Congratulations Troops!
"However, the tantalising detail provided in the intelligence document uncovered by Iraq's interim government suggests that Atta's involvement with Iraqi intelligence may well have been far deeper than has hitherto been acknowledged.
"Written in the neat, precise hand of Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) and one of the few named in the US government's pack of cards of most-wanted Iraqis not to have been apprehended, the personal memo to Saddam is signed by Habbush in distinctive green ink.
"Headed simply "Intelligence Items", and dated July 1, 2001, it is addressed: "To the President of the Ba'ath Revolution Party and President of the Republic, may God protect you."
"The first paragraph states that 'Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian national, came with Abu Ammer (an Arabic nom-de-guerre - his real identity is unknown) and we hosted him in Abu Nidal's house at al-Dora under our direct supervision.
" 'We arranged a work programme for him for three days with a team dedicated to working with him . . . He displayed extraordinary effort and showed a firm commitment to lead the team which will be responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy.'"
If a private communicaton between Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti and Saddaam Hussein dated July 1, 2001, regarding Mohammad Atta and the commitment he hdd made for "attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy." cannot convince someone that there is a direct connection between Saddam Hussein and the events of September 11, 2003, then that someone must be Howard Dean or Cynthia McKinney.
Any reasonably intelligent person would ask if Mohammad Atta had attacked any targets other than the World Trade Center or Pentagon between July 1, 2001 and September 11, 2001, because he certainly could not have had any expectation of doing so AFTER September 11. The attacks of September 11, 2001 were the only attacks directed and coordinated by Mohammad Atta in the period in question.
The inescapable conclusion is that the targets referenced in this memo wer the ones in fact destroyed by the team led by Mohammad Atta. And if one gives credence to the memorandum at all, these targets were "agreed" to be destroyed by Saddam Hussein.
What is described here is no mere "link"; it looks more to me like a chain of cammand.
The Democrats that have been moronically chanting the mantra "No link between Iraq and Al Qaida" and "No link between Iraq and 9-11", ought now to commit public seppaku out of respect to the shame they have brought on themselves and their nation.
But, never mind, they won't do it. At the very least, though, they ought to have the decency to change the name of their party to "The Idiot Party" as a clarification for the least intelligent among us.
Can you imagine being so oblivious that your not even aware of that?
I don't trust broadcast news but then again there are times when "news" just seems too strange to comprehend. Recall your initial response to the WTC attack. Recall hearing that President Bush was flying a plane again. Recall hearing that President Bush visited the troops for Thanksgiving. And now Saddam has been captured hiding in a hole.
These events are the type of thing that Hollywood fiction makers have trouble selling (recall the President in Independence Day flying a plane in the attack on the aliens).
They can claim that this is a "quagmire" and taking too long and costing far too many lives but that is all so much cheese and whine. We should not get "over confident" about our successes but the natering nabobs of negativity never even consider a chance of American success.
To those who say America should be out of Iraq I will say, Rome was not built in a day.
The kids surrounded our vehicles en masse almost as if we were rock stars. They were eager to see us and to talk with us. To them it was clear that we were heroes who had liberated them from Saddam Hussein.Their reaction had surprised me and, truth be told, scared me more than a little. Of course I was heartened by their reaction; it made me want to both smile and cry. But as far as we Marines were concerned, we were still in a war zone with plenty of bad guys--embittered Baathists, Saddam loyalists and angry foreign jihadis--who were determined to kill us.
There was reason to be scared; even rock stars are scared when they are surrounded by a mob of fans (autographs can be the least of their worries at a time like that). A crowd can surge and accidently trample you. I read Dee Dee Ramone's account of trying to get into the hotel where the rest of the Ramones were staying for a South American "final tour" concert. The gates outside the hotel were mobbed and here one of the members had to work his way through that crowd (and even then security did not believe he was who he claimed to be). In the end, I don't even think that he ended up playing the show (even though he was the song writer).
Not to take away from this man's comments or the Iraqis' good cheer but being the center of attention in a crowd can be a dangerous thing even when you are loved by all around. I would also add that there are probably some warnings against accepting drinks from strangers. I think I even saw some warnings to soldiers in Frank Capra's educational films "Your Job In Germany" and "Your Job In Japan" (I think those are the titles of the post WWII films he made for the government to show servicemen).
Those red flags they are carrying while they celebrate are of the communist party of Iraq, not exactly a cause for celebration here in the US.
Congratulations Troops!
Never under estimate the ability of the liberal media to spin and tell whoppers...
NEVER
For the Iraqis who endured the sadism and cruelty, there was a deep-seated, lingering fear that Saddam would one day rise again, that the Baathist tyranny would resume under his leadership if the United States tired of the fight and left the country.
That is why the most common question I was asked by Iraqis, especially in those initial weeks after the Hussein regime had been overthrown, was, "Where's Saddam?" The Iraqis found it quite reassuring to hear me, a young, gun-toting Marine, tell them, "No Saddam!" as I ran my finger across my throat to simulate his throat being cut....
I was therefore not surprised to see ordinary Iraqis cheering Saddam's capture and firing rifles into the air. What has been surprising is the negative media coverage and the shameless exploitation of the war for partisan political purposes that I've seen since returning from Iraq in September.
"It's almost as if what we did over there never happened and doesn't matter," one of my staff sergeants told me. But what we did, and what the U.S. military is still doing, does matter, as the Iraqis whom I was privileged to know and befriend will tell you.
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Please share with friends and neighbors who support our troops and still watch CNN.
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What these marines did (in addition to making the world a safer place) is to make probably 2 generations of Iraqis grateful to Americans and protective of whatever democracy they manage to attain.
Winning is the big thing, but being gracious, kind and caring when you do matters a lot, too.
PS. I did like that we had an army doctor check saddam for lice. That was caring. :-)