Senate Democrats Lie About Iraqi/al Qaeda Connection

The Infidel Sage Weblog ^ | 09-16-06 | DFV

[TheConservativeCitizen]

My fellow blogger and old college buddy DFV at Conclub provides us with the 'wise man speaketh' commentary of the day. My 2004 column An Alliance of Evil: Saddam and bin Laden covered much of the evidence linking the two in their Shadow wars against the United States and the West.

Here is a small excerpt from my column:

I believe the evidence points to a web of both cooperation and meetings between Saddam's Iraq, particularly the intelligence services as well as the Fedayeen, and various cells and allied groups of Al-Queda. There is no dispute that the Taliban-like Al Ansar Islam group in Northern Iraq provided safe haven for hundreds of Taliban and Al Queda fighters fleeing Afghanistan and were secretly armed and funded by Saddam Hussein. Dare I even mention the star treatment and medical treatment of al-Zarqawi while in Baghdad, as well as the organization of dozens of terrorist sleeper cells in Saddam's pre-invasion Iraq by the now infamous, beheading butcher and master terrorist? The agreement in the early nineties between Saddam and Al-Queda laid the groundwork for cooperation between the two against a common enemy. There is also a very strong probability that Iraqi agents and Al Queda terrorists assisted each other in multiple terrorist attacks in the years leading up to 9-11.

NOW ON TO DFV'S COMMENTARY OF THE DAY:

I just read the recently released report of the Senate Intelligence Committee. This is the one that caused Jay Rockefeller and Carl Levin to say that Bush lied about the Iraq-al Qaeda connection. As you guys well know, we have amassed amazing evidence of the connection, so I was intrigued as to what the Committee found that we had missed.

HA!

First, you should know that the Republicans on the committee angrily attacked the report and flatly declared that its conclusions were "contrary to known facts." This rarely happens on an Intelligence Committee report; usually they will compromise on the language and findings. But in this case the Democrats wanted to politicize the once-respected committee, so they forced it out over GOP objections. They were able to do so because Republican Chuck Hagel, an avowed enemy of the hawks in the administration, voted it out.

Okay, so their dramatic evidence that there was no connection? Well, they don't actually have any of that. Like the entire media, they focus exclusively on the alleged April 8, 2001 meeting between Atta and an Iraqi agent in Prague, and declare that there is no reason to conclude it occurred. Period. End of story.

Amazingly, they don't even address the two known Atta trips to Prague! Here's the rundown for those who have forgotten. Save it, and the next time a Democrat says there was no connection between the Iraqi regime and al Qaeda, make them go through this line by line.

First, the known Atta-in-Prague meetings. Keep in mind that every single one of these points is UNDISPUTED.

1. Atta flew to Prague from Hamburg on May 30, 2000. His requested visa wouldn't be available until May 31, but he apparently had to get there on the 30th and so he flew anyway, even though without a visa he couldn't leave the airport. He met at the airport with someone for 6 hours and then flew back home.

2.Three days later, Atta traveled again to Prague, this time by bus. He disappeared for 20 hours, and then reemerged at the airport to fly to the United States.

3. Immediately after these days in Prague, large sums of money began to flow to the 9/11 conspirators.

4. Stationed at the Iraqi embassy during this time was one Ahmad Samir al Ani, who was an agent of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

Again, keep in mind that nobody disputes these meeting did in fact take place.

Now here is the evidence FOR Atta meeting with al Ani in April of 2001, followed by the evidence the CIA and the Intelligence Committee have AGAINST such a meeting. You can make up your own mind.

1. Czech intelligence claimed that they spotted Atta meeting with al Ani at a Prague restaurant on April 8, 2001. They stand by this assertion to this very day.

2. After the fall of Baghdad, Czech intelligence searched the Iraqi embassy in Prague and found al Ani's appointment book. For April 8, 2001 he was scheduled for a meeting with a "Hamburg student."

3.Within days of apparently witnessing this meeting, Czech authorities kicked al Ani out of the country because they believed that his strange meeting with the student was suspicious.

[Atta's timeline in the United States: After piecing together every transaction that could be made (bank transfers, ATM use, paying bills, buying groceries, going to his health club, etc.) the FBI formulated this itinerary for Atta in April 2001]

4. On April 4, Atta cashed an $8,000 check in Virginia Beach, VA. The FBI has never been able to account for how this money was spent.

5. For the next week, there is no recorded activity for Atta in the US and there is not a single witness who saw him during this time.

6. On April 11, Atta reemerges in Florida. He deposits $5,000 in cash into a bank account and he and Marwan al Shehhi rent an apartment in Florida.

Now for the evidence AGAINST

1. There is no record of Atta using his own passport to fly to Prague. He could have used a fake one, as George Tenet acknowledged in his testimony to Congress.

2. Someone placed a phone call from Atta's cell phone in Florida on April 8, 2001, the day of the alleged meeting. There were no other calls made from that phone in the entire week in question.

That's it. That's their evidence in total.

Look, if you want ignorance about all this, tune into any of the mainstream media, all of whom "know" that there was no connection, and none of whom have bothered to educate themselves on this stuff.

If you want politicized lies, look to congressional Democrats, all of whom know about this evidence, but none of whom care to be up front, least of all in an election year.

But if you want the unvarnished truth about this, even five years later, well then you've got to come to ConClub.

[lesser_satan]

bump

[BamaAndy]

True enough. Their only motivation to do so must be the pursuit of power. Using distortions and outright falsehoods soley for the sake of achieving political power puts the country in a losing posture--should they succeed we will be hit again.
And they'll blame it on Bush.
We're seeing it happen right before our eyes and only the voting booth can stop them.