Posted on 06/25/2004 9:32:54 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraqi intelligence agents contacted Osama bin Laden when he was in Sudan in the mid-1990s as part of an effort by Baghdad to work with foes of the Saudi ruling family, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing a newly disclosed document.
U.S. officials described the document as an internal Iraqi intelligence report detailing efforts to seek cooperation with several Saudi opposition groups, the newspaper said.
The contacts described in the report came before bin Laden's al Qaeda organization had become a full-fledged terrorist group, the Times said.
The document states that Iraq agreed to rebroadcast anti-Saudi propaganda, and that a request from bin Laden to begin joint operations against foreign forces in Saudi Arabia went unanswered, the newspaper said. There was no further indication of collaboration, the Times said.
President Bush insists that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had a dangerous relationship with al Qaeda.
But the bipartisan commission probing the Sept. 11 attacks has said there was no evidence of a "collaborative relationship" even though there were contacts between Iraqis and al Qaeda, including a Sudan meeting between bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence officers.
The newspaper said the newly released document was obtained from the Iraqi National Congress as part of a trove that the exile group gathered after Saddam was toppled last year. Some of the intelligence provided by the group has been discredited.
A U.S. government task force studied the document and concluded it appeared authentic, the newspaper said.
Can't be. The NYSlimes says otherwise. /sarcasm
So?
Saddam's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons were smuggled out of Iraq via Syria: Iraq's WMD were smuggled all over the world as far away as Holland. Last month, the Canadia PM made the statement, "Saddam's WMDs are now in the hands of terrorists." Reports Here
I do not understand why the White House is not making statements like Canada's PM. Or, if high officials are making these arguments, U.S. news media reporters are ignoring their statements. ABC, SeeBS, NBC, and CNN are too focused on "abuse" of Iraqi prisoners to report this very disturbing news.
Nope, no relationship at all.
"But the bipartisan commission probing the Sept. 11 attacks has said there was no evidence of a "collaborative relationship" even though there were contacts between Iraqis and al Qaeda, including a Sudan meeting between bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence officers.{"
The commission said no collaborative relationship in relation to attacks on America, but reuters would never lie on purporse.
Do you mean "So?" as in "no big deal they're connected," as in "we knew that," as in "so what if the NYT admits it," what?
Actually, the Reuters report is based on the NYT finally admitting it. But I'll bet they put it on page 23.
Why do they keep quoting the "bipartisan commission" when they are actually quoting a staff report? Didn't Kean say that the commission was not involved in the staff reports? Kean and Hamilton have both been quoted as saying there are links, regardless of what the staff report says.
Writing in today's Times on what he calls "The Zelikow Report," Safire takes aim at the newly issued staff report that dismissed out of hand any real connection between Iraq and al-Qaida, which led to a media broadside claiming it was a conclusion of the Commission itself, which it was not.
"'Panel Finds No Qaida-Iraq Tie' went the Times headline," Safire wrote. "'Al Qaida-Hussein Link Is Dismissed' front-paged The Washington Post. The A.P. led with the thrilling words 'Bluntly contradicting the Bush Administration, the commission. ... ' This understandably caused my editorial-page colleagues to draw the conclusion that 'there was never any evidence of a link between Iraq and al Qaida. ...'"
Thrilling but untrue, the columnist notes. It was not the judgment of the commissioners, but merely an assertion of the "runaway" staff headed by ex-N.S.C. [National Security Council] aide Philip Zelikow. "After Vice President Dick Cheney's outraged objection, the staff's sweeping conclusion was soon disavowed by both commission chairman Tom Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton," Safire reported.
"Yesterday, Governor Kean passed along this stunner about 'no collaborative relationship' to ABC's George Stephanopoulos: 'Members do not get involved in staff reports.'"
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