The Saddam-Al Qaeda Connection: The pre-war link between Saddam and Al Qaeda had to be addressed

Townhall.com ^ | January 16, 2006 | W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

[VirginiaMil]

Opponents of the war say the only Al Qaeda elements in Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion were those in Kurdish areas not controlled by Saddam. This simply is not so, but for the sake of argument, let’s say it is. And if so, would not the U.S. – as a critical front in the global war on terror – have to invade those areas to shut down the Al Qaeda cells? Of course. And that in itself would have been a far more dangerous “limited war” with Iraq involving a direct ground confrontation with Saddam’s army anyway.

[dirtbiker]

“There were terrorists training in Iraq prior to our invasion of that country,” said retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. John Bruce Blount, former chief of staff of Allied Forces Southern Europe, in a phone conversation on Friday. “No question about it. There also were many things Saddam was doing – money, passports, visas, you name it – to further the terrorists ability to operate in other places throughout the world.”

Even more disturbing is what U.S. Congressman Joe Wilson (R -S.C.) said to me back in September 2004: “If this is what we know, imagine what we don’t know.”

Not only that, but what IS known, and the MSM fails to report....

[xzins]

It has been evident from the beginning that Iraq had intimate ties to Al Qaeda.

It is also evident that the authorization given the president by Congress on 18 Sep 01 included anyone who provided any type of aid or comfort whatsoever to terrorists.

The Iraq War is perfectly just, perfectly legal, and perfectly necessary.

[manglor]

The Salman Pak site just south of Baghdad has a full scale mock-up of an airliner for practice.

There are only 2 kinds of people in the world that need to practice storming an airliner-> terrorists and counter-terrorists.

Care to place bets on which Saddam was training?

[Rebelbase]

No, no, Salman Pak was a children's playground right beside the baby aspirin factory.

[xzins]

It was just a Hollyweird movie set. :>)

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

BTTT!

[thoughtomator]

Baby milk factory. The baby asprin factory was the VX plant in the Sudan.

[driftless]

Now even the most ardent anti-war libs acknowledge (or at least don't deny) that Hussein tried to have Bush I assassinated in the early nineties. Wouldn't an act like that signal to the war critics that Hussein was a wild beast who could not be contained by sanctions? That he would do whatever he could to strike back at the U.S. via terrorist surrogates? I guess the libs prefer to hide their heads in the sand and DENY, DENY, DENY.

[Blue State Insurgent]

Not only did Salman Pak have a mock-up of an airliner (9-11), but a train mock-up as well (Madrid and London).

[devolve]

[PhilDragoo]

I am now reading Stephen F. Hayes, The Connection: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America, HarperCollins, 2004.

Page 21:

Tenet, in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee on October 7, 2002, reported that the intelligence community had accumulated "solid reporting of senior-level contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda going back a decade."

[potlatch]

Great graphics from both of you!!

[ntnychik]

Lest we forget...

[devolve]

Mogadishu and Slick Willie's retreat/surrender of Somalia is archived on video by Osama bin Laden as showing Clinton - and therefore America - were and are unprepared "Cut & Run" paper tiger cowards - and would not stand, fight, prevail if he attacked the US Embassies (Clinton did nothing but make threats on TV) USS Cole
(Clinton again did zero)

Sure enough - Muslim terrorist sleeper cells living here in America then attacked the WTC in 1993 - and Slick Willie proceeded to ignore Islamic terrorism and only labeled them "criminals" and tried them here in "civilian criminal courts".....

Sure enough the Klintoons whipped it under the desk again


After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the WTC and Pentagon - (President George W. Bush: "You [the 911 terrorists] will hear us soon!") - and the USA soon sucessfully invaded Afghanistan and took on the Taliban and Al Qaeda....

Remember way when America was in Somalia it was (dem-PA) US Congressman-Coward Jack Murtha who told Slick Willie to "Cut & Run" in Somalia early even before "Blackhawk Down" after 2-3 Americans were killed by Islamic terrorists - again saying "American cannot win- We are the enemy in Somalia" - and now Murtha is playing "Kerry in Viet Nam II" again!

My "Blackhawk Down" graphic was made without the brave acting services of George Clooney and Hollyweird and phoney "hawks" like alleged US Marine "hero/traitor" Jack Murtha and John Kohnman (featured below)

President George W. Bush did not ignore or forget and will not "Cut & Run" like John Kerry-Kohn-Heinz
and Jerk Murtha

Yet Ted Kennedy and Slick Willie and Hillary and
Leahy and Biden are lecturing us about ethics now!



  NEVER   FORGET!  

[dixiechick2000]

That is one of your best posts, ever.

Thank you!

[potlatch]

That post deserves a BLUE RIBBON devolve!

[ntnychik]

You sure do say a lot with a few words and graphics (unlike other people I [ahem] may know). Great job!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

BTTT!