Thanks- the satellite photos were an element of the old info's "common sense speculation" concerning the purpose of the aircraft and the complex. Common sense would tell you that the presence of the aircraft at a site witnesses had said was used for terrorist training, in a country known to fund such lovely community-action groups as PFLP and Abu Nidal's organization should lead to consideration that the aircraft was intended to be used to train hijackers. Unfortunately, the liberals, lacking common sense, continue to believe as they did then that the photos were of an aircraft used in antiterrorism training for Iraqi law enforcement in the event some hijacked aircraft should land in beautiful sunny Iraq and the hostages within should need to be freed so they could be patted on the head by Saddam Hussein in front of the media. The libs believe that the aircraft was an antiterrorism aid because that was Iraq's claim and in matters pitting Bush's word against the word of Saddam Hussein, Saddam Hussein is always right. The libs desperately need to believe such things because otherwise they would have to admit that their dogma that "secular" Iraq couldn't possibly have anything to do with Islamist terrorists. They would also have to admit they wasted all their money on Michael Moore movies and books. Too humiliating by far.
The libs desperately need to believe such things because otherwise they would have to admit that their dogma that "secular" Iraq couldn't possibly have anything to do with Islamist terrorists. From the Weekly Standard article:
"Throughout the 1980s, including the eight years of the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam cast himself as a holy warrior in his public rhetoric to counter the claims from Iran that he was an infidel.
"This posturing continued during and after the first Gulf war in 1990-91. Saddam famously ordered "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) added to the Iraqi flag. Internally, he launched "The Faith Campaign," which according to leading Saddam Hussein scholar Amatzia Baram included the imposition of sharia (Islamic law).
" According to Baram, "The Iraqi president initiated laws forbidding the public consumption of alcohol and introduced enhanced compulsory study of the Koran at all educational levels, including Baath Party branches."
" Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son-in-law who defected to Jordan in 1995, explained these changes in an interview with Rolf Ekeus, then head of the U.N. weapons inspection program. "The government of Iraq is instigating fundamentalism in the country," he said, adding, "Every party member has to pass a religious exam. They even stopped party meetings for prayers."