Free Republic

"Hear our cry, Obama." "Deliver us, Obama." Video at link.

PARIS (AFP) - Iran's exiled opposition movement said Thursday it had learned of two previously unknown sites in and near Tehran that are being used to build nuclear warheads. "Resistance sources have managed to uncover two centres that work directly on nuclear armaments and which were until now kept secret," Mehdi Abrihamtchi of the People's Mujahedeen told reporters in Paris, where his group is based. "They are places for research and production of detonation systems which is a major part of the mullah's atomic bomb project," he said, adding that his organisation had passed on the information to the UN...

This information was published during the time period when this website was non-functional due to technical (and financial) problems. In June 2008, a Kurdish newspaper published a 2002 Iraqi intelligence document where it discusses a plan to meet with Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command of Al-Qaeda, to discuss a “revenge operation” in Saudi Arabia called for by Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein killed more Arabs and Muslims than any other Middle Eastern leader in recent history. He committed genocide against the Kurds, launched wars of aggression against Iran and Kuwait, launched missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia, tortured innocents without compunction and imposed totalitarianism in Iraq. His regime brought unprecedented war, terror and misery to the region. Why, then, does the Butcher of Baghdad remain such a heroic figure to so many Arabs? Saddam Hussein, at the opening of his trial. Photo: AP [file] Two decades ago, famed historian Bernard Lewis wrote a prescient piece in The Wall Street Journal...

History-like hindsight-is supposed to be 20:20, but the deliberate partisan, political divide regarding the invasion of Iraq makes that hard. It's not a new phenomenon. Long ago it was said that the true story of a war can't be told until the last of its veterans has passed away, and only a few months ago did the last World War One veteran go to his great reward. For decades after the Civil War (and some would argue even today) the debate raged on, and the healing of Southern Reconstruction didn't really start culturally until the unity of the Spanish-American War...

History-like hindsight-is supposed to be 20:20, but the deliberate partisan, political divide regarding the invasion of Iraq makes that hard. It’s not a new phenomenon. Conspiracy theories-often fueled by politics-still rage over the 911 attacks and the invasion of Iraq. To that end, even if one believes the relationship between Iraq War and 911 attacks is a conspiracy theory, it’s worthwhile to examine if for no other reason than harvesting a better understanding.

Just as President Jacques Chirac was vehemently arguing against invading Iraq in late 2002, General Philippe Rondot wrote that he had been given the green light to "recover" top officials including Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister. Previously unseen extracts of Gen Rondot's private diaries were reprinted in the newspaper Libération. In a passage dated Dec 3, 2002, the general refers to an "agreement in principle to 'recover' if necessary Mr Aziz and Al-Rafai" – said to be a senior Ba'ath Party politician. The two men were believed to have been considered useful to the French while Gen Rondot knew Aziz...

I posted this Saddam regime document translation on September 9 2006 but in light of the Associated Press despicable act to publish a picture of a dying Marine Hero, I think it is worth reposting again to show what the despicable AP is really about. Document ISGQ-2005-00026108.pdf dated July 25 2000 is a report from an Iraqi Intelligence officer to different Iraqi Intelligence Directorates talking about information provided to them from a trusted source that works in the Associated Press (AP). The information is about the formation a newly formed UN weapons inspectors team called UNMOVIC. Translation of page 4...

An Aids-awareness advert depicting Adolf Hitler having unprotected sex has been condemned by mainstream health charities for stigmatising people infected with the virus. The provocative commercial, which ends with the tag-line "AIDS is a mass murder", aims to scare young people into using condoms by associating the deadly disease with the German dictator. But what appears to be a typical, if steamy, advert for perfume or underwear takes a macabre twist when the camera pans to man's face at the moment of climax - revealing him to be Adolf Hitler. "Of course there are many HIV organisations that run their...

Aseel Kami, recently reported for Reuters that some officials in the current Iraqi government are making a push for the return of millions of Saddam Hussein-era Iraq documents (previously the subject of Congressional inquiries and public controversy) that were seized by the U.S. government and other non-government entities following the former regime's fall in 2003. Kami wrote: The files include intelligence papers on Iraqis kept by Saddam Hussein's feared secret police, information on weapons arsenals, detailed plans of massacres of the regime's enemies and even tapes of songs praising Saddam, officials said. Some of these files have been made public...

Assertions relating to the Saddam Hussein/al-Qaeda controversy have filled countless news articles and books and cannot be completely recapped and answered in a few articles. But despite all of the ink and bandwidth spent on the topic, there are additional questions yet to be fully explored in the eyes of many. When one attempts to dig on questions, such as what meetings actually took place between Saddam Hussein’s regime and al-Qaeda members — where they took place and when, and what was discussed — the CIA emerges as one of, if not the major, intelligence players involved in public discussion...

Assertions relating to the Saddam Hussein/al-Qaeda controversy have filled countless news articles and books and cannot be completely recapped and answered in a few articles. But despite all of the ink and bandwidth spent on the topic, there are additional questions yet to be fully explored in the eyes of many. When one attempts to dig on questions, such as what meetings actually took place between Saddam Hussein’s regime and al-Qaeda members — where they took place and when, and what was discussed — the CIA emerges as one of, if not the major, intelligence players involved in public discussion...

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be asked to testify to a panel investigating the Iraq war, the head of the inquiry said Thursday. Former civil servant John Chilcot said the inquiry, set up by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, would look at British involvement in the war, covering the period from the summer of 2001 to the end of July this year. "The people we invite to give evidence will be those we judge ... are best placed to supply the information we need to conduct our task thoroughly," the inquiry chairman told a news conference....

Saddam Hussein spent billions building dozens of vast, gaudy palaces all over Iraq, many of which are still occupied by US troops. But the Iraqi government is divided - as usual - on what to do with them once the soldiers have gone... [snip] ...‘For sale/rent: 80 presidential palaces, average unit living space half-a-million square feet. Attached gardens featuring disused swimming pools, personal zoos/nuclear bunkers etc. Rooms fitted with thrones and gold lavatories, en suite torture chamber optional. Some bomb damage. Suit megalomaniac or similar.’

Deposed Iraqi leader was armed with the pistol when Delta Force troops captured him in 2003 George Bush is not a man who does irony. It's not in his personal vocabulary. Take the exquisite irony behind the story of Saddam Hussein's gun. The weapon, a 9mm Glock 18C, was discovered by Delta Force special troops when they dug Hussein out of his fox hole outside Tikrit on 13 December 2003. The legendary beast of Baghdad emerged from the 8ft-deep hole bewildered and disorientated; with his shaggy beard and unkempt mop of hair he looked closer to a dishevelled elf than...

This is one of those articles that I really REALLY hope people will read before just commenting on the headline or the quoted sections. In fact, I think it's one of the best articles I've seen on this subject in half a decade. Yes, it's long, detailed, and forces many readers to question their previously held beliefs about regime ties to the Al Queda terrorist network, but it's not the typical anti-Bush/anti-war piece or a woohoo-Bush-was-right piece either. It is EXACTLY why: members of the 911 Commission, Sen Intel Com, as well as others (and why every investigation into the...

(Moderator note: comments for www.regimeofterror.com are now activated at the end of each post)During a series of email and telephone exchanges Matthew Degn relayed to www.regimeofterror.com his vast array of experiences working with intelligence issues relating to the current and former situation in Iraq. Among his responsibilities during his years in Iraq Degn worked as a civilian interrogator attached to the U.S. Army in Iraq before working as a Senior Policy/Intelligence Adviser to Deputy General Kamal and other top intelligence officials with the Iraq's Ministry of Interior. Degn, currently working on a book about his experiences in Iraq (personal website...

Many American presidents have kept prized possessions within reach during their White House years. Franklin D. Roosevelt cherished a 19th century ship model of the U.S.S. Constitution. One of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s favorite gifts was an engraved Steuben glass bowl from his cabinet. And sitting on John F. Kennedy’s desk in the Oval Office was a paperweight made from a coconut shell he had carved with a distress message after his PT-109 was sunk during World War II.

The most exciting and underreported news of the past few weeks in Iran has been that the emerging challenger to the increasingly frantic and isolated "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. And Rafsanjani has recently made a visit to the city of Najaf in Iraq to confer with Ayatollah Ali Husaini Sistani, a long-standing opponent of the Khamenei doctrines, as well as meeting in the city of Qum with Jawad al-Shahristani, who is Sistani's representative in Iran. It is this dialectic between Iraqi and Iranian Shiites that underlies the flabbergasting statement issued from Qum...

Not only is this old news, but it’s old news I’ve written about multiple times. Why cover it again? Because: It can’t be stressed enough that as bad as the current nuclear standoff with Iran is, it could have been that much worse if a certain nutjob wild card was still part of the international deck. Hussein’s fear of Iran, which he said he considered a greater threat than the United States, featured prominently in the discussion about weapons of mass destruction. Iran and Iraq had fought a grinding eight-year war in the 1980s, and Hussein said he was convinced...

The farm where Saddam Hussein hid from U.S. forces before he was captured in December 2003 was familiar ground for the Iraqi dictator: It was the same place, he told an FBI agent, where he sought refuge 44 years earlier after taking part in a failed attempt to kill Iraq's president. Saddam also told the U.S. official that he had used telephones only twice in the last 14 years, and moved his locations daily. With troops closing in on him, Saddam returned to the farm outside Tikrit where he hid in 1959 after joining in a failed bid to assassinate...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saddam Hussein believed Iran was a significant threat to Iraq and left open the possibility that he had weapons of mass destruction rather than appear vulnerable, according to declassified FBI documents on interrogations of the former Iraqi leader. "Hussein believed that Iraq could not appear weak to its enemies, especially Iran," FBI special agent George Piro wrote on notes of a conversation with Saddam in June 2004 about weapons of mass destruction. He believed Iraq was being threatened by others in the region and must appear able to defend itself, the report said. The FBI reports, released...

It has been confirmed across the board that 18-wheelers were seen going into Syria before the war, crossing the border soon after Iraqi intelligence replaced the border guards and cleared nearby areas for their passage. There are also eyewitness reports of the trucks going into Syria, and eyewitness reports of their burial in Lebanon. The trucks with the weapons were tracked to three locations in Syria and Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, currently controlled by the Syrians, Iranians, and Hezbollah. Sources I've spoken with that have seen satellite photos of the movements confirm that the WMD in Syria are at military bases,...

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein told an FBI interviewer before he was hanged that he led the world to believe that his country had weapons of mass destruction because he did not want to appear weak to the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to declassified FBI documents released Wednesday. Hussein was quoted as saying that he was so concerned about radical Iranian leaders that he was ready to sign a security agreement with the United States guaranteeing protection from Iran.... Hussein also referred to Osama Bin Laden as a "zealot" and said that he did not deal with al-Qaida....

( The media and the democrats knew all along Saddam had WMD...we sent an engraved invite we were coming three months in advance, of course he moved his WMD to Syria----but the bloodthirsty "Bush Lied" chorus was allowed to perpetuate to destroy Bush) Secret U.S. mission hauls uranium from Iraq Last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear efforts arrives in Canada updated 6:57 p.m. ET, Sat., July 5, 2008 The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a...

After repeated questioning about links to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden Saddam Hussein admitted meetings between the two (after initial denials) but said his regime denied al Qaeda's requests for support reportedly due to such vastly differing ideologies. Below is a summary of one of FBI agent George Piro's question and answer sessions. In this June 28, 2004 document Hussein said his country did not support the group because the U.S. was not his enemy. He previously indicated the exact opposite, that the U.S. was his enemy as mentioned in Saddam Hussein's FBI interview and in other private and...

James Gordon Meek of the New York Daily News has posted two recent stories based on documents he obtained through FOIA on the FBI's interview of Saddam Hussein. Meek says that, according to the documents, Saddam denied links to al Qaeda just as he did prior to the invasion and the Baath party recently denied again on their website. In one of the documented interviews Hussein referred to America as his enemy and in another interview discussed Iraq's relationship with, and level of support for anti-Israel groups linked with Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas, who he referred to as "guests."

NEW YORK — An FBI official says a notorious terrorist suspected of aiding the insurgency in Iraq will be added to the agency's list of its most wanted terrorists. The official said Monday that an FBI committee recommended this month that 73-year-old Palestinian Abu Ibrahim be placed on the list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision wasn't official. An investigation by The Associated Press had revealed the terrorist was still alive and had fled to Syria. Ibrahim has been indicted in the 1982 bombing of Pam Am Flight 830. The explosion killed a 16-year-old boy and...

Some sick designer went and equated GW to some of the greatest tyrants of the past 100 years. click here to read more

I redid my video due to the sound being pulled off my original Youtube video. This video contains info on Salman Pak. This Saddam/Iraq-Al Qaeda connection was not made easily available by the Mainstream Press, Democrats or 911 Commission. Please share it

Former Vice President Dick Cheney says there was “never any evidence” that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq played any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. “On the question of whether or not Iraq was involved in 9/11, there was never any evidence to prove that,” Cheney said during an interview Monday night with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. “There was some reporting early on, for example, that Mohammed Atta had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official,” Cheney said. “But that was never borne out.” In a 2003 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Cheney...

Over the past many months a number of interviews, documents, admissions and other revelations have come to light that continue to undermine the notion that al Qaeda and al Qaeda linked groups were not able to operate inside Iraq during the rule of Saddam Hussein. These findings match up with some of the older and overlooked reports on the hotly contested that may now deserve re-examination. A study by The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point of al Qaeda documents deemed the "Sinjar Records" indicates that al Qaeda was, in fact, able to operate inside the country during the rule...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Kurdish Mass Grave Discovered in Iraq The Iraqi Human Rights Ministry announced that a mass grave has been discovered in southern Najaf, containing the bodies of 3,000 Kurds murdered by the Saddam Hussein regime. It should be noted that about 100,000 Kurds were murdered by this regime, and that, even six years after its fall, the bodies of thousands of murdered civilians remain undiscovered. In Najaf alone, 48 mass graves have been found. Source: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), May 17, 2009. Posted at: 2009-05-17

Maybe now that President Obama’s in charge of the war in Iraq, and there’s no need to lie, distort, or half quote truths to oppose the war (can’t oppose it if it’s run by a Democrat)…maybe now people will realize: 1) the matter was never closed by any investigation 2) there’s hundreds of times more information demonstrating ties than there is dismissing them BAGHDAD — The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said Al Qaida worked closely with former operatives in Saddam Hussein regime. Officials said leading members of the Al Qaida network have coordinated operations with Saddam...

Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki had to flee from Iraq in 1979 to escape Saddam's henchmen Thursday, 30 April 2009 Nouri al-Maliki fled Iraq in 1979 to escape Saddam's henchmen, who he believed had orders to execute him. For the next 24 years, Maliki remained an exiled dissident, travelling between Jordan, Syria, Iran and Damascus - all the time raising political opposition to the immovable dictator he despised. Maliki was an establishment child in pre-Saddam Iraq. His grandfather was a poet and Shia Islamic cleric as well as education minister for a short time under the nation's last deposed monarch....

The war in Iraq is no longer a good political football for Democrats (they opposed it in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and in 2009 got power/responsibility so they support it now). Apparently that makes it ok for even the New York Times to admit that YES, Saddam's regime (albeit in exile) is working directly, cooperationally, operationally with Al Queda groups-groups that even Democrats admit were in Iraq before the invasion. "In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation on Monday, Mr. Maliki said all of the recent attacks had resulted from coordination between Qaeda militants and elements...

Earlier this week an article by Jonathan Landay was published by the failing McClatchy Newspapers. The article asserted that innumerable people had been tortured with the intent and purpose of proving a tie between Saddam Hussein’s regime and the Al Queda network of terrorist groups. The article asserted that there never were any ties between the two, and that the torturing of captured Al Queda terrorists was done largely to create a fictional narrative that would support the case for invading Iraq (let’s ignore that the alleged “torture” happened AFTER the invasion of Iraq-just as was done in the article)....

But what to do now? Exactly what the U.S. could have done before: recognize the cease-fire as a false peace, present the Iraqi Army with an ultimatum -- to get rid of Saddam Hussein or the U.S. will resume the air attack on military targets and every high officer will be tried for war crimes. With the killer gone, Iraqis can be left to their own political settlements. The only duty of the U.S. is to allow those who trusted us to return to their homes, free of terror. But to do that, Mr. Bush must show true strength --...

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park, were given a signed photo of Saddam Hussein by US marines after the former Iraqi leader was shown their movie in prison. During his captivity, US marines forced Saddam, who was executed in 2006, to repeatedly watch the move South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, which shows him as gay, as well as the boyfriend of Satan. He was also regularly depicted in a similar manner during the TV series. The admission comes with the show's 13th season already running in the US. It will celebrate its 12th anniversary later...

Spend your wedding night in Saddam's bed for 150 pounds! Looking for an exotic honeymoon destination? Well, try out war-ravaged Iraq where you can have sex in Saddam Hussein's bed for just 150 pounds per night. Yes, it may sound a little awkward, but Iraq is offering newlyweds the chance to spend their wedding night in the former dictator's bedroom in his palatial boudoir in the town of Hillah, some 60 miles south of capital Baghdad. "We hope that many people will visit," leading British newspaper 'The Sunday Times' quoted a tourism official in the battle-scarred town as saying. With...

By way of both the Gateway Pundit and Black Five, I came across this Fox News report: An Iraqi translator who has earned commendations for risking his life repeatedly to save the lives of many American soldiers in combat has been denied a visa to live in the United States because of nonviolent actions he took to overthrow Saddam Hussein — at the same time the U.S. government was calling for regime change in Iraq. Jasim, whose name is being withheld for his safety, has received strong support from the U.S. military, and the Department of Homeland Security approved his...

I'm not sure what to think about all this. On the one hand, extending an olive branch to the Baath Party may help to continue the healing process in Iraq. On the other hand, extending an olive branch to the Baath Party may help to incite violence and a renewal of extremism. Just last December, 35 former Baathists were arrested for conspiring to reconstitute the party of Saddam. Perhaps, moderate Baathists can be viewed like "moderate Taliban" -- it's an illogical oxymoron. Al Jazeera reports: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's latest call for reconciliation with members of the former regime came...

During the presidential debate, Obama said that Iraq was a dumb war, then ten minutes later he said we should use military force to stop genocide because we have a moral imperative to do so. Mr. President, please take a look at this recent video about a museum the Iraqi people are building in remembrance of Saddam.

BAGHDAD — Tariq Aziz, the senior aide to Saddam Hussein who gained international renown as the public face of Iraq during the Persian Gulf war in 1991, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for crimes against humanity. It is the second verdict to be issued in a case involving Mr. Aziz, 73. Earlier this month he was acquitted on charges of ordering a brutal crackdown against Shiite protesters after the assassination of a revered cleric. He still faces charges in a third trial involving a massacre of Kurds in 1983. Two of Mr. Hussein’s half brothers, Watban...

Iraq's former deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and Saddam Hussein's hatchetman "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majid have been sentenced to 15 years in jail for crimes against humanity. Aziz and Majid, and six other defendants who were charged over the 1992 murders of 42 Baghdad traders, could have been sentenced to death.

Tariq Aziz guilty of Iraq murders Aziz surrendered to US troops in 2003 Tariq Aziz, for many years the public face of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime, has been jailed for 15 years for his role in the execution of 42 merchants. Aziz had denied any role in the summary trials of the men accused in 1992 of profiteering during economic sanctions. Two of Saddam Hussein's half-brothers were also found guilty and sentenced to death by a court in Baghdad. Another top official, Ali Hassan al-Majid - commonly known as Chemical Ali - was jailed for 15 years. Two other Iraqi...

Iraq's special criminal court Monday acquitted Tariq Aziz, the man who once served as the urbane, cigar-smoking public face of Saddam Hussein's rule, delivering the most significant not-guilty verdict in a series of prosecutions for crimes against humanity that occurred before the U.S. invasion in 2003. Aziz, who will turn 73 next month, remained in custody, facing charges in two other cases. Only hours after his acquittal, he appeared before another judge to defend himself against charges that he was involved in a massacre of Kurds in 1983. Even so, the verdict - the first in a case against him...

U.S. To Help Rebuild City Of Babylon In Iraq By Joel C. Rosenberg Largely overlooked by the Western news media over the past few weeks was an enormously significant story. The government of Iraq is moving forward with plans to protect the archaeological remains of the ancient City of Babylon, in preparation for building a modern city of Babylon. The project, originally started by the late Saddam Hussein, is aimed eventually at attracting scores of "cultural tourists" from all over the world to see the glories of Mesopotamia's most famous city. What's more, the Obama Administration is contributing $700,000 towards...

When an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at George W. Bush last month at a Baghdad press conference, the attack spawned a flood of Web quips, political satire and street rallies across the Arab world. Now it's inspired a work of art. A sofa-sized sculpture , a single copper-coated shoe on a stand carved to resemble flowing cloth was formally unveiled to the public Thursday in the hometown of the late Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein.

International News Saddam Has Tested Nuclear Weaponby Gwynne Robers, London Sunday Times - 02/25/2001Posted: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 11:07 am CST On a visit to northern Iraq, Gwynne Roberts stumbled on a trail of compelling evidence that the 'Butcher of Baghdad' has successfully tested a nuclear bomb. Could he really have hoodwinked the West? Was this Saddam's bomb? The mysterious visitor emerged from the shadows outside my hotel in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq, just as a crisis between Washington and Baghdad was reaching a climax in January 1998. His appearance set alarm bells ringing. Several westerners had recently been ...