Osama and Saddam Worked Together for Years

Various | January 25, 2005 | Free Republic

[Inspector Morse]

Peach...you...are...a...PEACH!!!

[Mat_Helm]

bmp

[Straight Vermonter]

Let me know if you want on/off the terrorist roundup ping list.

Terrorist Scorecard

[backhoe]

Copied & saved- thanks!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping....what a list///

Outstanding work ...Peach.

[christie]

Thanks Peach. I'll add any missing articles to my website:

Connect the Dots...Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden

[SunkenCiv]

A big juicy bttt.

[Sprite518]

This is great!

[Sprite518]

Another great link. Thanks :-)

[Grampa Dave]

Please put me on the list. Thanks.

[HitmanLV]

Hey, for what it's worth, I worked with Osama's niece Waiffa in a NYC law firm for years...

[Peach]

Thanks so much, Ernest.

[Peach]

I mentioned your excellent links under the Miscellaneous section, backhoe. Thanks for all YOUR work.

[vincenzzo]

Proves that you should never trust the media. Turns out the relationship between Saddam and Osama conisted of there being no relationship, according to the (bipartisan) 9/11 Commission. Who woulda thunk?

[Peach]

Actually, the 911 Commission Report did MORE to bolster the view that there was a long and ongoing relationship between OBL and Saddam. That wasn't their intention, I'm sure, but nonetheless, their report actually bolsterd the administration's position on this matter.

[vincenzzo]

You didn't read the report, did you?

[Peach]

Not only read it but found quotes in the 2004 section of the links I provided that bolster the administration's position.

Read a little. Educate yourself. Don't fall for the MSM spin on the matter. As a freeper I'd have expected you to know better.

[Peach]

You're new here so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Read these links and then come back to me and tell me that you don't think there was coordination and a relationship between OBL and Saddam.

9/11 Commission says prominent member of AQ served in Iraq's militia.
June 20, 2004. Reuters.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1156957/posts

9/11 Commission reaffirms Bush administration view of Iraq/AQ ties.
June 21, 2004. RNC.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1157478/posts

What the Senate Intelligence Report REALLY said about the connections between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
July 22, 2004. The Weekly Standard.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1173423/posts

The 9/11 Commission found specific connections between Iraq and AQ. Specific names and dates are given from the report.
July 22, 2004. The Daily Standard.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/354tdeij.asp

The 9/11 Commission and Iraq/AQ Connections.
July 26, 2004. The Weekly Standard.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1173008/posts

Information about Shakir, the Iraqi who met with AQ at a pre-9/11 planning meeting. Also information about the Iraqi who mixed the chemicals for the bomb of the first WTC bombing.
August 2, 2004. The Weekly Standard.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/357lnryy.asp?pg=2

Specific quotes from 9/11 Commission Report regarding links between AQ and Iraq.
July 30, 2004.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1182042/posts
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1193821/posts

Kerry disputing 9/11 Commission and Senate Intelligence Reports. Actual page numbers and quotes within article of what the Reports DID say regarding the connections.
September 20, 2004. The Weekly Standard.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1214954/posts

Both the Senate Intelligence Committee Report and the 9/11 Commission documented the links and relationship between AQ and Iraq.
October 5, 2005. The Weekly Standard.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/731hezhy.asp?pg=2

Osama bin Laden was considered an Iraqi Intelligence asset.
October 14, 2004. National Review.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1246505/posts

Senate Intelligence Report says Zarqawi operated out of Saddam controlled territory - Baghdad.
October 20, 2004. The Weekly Standard.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/803czhfn.asp

It looks like the 9/11 Commission got an important detail wrong. Shakir probably DID work the Iraqi Fedayeen and he had documents on him when arrested that linked him to the 1993 WTC bombing. And he drove the 9/11 hijackers to a planning meeting.
October 23, 2004. The Hoover Institute. http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/1254304/posts?page=1

[vincenzzo]

Well, you'll understand that looking into all your links, and analyzing them would be tantamount to writing a small research paper..

But I looked into your 1st link:
9/11 Commission says prominent member of AQ served in Iraq's militia.
June 20, 2004. Reuters.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1156957/posts

What the 9/11 report actually has to say on Ahmat Hikmat Shakir is this:
"Reports that he was a lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi Fedayeen have turned out to be incorrect. They were based on a confusion of Shakir's identity with that of an Iraqi Fedayeen colonel with a similar name, who was later (in September 2001) in Iraq at the same time Shakir was in police custody in Qatar. See CIA briefing by CTC specialists (June 22, 2004); Walter Pincus and Dan Eggen, "Al Qaeda Link to Iraq May Be Confusion over Names," Washington Post, June 22, 2004. p.A13"
The 9/11 Commission Report
Chapter 6, footnote 49. p.502.

Oh .. confusion of identity.

Then I looked into your 6th link which seemed to address that issue:
Information about Shakir, the Iraqi who met with AQ at a pre-9/11 planning meeting. Also information about the Iraqi who mixed the chemicals for the bomb of the first WTC bombing.
August 2, 2004. The Weekly Standard.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/357lnryy.asp?pg=2

The article acknowledges the Commission's findings that there was a confusion of identity and there are 2 Shakirs: With regards to the question who the Kuala Lumpur Shakir is, they say: "The answer is, we don't know."

They don't know. Ok.

Then I saw your last link:
It looks like the 9/11 Commission got an important detail wrong. Shakir probably DID work the Iraqi Fedayeen and he had documents on him when arrested that linked him to the 1993 WTC bombing. And he drove the 9/11 hijackers to a planning meeting.
October 23, 2004. The Hoover Institute.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/1254304/posts?page=1

The guy who wrote that piece is refering to the now outdated May 27, 2004 Wall Street editorial, and obviously doesn't know the indentity confusion got cleared up later. Bad research.

It's not correct, as you say, that "the 9/11 Commission got an important detail wrong", rather your source made a mistake.


Conclusion: I'm sorry to say that 3 of your links turned to nothing under close scrutiny. And I'm pretty sure that's the case with every link you posted.

Do yo want me to continue?

[Peach]

You sound just like another disruptor and since you're new here I have to wonder if you have two screen names. LOL

Shakir information comes down on both sides of the argument. But there's no taking away from the fact that Shakir is Iraqi. Whether he's fedayeen is the only argument. Regardless, an Iraqi was present during at least on 9/11 planning meeting.

Care to explain that away? Care to explain a few hundred other links away? Be my guest. You can't.

And nice of you to cherry pick among those links but there this as well for a more complete picture:

Al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq.

According to the 9/11 Commission report, quoting from an email from Clarke to former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger on November 4, 1998:


This passage led Clarke, who for years had read intelligence reports on Iraqi-Sudanese cooperation on chemical weapons, to speculate to Berger that a large Iraqi presence at chemical facilities in Khartoum was "probably the direct result of the Iraq-al Qida (sic) agreement". Clarke added that VX precursor traces found near al Shifa were the "exact formula used by Iraq."

KEAN: We gave weight to the testimony. And it's the same belief that President Clinton had, the same belief that Sandy Berger has. But there are a whole bunch of people on the other side who dispute that finding, who say there is no independent collaborative evidence that those chemicals were there.

And this is a debate that goes on. We were not able to come to a conclusion on that debate. We could say that there is no evidence that we found--independent evidence--that those chemicals were there. But I can tell you that the belief of people we all respect, from the president of the United States, President Clinton, down through Sandy Berger and down through Cohen, believe very, very strongly that they were right to target factory and in fact it was what they thought it was.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/357lnryy.asp?pg=2


And if you're going to quote from the section that the 9/11 Commission got wrong, why didn't you quote from this one? Oh, that's right. It doesn't support your seemingly ignorant position that there was no relationship.


Then there is the interesting case of Ahmad Hikmat Shakir — an Iraqi VIP facilitator who worked at the international airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Citing "a foreign government service," page 340 of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on pre-Iraq-War intelligence indicates that, "Shakir claimed he got this job through Ra'ad al-Mudaris, an Iraqi Embassy employee" in Malaysia. On January 5, 2000, Shakir greeted Khalid al Midhar and Nawaz al Hamzi at Kuala Lampur’s airport. He then escorted them to a local hotel where these September 11 hijackers met with 9/11 conspirators Ramzi bin al Shibh and Tawfiz al Atash. Five days later, according to The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes, Shakir disappeared.

Shakir, the Iraqi airport greeter, was arrested in Qatar on September 17, 2001. On his person and in his apartment, authorities discovered documents connecting him to the 1993 WTC bomb plot and “Operation Bojinka,” al-Qaeda’s 1995 plan to blow up 12 jets simultaneously over the Pacific. Interestingly enough, as a May 27, 2004 Wall Street Journal editorial reported, Ahmed Hikmat Shakir's name appears on three different rosters of the late Uday Hussein's prestigious paramilitary group, the Saddam Fedayeen. A government source told the Journal that the papers identify Shakir as a lieutenant colonel in the Saddam Fedayeen.

Below is a rare photograph of Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani. He was Consul and Second Secretary at Iraq's Czech embassy between March 1999 and April 22, 2001. He long has been suspected of meeting with September 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta, most likely on April 8, 2001. Perhaps at other times, too. While skeptics dismiss this encounter, Czech intelligence found Al-Ani's appointment calendar in Iraq's Prague embassy, presumably after Saddam Hussein's defeat. Al-Ani's diary lists an April 8, 2001, meeting with "Hamburg student." Maybe, in a massive coincidence, Al-Ani dined with a young scholar and chatted about Hegel and Nietzsche.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/1254304/posts?page=1