Posted on 03/18/2006 11:03:51 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
NEWLY released documents seized in Iraq immediately after the American invasion in 2003 point to the presence of Al-Qaeda members in the country before the war and moves to hide traces of “chemical or biological materials” from United Nations weapons inspectors.
The documents were posted on the internet as part of a rolling programme by the US government to make public the contents of 48,000 boxes of untranslated papers and tapes relating to the workings of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Saddam is said to have routinely taped talks with cabinet members and intelligence chiefs.
John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, was ordered by President George W Bush to release the material. Hundreds of thousands of previously unseen documents and hundreds of hours of tapes will be placed on the web in the coming weeks.
The first documents to be released offer tantalising clues to possible Iraqi contacts with Al-Qaeda. An Iraqi intelligence report dated September 15, 2001 — four days after the attacks on America — says Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban were in contact with Iraq and Al-Qaeda members had visited the country.
It claims America had proof that the Iraqi government and “Bin Laden’s group” had agreed to co-operate to attack targets in America and that the US might strike Iraq and Afghanistan in retaliation.
However, the information comes from an unidentified Afghan informant who states merely that he heard it from an Afghan consul, also unnamed. According to ABC News, which translated the tapes, the claims are “sensational” but the sourcing is “questionable”.
Another document from a “trustworthy” source and dated August 2002 claims people with links to Al-Qaeda were in Iraq. There is a picture a few pages later of the Jordanian terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But the papers suggest Saddam’s agents were trying to verify the presence of Al-Qaeda rather than colluding with it.
Documents from 1997 confirm that Saddam was giving UN weapons inspectors the runaround by removing correspondence concerned with “prohibited weapons” and clearing “labs and storages of any traces of chemical or biological materials”.
The transcript of one tape recording shows an official named as Comrade Husayn expressing concern to Saddam that outsiders would find out about imported material, including some from America, apparently for chemical weapons.
“They have a bigger problem with the chemical programme than the biological programme,” he tells Saddam. “We have not told them that we used it on Iran, nor have we told them about the size or kind of chemical weapons that we produced and we have not told them the truth about the imported material.”
In another taped conversation from the mid-1990s, a man called al-Sahhaf — possibly a former information minister — says: “On the nuclear file, sir, are we saying we disclosed everything? No, we have uncleared problems in the nuclear field.”
Apparently confirming that the nuclear programme had been abandoned, he adds: “Everything is over, but did they know? No, sir, they did not know, not all the methods, not all the means, not all the scientists and not all the places.”
Saddam expelled the UN inspectors from Iraq in 1998.
Bush intervened personally to secure the release of the documents after Bill Tierney, an Arabic-speaking former UN weapons inspector hired by the government to translate
12 hours of Saddam’s tapes, revealed their contents at a private intelligence conference near Washington last month.
On one tape, recorded in the mid-1990s, the Iraqi dictator is heard to say: “Terrorism is coming. I told the Americans . . . and told the British as well . . . that in future there will be terrorism with weapons of mass destruction.”
Hint?
The Afghan Consul was "not unamed" in the Iraqi intelligence document, his name was clearly spelled as "Ahmed Dahestani". Also the Iraqi intelligence source in Afghanistan was not "unidentified" but the document had him identified by his number as 11002 and the document refer to attachment 1 for information about him, unfortunately attachment 1 was not part of the document posted on the Pentagon/FMSO website.
As this plays out, we are going to have fun. Obviously, Bush knew that Uncle Saddamm was knee deep with the terrorists and that he hadn`t quit the WMD game. When we got control of the info that backed that up, Bush could have dumped it out for a one day story that the MSM would have twisted to discredit it, however, this way they look foolish
And this, of course comes as a great suprise? Wonder what magic formula will be dreamed up to neutralize this information?
I guess the MSM only finds credibility when the documents contain a fax number from a Kinkos in Abilene.
Sad to say these tapes won't matter much. The ignorant masses have made up their mind on WMDs. and won't let facts get in the way . The media will TOTALLY ignore any new revelations.People like us here on FR will care but not many others I'm afraid. It's a closed case to the millions who depend on MSM for all their info.
Gee, maybe they ought to pay this tape to the US congress. That way they might get a clue.
Or when it's an "anonymous source" out of some reporter's imagination...
Proves Bush was right: discredit it.
Hey, we are winning, don`t give up now! The tapes will come out, they are to important to keep quite and they will cut the legs off those cute little Rats
I'm not giving up. I'm just telling you the truth as it seems to be . The numb masses don't care anymore about WMD, they say there were none and facts will not change their minds. The story is being ignored across the board except on some blogs.it's a dead issue to many if not most. Bush is not so hot on defending himself either and won't make the best of this either. Sad but true.
Ditto.
Ditto.
So Bush could do a better job of defending himself. What are we, potted plants? Let`s get on talk radio tomorrow and challege them to tell the truth.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/011/990ieqmb.asp
SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support--temporarily, it seems--after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group.
Good timing, as they'll be able to smash this over the heads of the Dems in the 06 elections.
They should beat this drum hard.
If the MSM was smart, they'll start reporting the news instead of trying to create what they want the news to be. These documents are the smoking guns regardless how many spins the MSM wants to put on them. The MSM is welcome aboard the Reality Train whenever they want.
BTTT
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