Saddam's Terror Training Camps

http://www.weeklystandard.com ^ | 01/16/2006, | Stephen F. Hayes

[Para-Ord.45]

THE FORMER IRAQI REGIME OF Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq. The existence and character of these documents has been confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD by eleven U.S. government officials.

The secret training took place primarily at three camps--in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak--and was directed by elite Iraqi military units. Interviews by U.S. government interrogators with Iraqi regime officials and military leaders corroborate the documentary evidence. Many of the fighters were drawn from terrorist groups in northern Africa with close ties to al Qaeda, chief among them Algeria's GSPC and the Sudanese Islamic Army. Some 2,000 terrorists were trained at these Iraqi camps each year from 1999 to 2002, putting the total number at or above 8,000. Intelligence officials believe that some of these terrorists returned to Iraq and are responsible for attacks against Americans and Iraqis. According to three officials with knowledge of the intelligence on Iraqi training camps, White House and National Security Council officials were briefed on these findings in May 2005; senior Defense Department officials subsequently received the same briefing.

[proud_yank]

Overall, this article is great news but it won't sway the Cindy She-Mans of the world.

Nothing short of a nuclear bomb would sway these dingbats, and if that happened we'd all be dead anyway.

These people are dimented and live in a world based on emotion, rhetorical dribble, and mis-information.

[RightWinger]

I'm sure the mainstream media will be all over this story.

[steve1848]

Mr. Hayes deserves a medal (for sticking with this story) at least as much as Tenet did.

Rush, Hannity, Snow, et al should be talking about this in the coming days...

It won't change the mind of the most commited 'rats, but setting the record straight is the right thing to do regardless.

[gov_bean_ counter]

According to three officials with knowledge of the intelligence on Iraqi training camps, White House and National Security Council officials were briefed on these findings in May 2005; senior Defense Department officials subsequently received the same briefing.

Interesting that these briefings never made it down to the Senate or House Intelligence Committees.

[Mr. Buzzcut]

Mr. Hayes deserves a medal (for sticking with this story) at least as much as Tenet did.

Hayes and Claudia Rossett (sp.?), who's been on top of the Oil for Food debacle, both deserve medals.

[toddlintown]

Do you know who are the editors of the Weekly Standard?

Not liars.

[ex-Texan]

I recommend the DVD "Uncle Saddam." It was filmed by, Joel Soler, a French director, who arranged to visit Iraq on his own just a few months before the U.S. invaded. Very eye opening film. Soler was wined and dined by Saddam's inner circle and was invited on board one of the 'great leader's' yachts. Much of the filming was performed by using hidden cameras. The director also wangled access to Saddam's secret film archives. Soler bribed officials and then smuggled film to France. In the Special Features section the director explains how this filming operation was very dangerous. Near the end of his commentary, he said, "I found documentary evidence proving that Saddam supported bin Laden and al Qaeda."

Soler claimed to be working on a similar project about Afghanistan. He said he intends to include film clips proving Saddam's support for bin Laden in the Afghan film.

If a young director could capture this type of incriminating evidence on his own -- I simply do not understand why this information is not public knowledge today. The CIA should have been all over this material.

[Mr. Buzzcut]

The CIA should have been all over this material.

The CIA is FAR too busy UNDERMINING The Administration.

[sr4402]

The Lamestream media won't touch it with a ten foot pole because it blows there premise out of the water.

[Mr. Buzzcut]

Do you know who are the editors of the Weekly Standard?

They are oil-grubbing Neocons, pawns in the Zionist conspiracy ... or something. ;)

[Wuli]

The Sudanese trained in Iraq are probably among those now committing the genocide in the Dafur region of Sudan; where Muslim "tribes" are destroying the villages (and villagers) of the non-Muslim "African" tribes in Dafur.

[Peach]

Hopefully the administration will start talking about what they've found.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Evidence of 8000 terrorists trained in Iraq?

Yeah, I would say this is pretty important to SCREAM to the world.

We need the videos to slam this home.

Hopefully it will all come soon.

[TASMANIANRED]

Democrats are deeply saddened.
Msm will try to bury.

[JABBERBONK]

Yes the 9-11 Commission did say no ties, well except on pages 125, 134 of the report where it is clear the Iraqis were in the Sudan making WMD's for Al quaeda.

[M. Thatcher]

Hard to believe that the Weekly Standard is the only rag that has seen these documents... if they exist...

if they exist?????

[neverdem]

The Sudanese trained in Iraq are probably among those now committing the genocide in the Dafur region of Sudan; where Muslim "tribes" are destroying the villages (and villagers) of the non-Muslim "African" tribes in Dafur.

In Sudan, Death and Denial

"Tensions in Darfur have simmered since the 1970s, when drought and competition over scarce resources sparked clashes between largely nomadic cattle and camel herders, who view themselves as Arabs, and the more sedentary farmers, who see their ancestry as African. Both groups are Muslim."

That's not the first story about Darfur being Islamic Arab versus Islamic African.

[popdonnelly]

Well, we get plenty of BS about the Bush Administration with absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

There seem to be some serious allergies with regard to any information that might support the Iraq war.

[Marine_Uncle]

As some have voice two years back, it is only a matter of time until the facts start to get laid on the table in a more concise readable form for many Americans to read. Eventually as all hope totally fades for the Leninist and their L/MSM organs, slowly more things many of us have known for some time shall surface, even goon papers/mags will leak out articles.
Books shall be published. And GWB and company shall be vindicated from all the wrongs so many have tried to pin on them.

[Mr. Buzzcut]

Books shall be published. And GWB and company shall be vindicated from all the wrongs so many have tried to pin on them.

20 years from now EVERYONE will have been a Terror Warrior in 2006, much as everyone who hindered our fight against the USSR later transformed themselves into longtime Cold Warriors.