Posted on 04/27/2004 2:12:25 AM PDT by Beckwith
ABC World News Now. April 27, 2004
In an interview broadcast by ABC's World News Now, the leader of the Al Qaeda cell organizing the explosive and chemical attack on the Jordanian security headquarters and the American Embassy in Jordan stated that he received his training from Al-Zawahiri in Iraq, prior to the fall of Afghanistan.
Could the US have intelligence showing that the weapons were being obtained in Iraq from the UN?
To be more explicit: a case that Saddam was linked to "Al Qaeda" which used the Ansar al-Islam connection, would have to be based on two pillars:
1. That Saddam was supporting Ansar al-Islam.
2. That Ansar al-Islam was a subsidiary of "Al Qaeda", or at least had been infiltrated by, or co-opted by, "Al Qaeda" operatives to serve more "Al Qaeda"-centric ends.
The article above does not support #1, but we know it from other sources, including the link I gave you and the Zarqawi-in-Baghdad for medical treatment story.
What the article *does* support is pillar #2. This is because, a year or two ago, when people wanted to dispute #2 they'd say stuff like "it's just a local jihadi home-grown organization, there's no evidence they're part of 'Al Qaeda', they just care about fighting the Kurds..." etc. Even Zarqawi's "membership in" Al Qaeda used to be disputed (hopefully only a very few lunkheads would dispute it now...).
Yet here is a guy who's bona fide "Al Qaeda", who participated in an "Al Qaeda" style attack in Jordan, and yet says that he trained at (we are all presuming) the (supposedly unconnected to "Al Qaeda" according to previous talking-points) Ansar al-Islam camp with Zarqawi, in Iraq. That shows that Ansar al-Islam was indeed connected to "Al Qaeda".
As if there were any doubt!
Because the connection between AaI and AQ has not been in much doubt for quite a long time to begin with. So you may be, in the end, correct to downplay the significance of this article - because it proves something we *already knew*. :-) Namely that AaI was an "AQ" subsidiary. Pillar #2 is already proven.
If you doubt that Saddam was funding/supporting AaI for his own purposes, that's your right, and you can safely look at this article and say it doesn't help prove Pillar #1, I guess. However, I still believe Pillar #1 to be true, based on the pattern of other data we have about these matters. And you may too if you take a look at the info.
But if Pillar #1 and Pillar #2 are both true, then we're done, we've got the Saddam/AQ link. At this point I suspect that the only real question for each individual is when he decides that the preponderance of evidence forces him to acknowledge it, and some may do so a bit later than others, that's all ;-) Best,
I certainly hope that's how the confession was obtained.
Maybe a little discreet maiming, too?
This can't be, Bush just has an Iraq fetish. CNN said so.
Tell them the terrorists are both pro-choice and pro euthanasia but differ from liberals and Euroweenies only in that they prefer somewhat later late term abortions than do liberals, and somewhat earlier euthanasias than Euroweenies, though the terrorist will happily accept any deaths also considered acceptable by liberals and Euroweenies, too. The folks you want to inform should get the picture.
* Osman Ali : a captured Ansar al Islam member; 18-years-old. Ali was part of an Ansar suicide-bomb cell that Abdul Jaber commanded. Ali said he was a member of Ansar al-Islam's Al-Aqsa Battalion's six-member group of would-be suicide bombers. Ali was arrested by the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) six months ago after he was to carry out a suicide-bombing mission but lost his nerve. He told his story to the Star in the Sulaymania prison in northeastern Iraq, part of an autonomous Kurdish region kept out of Saddam's control by patrolling U.S. and British warplanes. During a two-hour interview, he told a detailed story of how he joined Ansar at the age of 15, how he trained to be a suicide bomber, and how he finally lost his nerve. Both Osman Ali and Didar Khaled Khedr say two former Iraqi intelligence agents are among Ansar's leaders - Abu Zurbeh and Abu Wahil. Ali said Abu Zurbeh refers to Saddam as "Uncle Saddam." Ali said he joined Ansar in April, 2000. He said he received 45 days of training in using AK-47 rifles, machine guns and grenades. Then he was chosen to be part of a six-man suicide bomb squad. "They choose the most religious fundamentalists among us to do that," he said. His suicide bombers course was held in Sergat village and lasted 10 days. Ali said the class listened to taped speeches by Abu Qatada, a Palestinian recently arrested in London and detained under Britain's anti-terrorism law. The young bombers were also told of a paradise filled with 72 virgins waiting for them, Ali said. In case religious fervour wanes in the moment of truth, Ali said bombers are given a drug in pill form that "makes you euphoric." Ali said he proudly graduated from the course and was chosen to carry out a suicide attack inside a PUK militia post. The plan was to simply walk in and pull a rod that would detonate four grenades hidden under his sleeve. He said he signed a declaration saying he was ready to blow himself up and Ansar also taped his statement on video. But he then described a torturous process of changing his mind three or four times, encouraged by friends not to do it and Ansar members to plow ahead. -"Canadian man called key in Iraq terror cell Iraq terror cell links Al Qaeda, Saddam," Sandro Contenta in Sulaymania, Iraq Toronto Star NEWS; Pg. A01 February 26, 2003 Wednesday Ontario Edition (it was abridged) see also The Hamilton Spectator for the unabridged version
1999 : (IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER LATIF aka ABU WA'IL IS IN AFGHANISTAN) Sa'adoon Mohammed Abdul Latif, or Abu-Wa'il, an Iraqi intelligence officer, first visited Afghanistan in 1999. - "U.S. negotiates trade of terror suspects," By Eli J. Lake, UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL via The Washington Times, May 9, 2003, http://washingtontimes.com/world/20030509-22822443.htm
*****
Not to mention that al Qaeda leaders have been present in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi Intelligence service YEARS before 9/11... and the Iraqi government footed their hotel bills.
... Desperate for allies after the Gulf War, Saddam sent Faruq Hijazi, his secret service director, to Sudan in 1994, where bin Laden then had his headquarters. The meetings were brokered by Hassan al-Tourabi, the Sudanese Muslim leader, who was bin Laden’s protector. The Sudanese belatedly offered to show the CIA all they knew about bin Laden and his visits, to ingratiate themselves back into the international fold, but the Americans scorned the approach. ...
... US Intelligence says Saddam cultivated the relationship with al-Qaeda at the start of 1998 by inviting the man regarded as bin Laden’s deputy — Ayman Zawahiri — to dine with Taha Yasin Ramadan, the Iraqi Vice-President. That was such a success that a delegation from al-Qaeda attended Saddam’s birthday celebrations that April, and it was during this trip that arrangements were made for bin Laden recruits to receive the sort of advanced weapons training they could not get in their camps in Afghanistan. --"Hijacker 'given anthrax flask by Iraqi agent'," BY DANIEL MCGRORY, The London Times, SATURDAY OCTOBER 27 2001
And don't notice Hikmat Shakir behind the curtain...
That statement stems from Iraqi documents and financial statements including billing and receipts for the hotel stay, as well as live testimony.
What do you expect as proof, nothing less than bin Laden's fingerprints on Hussein's bedroom door?
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