Wash Post counters memo leak

The CIA's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found no evidence that former president Saddam Hussein tried to transfer chemical or biological technology or weapons to terrorists, according to a military and intelligence expert.

The story below was posted here last night around 8pm. After waiting for over 24 hours, the Washington Post runs the story above on their web page.

OSAMA BIN LADEN and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al Qaeda training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda--perhaps even for Mohamed Atta--according to a top secret U.S. government memorandum obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1022083/posts

The Compost is predictably missing the point here and focusing only on those aspects of story that are harmful to the Bush administration.

For example, they try to "debunk" the memo by saying that it's just raw intel. Well, raw or not, intel is intel and should be evaluated as such. If even half of what was stated in the Weekly Standard is true, that's still one hell of a connection.

In particular, these points:

"During a custodial interview, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi [a senior al Qaeda operative] said he was told by an al Qaeda associate that he was tasked to travel to Iraq (1998) to establish a relationship with Iraqi intelligence to obtain poisons and gases training. After the USS Cole bombing in 2000, two al Qaeda operatives were sent to Iraq for CBW-related [Chemical and Biological Weapons] training beginning in Dec 2000. Iraqi intelligence was "encouraged" after the embassy and USS Cole bombings to provide this training. CIA maintains that Ibn al-Shaykh’s timeline is consistent with other sensitive reporting indicating that bin Laden asked Iraq in 1998 for advanced weapons, including CBW and 'poisons.'"

Okay, let's say that this is all just "raw" intel. Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was still on the Top 20 list pre-9/11 and if he is saying stuff like this while in custody, I'd say that's pretty significant right there.

And then there's this:

"An Oct. 2002 . . . report said al Qaeda and Iraq reached a secret agreement whereby Iraq would provide safe haven to al Qaeda members and provide them with money and weapons. The agreement reportedly prompted a large number of al Qaeda members to head to Iraq. The report also said that al Qaeda members involved in a fraudulent passport network for al Qaeda had been directed to procure 90 Iraqi and Syrian passports for al Qaeda personnel."

As long as that's true, we have casus belli right there, end of story.

More to the point, the Compost fails to point out the following things reported in the story:

"During the recent Baghdad briefing, Cordesman noted that Kay said Iraq 'did order nuclear equipment from 1999 on, but no evidence [has turned up] of [a] new major facility to use it.'"

That kind of destroys the whole idea that they shut down their nuclear program in 1991 after the Gulf War the way that some anti-war activists have been trumpeting.

Furthermore:

"Although there was no evidence of chemical weapons production, Kay said he had located biological work 'under cover of new agricultural facility' that showed "advances in developing dry storable powder forms of botulinum toxin," Cordesman wrote."

You that there's now (more) evidence for the existence of all those WMDs that the press keeps on harping on that Iraq never had?

No. 851-03
IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 15, 2003

DoD Statement on News Reports of al-Qaida and Iraq Connections
News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate.

A letter was sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee on October 27, 2003 from Douglas J. Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, in response to follow-up questions from his July 10 testimony. One of the questions posed by the committee asked the Department to provide the reports from the Intelligence Community to which he referred in his testimony before the Committee. These reports dealt with the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida.

The letter to the committee included a classified annex containing a list and description of the requested reports, so that the Committee could obtain the reports from the relevant members of the Intelligence Community.

The items listed in the classified annex were either raw reports or products of the CIA, the NSA, or, in one case, the DIA. The provision of the classified annex to the Intelligence Committee was cleared by other agencies and done with the permission of the Intelligence Community. The selection of the documents was made by DOD to respond to the Committee’s question. The classified annex was not an analysis of the substantive issue of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaida, and it drew no conclusions.

Individuals who leak or purport to leak classified information are doing serious harm to national security; such activity is deplorable and may be illegal.

http://www.dod.mil/releases/2003/nr20031115-0642.html

The CIA's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found "no evidence that former president Saddam Hussein tried to transfer chemical or biological technology or weapons to terrorists", according to a military and intelligence expert. Global Security; Nov.9,2001 Volume 4, Number 36

DEFECTOR CLAIMS IRAQ-BIN LADEN TIES. A high-ranking defector who served for 16 years in an Iraqi intelligence agency said on 2 November that the Baghdad regime has controlled and funded Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network since 1998. He was briefing members of the Iraq National Congress (INC) in London, according to Melbourne's "The Sunday Herald Sun" on 4 November.

He claimed that the funding for Al-Qaeda came from illegal oil exports channeled through Dubai in the Persian Gulf. An INC activist said "he has first-hand information about the link between Saddam and bin Laden because he also worked as a money-launderer and sanctions-buster for the Iraqi leader."

The defector's name was withheld for the sake of his personal security, but London-based sources say he has been living "in one of the Scandinavian countries."

An INC activist continued to say "this is the third time a reliable Iraqi informant has come forward with disclosures about how Iraq has been in control of Al-Qaeda for the last three years."

AFP reported on 3 November that "La Reppublica" of Italy had also reported on the defector's testimony before the INC. Here, the former officer is identified as "A.S." Among his claims is that Iraq had sent a ton of anthrax to bin Laden. He also said that members of bin Laden's terror network have been trained in Salman Pak in Iraq. (David Nissman)

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