Posted on 12/04/2004 12:02:04 PM PST by kattracks
In what may be the most shocking news to emerge from the already stunning Oil for Food scandal, investigators say that Saddam Hussein bankrolled key al Qaida players in the late 1990s - a period of time when the terror group was planning the 9/11 attacks and the Iraqi dictator was ripping off billions from the U.N. program.
"Saddam had given $300,000 in cash to Ayman Al Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's number two man, in the spring of 1998," the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes told WABC Radio's Monica Crowley."It's likely that Saddam was giving some of his [Oil for Food] money to al Qaida."
In an eerie coincidence, an October 2001 estimate by the Justice Department put the entire cost of the 9/11 operation at $300,000.
While the inception of Iraq's financial relationship with al Qaida pre-dated the 1996 Oil for Food program, the U.N. jackpot enabled Saddam to become much more generous towards his terrorist allies in the years before 9/11.
Hayes said the total amount of Iraqi cash funneled into al Qaida reached into the "millions."
"Saddam had pretty strong ties to bin Laden when bin Laden was in Sudan," he said, based on what a former CIA counterrorism official had told him.
"He talked about this system of Saddam funneling money, usually cash payments, to a variety of al Qaida-linked Islamic terrorist groups," the Standard reporter said.
Freelance reporter Claudia Rosett, who singlehandedly broke the Oil for Food story last year, first broached the possibility of a U.N. connection to the 9/11 attacks in the Weekly Standard last August:
"By 1996, remember, bin Laden had been run out of Sudan, and seems to have been out of money. He needed a fresh bundle to rent Afghanistan from the Taliban, train recruits, expand al Qaida's global network, and launch what eventually became the 9/11 attacks.
"Meanwhile," Rosett continued, "over in Iraq about that same time, Saddam Hussein, after a lean stretch under United Nations sanctions, had just cut his Oil-for-Food deal with the U.N., and soon began exploiting that program to embezzle billions meant for relief."
Rosett noted that just prior to Saddam's $300,000 payment to Al Zawahiri in 1998, bin Laden issued a fatwa against the U.S. that included references to "the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people" as well as "the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance."
Do the Rats need more evidence to show why we went to Iraq?
Eerie....to say the least.....
If this is true, will the Congress FINALLY revoke the UN charter?
This is beyond maddening. I sincerely hope there is evidence to back this up.
Why isn't this information being broadcast on the major news networks? Oh yeah, now I remember....
IF this pans out, it seems to me that the U.N. warrants the same treatment as the Taliban.
Very little surprises me anymore, but my jaw dropped to the floor when I read the title to this thread.
I pray that this doesn't blow over. The ramifications are too vast.
The tentacles of Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Islamofascism, and the U.N. entwine and slither in places even the most ardent conspiracy theorists could never envision.
Mind-boggling.
__________________________________
_________________________________
 by David HorowitzHardcover - (September 2004) - $27.95 In this tour de force on the most important issue of our time, David Horowitz, confronts the paradox of how so many Americans, including the leadership of the Democratic Party, could turn against the War on Terror. He finds an answer in a political Left that shares a view of America as the “Great Satan” with America’s radical Islamic enemies.    |
We don't know about 9/11, but it is a safe bet that most of our military killed or wounded in Iraq came from munitions bought by the $oddomites after Desert Storm One.
Most of the money to buy these deadly munitions came from the Oil for Food scam.
Wait just a minute there. Didn't Thomas Keane and Dan whatisname, not to mention the John-boys, and a million or so instant media pundits, scold us all for even daring to think that maybe there was some connection between Saddam and AlQaeda?
And weren't we all accused of being stupid because some folks believed there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11?
Money is fungible. Even if Saddamn and OFF didn't fund 9-11 directly, the money he and it provided no doubt freed up other funds. Either way the people behind OFF need to be rounded up so that they can be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Ping. This is a biggie, if we get some solid evidence.
bump for a later more in depth read
And why didn't those geniuses on the 9-11 Commission say something about this...?
How deep does the pile have to get before people realize this?
Good there is another Horowitz fan on here. Is there a ping list for Horowitz posts? I heard him speak in October, the man is a genius.
Can John Kerry now explain again why he wanted UN approval for the invasion of Iraq? Excuse me Mr. Kerry....where are you??? Hello???
Why isn't this repeated more loudly on Fox News? Saddam was DEEPLY involved in 9/11.
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.