Posted on 06/08/2004 11:09:55 AM PDT by truthfinder9
More Connections
Two new members of the Iraqi interim government insist that Saddam and al Qaeda were linked. by Stephen F. Hayes 06/03/2004 8:15:00 AM
SADDAM HUSSEIN "always had links with international terrorist organizations."
On the face of it, this is not a controversial statement. It comes from a CNN interview of Iyad Allawi, recently chosen as the interim prime minister of Iraq. Allawi expanded on this assessment in a December 31, 2003, interview with CNN's Bill Hemmer, when he estimated that more than 1,000 al Qaeda terrorists were operating in Iraq. But his more interesting comment came moments later. The al Qaeda fighters, he said,
were present in Iraq, they came and they were active in Iraq before the war of liberation. They were inflicting a lot of problems on the--and inflaming the situation in northern Iraq, in Iraq Kurdistan. They killed once about a year and a half ago 42 worshipers in one of the mosques in Harachi [ph] in a very ugly way.
Again, on the surface, this was not a particularly revealing statement. After all, Colin Powell told the United Nations Security Council that al Qaeda was operating in Iraq--almost certainly with the knowledge and approval of the Iraqi regime--before the war. CIA Director George Tenet has testified to the presence of al Qaeda in Iraq on several occasions. Allawi went on:
Those people have had the backing of Saddam prior to liberation, and they remained in Iraq after the collapse, and after the vacuum was created. After the way, they remained in Iraq. Many joined them since then.
Allawi's declaration that the Iraqi regime supported al Qaeda terrorists before the war in Iraq is intriguing not because of the claim itself, but because of the man making it. Allawi for years ran an Iraqi exile group called the Iraqi National Accord. In recent years, he was the Iraqi exile closest to the CIA. And although George Tenet has spoken repeatedly about the prewar Iraq-al Qaeda connection, he has been at odds with many in the bureaucracy beneath him.
Allawi's claims about the Iraq-al Qaeda connection--claims he has made for several years--have not always been solid. In December, Allawi provided journalists with a document indicating that September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta trained in Iraq weeks before the 9/11 hijackings. That same three-page document also claimed that Iraq had--as President Bush claimed in his State of the Union Address--sought uranium from Niger. The report was a bit too politically convenient and was quickly dismissed as a forgery.
But Allawi isn't the only prominent member of the new Iraqi government to have suggested Iraq-al Qaeda connections. His deputy, Barham Salih, has also repeatedly alleged that Saddam's regime supported Ansar al Islam, al Qaeda-linked Islamists in Kurdistan. "Yes, they hate each other, but they're very utilitarian," said Salih. "Saddam Hussein, a secular infidel to many jihadists, had no problem giving money to Hamas. This debate [about whether Saddam worked with al Qaeda] is stupid. The proof is there."
ABC News' outstanding Pentagon reporter, Martha Raddatz, also reported on the Iraq-al Qaeda connection last week. But her May 25, 2004, report on Abu Musab al Zarqawi, an al Qaeda associate who joined forces with Ansar al Islam terrorists, buried an important detail. "In late 2002, officials say, Zarqawi began establishing sleeper cells in Baghdad and acquiring weapons from Iraqi Intelligence officials." (emphasis added).
Stephen F. Hayes is a staff writer at The Weekly Standard and author of The Connection: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein has Endangered America (HarperCollins).
datum.
Thanks.
We need to keep in mind that they lie, though.
Is this the same Powell as this guy?
There is not — you know, I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection, but I think the possibility of such connections did exist and it was prudent to consider them at the time that we did.He doesn't sound as sure as Hayes makes him out to be.— Secretary of State Colin Powell, responding to a question on ties between al-Qaeda and Iraq in a press conference, January 8, 2004
CIA Director George Tenet has testified to the presence of al Qaeda in Iraq on several occasions.
And Tenet is now rightfully unemployed.
Stephen Hayes is one of the reason I started subscribing to The Weekly Standard (Fred Barnes being the other) and I have not been disappointed since. The thing about al Zarqawi is that the Administration knew and reported this BEFORE going to Iraq (i.e. Powel at the U.N.) and has been proven right since then. But when it comes to the mainstream media .. (cue cricket noises here)......
verrrrry interesting
The National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq report, which represented the consensus of US intelligence officials and experts, was circulated in the Bush Administration late last year. It contained cautionary language about Iraq's connections with al-Qaeda and warnings about the reliability of conflicting reports by Iraqi defectors and captured al-Qaeda members, sources said.
He might be pandering: telling us what he thinks we want to hear.
It will be interesting to see what he says after we pull out.
It would be interesting to know WHO dismissed it as a forgery.
It would, wouldn't it?
Because he desperately wanted to go back to his homeland. Further, he wanted to give cover to those who made it possible for his return from exile. It makes perfect sense, actually. I don't blame him one bit for doing everything he could to achieve his goal. I'd do the same.
Who do we trust...the interim government members or our press? Hmmmm..let me think a moment.
Isn't It A Pity.
Hmm - if it was a true forgery, the Dims and the media wouldn't be able to let it go. The fact that it was summarily dismissed and got no real publicity gives it more credence than not - at least in my own little mind.
of course they lie.
they learn to lie with their mothers' milk.
however, if they make statements which both make sense rationally and can be empirically verified, it is worht noting when they tell the truth :)
It's a toughie.
I got some breaking news...
Iraq had connections to AQ.
But so does Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, UAE, Yemen, etc. etc.
They all have connections.
Currently, Iran is the main guardian of the AQ armies, focusing them on increasing Iranian oil values while the jihadis die thinking they're serving some noble purpose.
It's that verification thing.
I've just gotten disgusted with the whole culture
Frankly, if a Muslim told me that the sky was blue, I'd look out the window to check....
running a variant play of "cui bono"?
always a good idea with those folks over there.
Bookmark bump.
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