CASE CLOSED (Osama-Saddam Link Proved in Intel Cmte Brief)

Weekly Standard ^ | Nov 14, 2003 | Stephen Hayes

[Paul Atreides]

The left will just say that W falsified the info.

[deadhead]

"An opening volley in campaign 2004."

Read and bookmarked. Thanks for the ping

[RobFromGa]

I would imagine that President Bush is holding quite a bit of information that he would like to use to defend himself, but he will not jeopardize the lives of our soldiers by revealing the information. I hope this leak doesn't hurt.

[Monti Cello]

KA-BOOM!

Time to start recalling who's been telling us that these connections were simply ludicrous because Saddam was a secular dictator and OBL a religious fanatic.

Here are a few pre-2000 links, some excerpted in the main article.

2/6/1999 The UK Guardian The Western nightmare: Saddam and Bin Laden versus the world
At the head of the group was a man by the name of Farouk Hijazi, President Saddam Hussein's new ambassador to Turkey and one of Iraq's most senior intelligence officers. He had been sent on one of the most important assignments of his career - to recruit Osama bin Laden.

Thus the world's most notorious pariah state, armed with its half-built hoard of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, tried to embrace the planet's most prolific terrorist. It was the stuff of the West's millennial nightmares, but United States intelligence officials are positive that the meeting took place, although they admit that they have no idea what happened.

1/11/1999 Newsweek
Here's what is known so far: Saddam Hussein, who has a long record of supporting terrorism, is trying to rebuild his intelligence network overseas--assets that would allow him to establish a terrorism network. U.S. sources say he is reaching out to Islamic terrorists, including some who may be linked to Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi exile accused of masterminding the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa last summer. U.S. intelligence has had reports of contacts between low-level agents. Saddam and bin Laden have interests--and enemies--in common. Both men want U.S. military forces out of Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden has been calling for all-out war on Americans, using as his main pretext Washington's role in bombing and boycotting Iraq. Now bin Laden is engaged in something of a public-relations offensive, having granted recent interviews, one for NEWSWEEK (following story). He says "any American who pays taxes to his government" is a legitimate target.

Saddam's terrorism capability is still small-time, according to senior U.S. officials. "He's nowhere close to the level of the Iranians or Hizbullah," says one. But terrorism may be Iraq's growth industry. An Arab intelligence officer who knows Saddam personally and stays in touch with his clandestine services predicts that "very soon you will be witnessing large-scale terrorist activity run by the Iraqis." The attacks, he says, would be aimed at American and British targets in the Islamic world. Washington is somewhat skeptical, but this source says plans have already been put into action under three "false flags": one Palestinian, one Iranian and one "the al-Qaeda apparatus," the loose collection of terrorists who receive bin Laden's patronage. "All these organizations have representatives in Baghdad," says the Arab intelligence officer.

8/6/1999 National Press Club transcript with terrorism expert Yosef Bodansky
The other state that is rising up -- and I've elaborated a lot in the book about that -- is Iraq. Bin Laden has been dealing with Iraq intelligence since the early 1990s, where they cooperated in Sudan and in Somalia. This has been a love-hate relationship because of the Iraqi secular policies and Saddam Hussein's disdain for Islamism and even persecution of Iraqi Islamists, including veterans of Afghanistan.

1999 Excerpt from terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky’s book, Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America.
Bin Laden moved to solidify the cooperation with Saddam Hussein. In mid-July (1998)*, Ayman al-Zawahiri traveled to Iraq clandestinely. He met senior Iraqi officials, including Taha Yassin Ramadan, to discuss practical modalities for the establishment of bin Laden’s base in Iraq, the expansion of training for his mujahideen, and a joint strategy for an anti-U.S. jihad throughout the Arab world and North Africa. Baghdad could not have been more helpful, conditioning its support on bin Laden’s promise not to incite the Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood into establishing and Islamic state in Iraq; in other words not to conspire against Saddam Hussein’s reign.

2/17/1999 Radio Free Europe
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein offered bin Laden asylum last month.
Middle East analyst Neil Partrick of the Royal United Services Institute in London told RFE/RL that the Iraqi ambassador to Turkey has met with bin Laden.

[tentmaker]

Does anybody have a collection of quotes from politicians and pundits that said this was not possible and a blatant lie?

[xzins]

If the Senate Dem's were privy to this, and Al Gore was privy to this, and the Clinton's were privy to this, THEN, they are all liars.

And not only that, since they knew this information existed, they are stupid liars.

[decibel]

This is truly disturbing. Our intelligence can't be this bad and fabricated. This is a blatant puff piece that could not get close to passing the rules of evidence. Are we this desperate?

[deport]

What is very distressing to me is that if this TOP SECRET memo is leaked this quickly (written October 27th) we have a very BIG problem in the Intelligence Committee, and the Senate and House.

---

Agree that there appears to be a big problem... But there was an origination point and a destination point.... so it could have been from either or maybe even somewhere else... But Oscam's razor would point where you said.

[Interesting Times]

"We?"

[spunkets]

bump

[Plutarch]

The Administration had best have a plan to get this information out there.

Linking Saddam and Bin Laden is better than WMD as a rationale for he war.

Just the other day I heard Dean tell Wolfe Blitzer that there was no evidence of al Qaeda involvement in Iraq. He and the other Dems need to eat those words.

[ChiliCheeseDog]

Did you see her on the Oprah Winfrey show?
I did not but I heard she was in top form....

She has to match her flowers outside to the inside decor or she must close the drapes.

She told a story about how she demanded a certain color of flower in a window box...her minions didn't put in the right flower. She kept the drapes shut. THe flower changed colors. She claims Deepak Chopra said that her will changed the color of the flowers....

[VOA]

This briefing was also provided to Rockefeller on the intell committee, yet he still
is looking for a way to slaughter the President over the handling of the Iraq War intelligence.

As long as Rockefeller will let Tony Snow expose him as a conniving liar...
I wish Rockefeller and his fellow-travelers all the luck!
(RE: Tony Snow's interview in which he handed Rockefeller his (the Senator's)
head. Figuratively, that is.)

[Paul Atreides]

I didn't see her, but I heard a little about it. I didn't hear what you just posted. If she wasn't such a rabid socialist, the media would portray her as a laughing stock. But, she parrots the DNC talking points, so she gets a pass.

[cwb]

It's great to have this out in the open and validated, but for several years, even the media had documented some of these very connections. If you go back and Google, you'll find articles from the mid to late 90's that have journalists making these connections (between Osama and Saddam). It has only been since the threat of war, that both the media and the Dems have ignored these stories. And don't think the Democrats don't know about this, as those on the select committees have access to some of these facts. It doesn't matter to them...they are out for blood. And they and their media conspirators will attempt to ignore this, as well.

[Angelus Errare]

Yet more clarification on what most of us already knew.

[TexKat]

Ping

[FairOpinion]

And just as Saddam's connection to Bin Laden and terrorism came out, details of his WMD will come out as well.

I bet we know more and found more about those too, than what they are able to say publicly.

[okie01]

"What is very distressing to me is that if this TOP SECRET memo is leaked this quickly (written October 27th) we have a very BIG problem in the Intelligence Committee, and the Senate and House."

Odds are that whoever leaked this report to the Weekly Standard also leaked the subversive Dem memo to Hannity.

It would not surprise me if the leaker isn't a committee staffer on the Dem side, who has become immune to the Kool-aid.

Nor would it surprise me that the leak was stimulated by the Democrats' failure to respond properly to the exposure of their blatent attempt to subvert the committee. And, secondarily, to make Carl Levin look like the partisan fool that he is.

One of the Democrat staffers has re-discovered that he is an American...and turned vigilante...

[swarthyguy]

Impossible. Hogwash. Everyones knows the secular Baathists and the Wahhhabi Jihadi International Islamic Front hate each other. They'd NEVER cooperate, not even against those they hate more than each other.

He.He