SHAZAM! Al Qaeda connections in Iraq?
Gollollieeee
Suprize, Surprize, Surprize...NOT
Posted on 04/26/2003 4:27:31 PM PDT by sourcery
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper said it had discovered documents showing Iraqi intelligence hosted an envoy from Osama bin Laden in 1998 and sought to meet the alleged September 11 mastermind in person. The finding, if verified, would appear to support Washington's assertion of links between ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and bin Laden, one of the justifications for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The paper said the documents, which its correspondent found in the wrecked headquarters of the Iraqi Mukhabarat intelligence service, showed Iraq brought a bin Laden aide to Baghdad in early 1998 from his former base in Sudan to arrange closer ties.
Iraqi officials sought to have the envoy pass on a verbal message setting up a direct meeting with bin Laden, the paper said.
The 1998 visit described in the documents would have taken place before bin Laden became a household name in the West, when Washington blamed him for the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa later that year.
According to the Telegraph, bin Laden's name had been concealed in several places on the Iraqi documents with white correction fluid. Its correspondent scraped the fluid off with a razor to uncover the name.
In one document quoted by the paper an Iraqi official wrote: "We suggest permission to call the Khartoum station (Iraq's intelligence office in Sudan) to facilitate the travel arrangements for the above-mentioned person to Iraq.
"And that our body carry all the travel and hotel costs inside Iraq to gain the knowledge of the message from bin Laden and to convey to his envoy an oral message from us to bin Laden."
A handwritten note on the same page said the letter had been passed on to the deputy director general of the intelligence service, recommending that he "bring the envoy to Iraq because we may find in this envoy a way to maintain contacts with Iraq."
The documents do not make clear whether the hoped-for meeting between Iraqi officials and bin Laden took place.
Before the war, Saddam's government repeatedly denied any links with bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
SHAZAM! I have to go consult the Dixie Twits about this. I mean if you can't believe a washed-up naked country singer who can you believe.
Career advice to the three bimbos--learn how to say "Hi Sailor" or "Would you like fries with that?"
Barbra's Thoughts, Posted on March 26, 2003
"The first casualty when war comes, is truth." Senator Hiram Johnson 1917Bush and his Administration appear to operate under two related principles: (1) regardless of fact, if we say it enough times, the American people will believe us and (2) if we say something, you just have to trust us that it’s true, forget proof and logic.
Unfortunately, with regard to the first principle he is right. He found this to be the case with his domestic policy and it seems to be true in foreign affairs as well.
Take his repeated assertion of a connection between Saddam Hussein and September 11. Despite the fact that he and others have yet to offer any proof, a recent poll of Americans, shows that about half believe there is a connection between Saddam and 9-11. Why wait for an accurate intelligence report?
All Bush had to do was repeat Saddam Hussein and 9-11 in the same sentence over and over again – and then wait while the media reported his statements without analysis, and millions of Americans accepted it without question.
Who cares about the facts and truth?
We should.
Yet we keep kissing the Saudi feet even though it was found that Prine Bandar's wife was a clandestine supporter of Al Qaeda. There are some strange friends involved in terrorism and the response to them, by people who should know better. Our intelligence is out to lunch or being ignored.
Maybe our intelligence knows something, that we don't know, about our relationship with Saudi Arabia.
This chubby crooner with a nose like a parrot should be subjected to a public caning in Times Square. Talk about high ratings TV. I would pay to see that.
Regular rocket scientists, these guys.
Sarandon plans to act up before State of the Union
WASHINGTON - Just before President Bush delivers his State of the Union address tonight, activist actress Susan Sarandon plans to upstage him."Before our kids start coming home from Iraq in body bags and women and children start dying in Baghdad, I need to know, 'What did Iraq do to us?'" the 56-year-old New Yorker asks in a 30-second television spot that will air just before the 9 p.m. speech.
Edward Peck, a former ambassador to Iraq, tells her in the bit: "The answer is nothing. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, nothing to do with Al Qaeda. ... Invading Iraq will increase terrorism, not reduce it."
The White House has signaled it may soon lay out evidence proving him wrong.
The spot is being paid for by an anti-war group called True Majority, run by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's ice cream fame. It urges Bush to seek a peaceful resolution and to allow the inspections to continue.
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