Posted on 01/06/2006 8:20:55 PM PST by wagglebee
The Bush administration is preparing to release never-before-seen documents captured when U.S. forces liberated Baghdad that chronicle the extensive training of thousands of radical Islamic terrorists by Saddam Hussein's regime.
"The secret training took place primarily at three camps in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak," reports the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes, who adds that the operations began two years before the 9/11 attacks and were "directed by elite Iraqi military units."
The existence of these documents, and the nature of what they describe, has been confirmed to the Standard by eleven U.S. government officials, Hayes says.
If true, the documents represent a bombshell finding that shatters the claims of Iraq war critics who have maintained for three years that Saddam Hussein had no connection whatsoever to Islamic terrorism.
More intriguing still is the documentation on Salman Pak - a camp previously described by Iraqi defectors as the location of airline hijacking dress rehearsals that bear a striking resemblance to what took place on 9/11.
Hayes reports that the materials currently being reviewed for release include photographs, handwritten notes, typed documents, audiotapes and videotapes - plus information recovered from compact discs, floppy discs and computer hard drives.
Taken together, the material chronicles a massive operation that trained 2,000 terrorists to attack Western interests each year from 1999 to 2002.
The volume of material examined so far represents the tip of the iceberg. Of the 2 million items recovered from Saddam's regime, just 50,000 have been thoroughly translated and analyzed.
"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has convened several meetings in recent weeks to discuss the Pentagon's role in expediting the release of this information," the Standard says.
"According to several sources familiar with his thinking, Rumsfeld is pushing aggressively for a massive dump of the captured documents."
I agree, the State of the Union is the way to go.
Repeat as necessary and see me in the morning if symptoms of alienation by the public audience persists.... ; )
I remember another version of that. They claimed it was being used to train anti-hijacking teams.
Do you suppose it took this long to get those documents translated? Maybe they were having a hard time getting Arabic translators they could trust?
Powerpoint Sound/Slideshow of these documents for the State of the Union?
Now, wouldn't that get the LIEberal/Socialist/Marxist panties in a twist?
ROFOL!
Finally! I was always wondering why the Admin allowed the MSM and the Libs to characterize the war in Iraq as all about WMD's when Bush in the "Bush Doctrine" clearly stated that the War on Terror included going after anyone who financed, harbored, supported or trained terrorists and Saddam did all of the above. I hope this will be one of the highlights of the State of the Union Address and gets us back on track.
I believe the delay was some sort of legal liability problem for Iraqi state? is all I can come up with.
They will have to print it. But the question is, how will they spin it?
Scream this from the rooftops.
What took them so long?
I remember anti-hijacking claims now too, Stewardess training was a joke on my part.
You are probably right but what I like about Bush is his poker playing ways
Bush MUST highlight this during the State of the Union, that is the only way it will reach the public and be impossible for the media to ignore.
Yep. The SOTU is the place. The Dems will blame him for covering it up for two years and for setting them up to look like fools.
Thanks...but I suppose my Newsmax remark would also apply to The Weekly Standard; totally off the radar of 90% of the population.
LOL, don't think this will qwell the leftist rants. There's always the fall-back, we supplied Hussain and liked him while he was our tyrant. Course there's no truth in that either, but that doesn't matter.
We helped balance Hussain against Iran in their war, hoping both sides would waste resources and neither would win. The leftists think what was worse than what happened on 09/11 after that plan had long since it's course.
This is a great find. As long as thinking people are made aware of it, the left can wallow in whatever they like and it won't much matter.
Weird that this comes up now, because the psychic network of the left wing proclaimed that there was no such connection.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.