[lugsoul]

But they were operating in Kurdish territory. The whole premise of the article and this thread is that AQ operating in Iraq shows the connection. If it doesn't show a connection with Kurds - in whose territory they were based - how does it possibly establish a connection with Iraq, which held no sway in the area where Ansar was based?

[AFPhys]

Listen, lugs, the one thing I was most surprised about during the course of the BASH was that it took so long for the Kurds+US to secure the "northern oil fields" and the environs thereabouts, and the areas linking the Tikrit-Baghdad area with northeastern Iraq. The Kurds clearly did NOT control that area, despite the pre-BASH** expectations of the press.

The no-fly zones certainly deterred Hussein's operations there, but that area was militarily controlled by Hussein in cooperation with the terrorists he installed and nourished there.


** BASH == Battle Against Saddumb Hussein