA and 911 Commission say about it?
"there is no evidence Iraq fulfilled this request"
ie
"no evidence this happened"
GRRR!!! WHAT?!?!
See my previous post they use 'no evidence' several places where it means: The evidence we saw doesnt fit the conclusions we wanted to reach, so we will pretend it doesnt exist.
They did that in several places where THEY DELIBERATELY UNDERSTATED LINKS BETWEEN SADDAM AND AL QAEDA. One example is their whitewash of the question of whether Iraq was involved in the 1993 WTC attack.
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com/2004/07/saddams-regime-and-al-qaeda.html
placemark
Excellent post!
Thanks for researching and reporting.
The phony wealth re-distributors in the Democratic Party are the photo op guys. The Bush administration let's INDIVIDUALS CONNECT THE DOTS. The connections are there. Iraq, the Democratic Party, journalists everywhere and Al-QAeda cooperated.
bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.