Senate: No Prewar Saddam-al-Qaida Ties ( Dems are gloating again )

New York Post ^ | 09/08/2006 | Jim Abrams

[SirLinksalot]

Senate: No Prewar Saddam-al-Qaida Ties

By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's no evidence Saddam Hussein had ties with al-Qaida, according to a Senate report on prewar intelligence that Democrats say undercuts President Bush's justification for invading Iraq.

Bush administration officials have insisted on a link between the Iraqi regime and terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Intelligence agencies, however, concluded there was none.

Republicans countered that there was little new in the report and Democrats were trying to score election-year points with it.

The declassified document released Friday by the intelligence committee also explores the role that inaccurate information supplied by the anti-Saddam exile group the Iraqi National Congress had in the march to war.

It concludes that postwar findings do not support a 2002 intelligence community report that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program, possessed biological weapons or ever developed mobile facilities for producing biological warfare agents.

The 400-page report comes at a time when Bush is emphasizing the need to prevail in Iraq to win the war on terrorism while Democrats are seeking to make that policy an issue in the midterm elections.

It discloses for the first time an October 2005 CIA assessment that prior to the war Saddam's government "did not have a relationship, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates."

Bush and other administration officials have said that the presence of Zarqawi in Iraq before the war was evidence of a connection between Saddam's government and al-Qaida. Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. airstrike in June this year.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the report was "nothing new."

[airborne]

Don't be too sure.

Our Freeper 'veritas' is still translating.

[lugsoul]

"No one in the present administration said there was a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam"

Wow. You are pretty far out on a limb with that one.

[lugsoul]

That's an impressive fabrication, since there is no evidence that the Ansar al-Islam camp was carrying out any operations against the Kurds to "control that area brutally." They did, however, have a few skirmished with Iranians across the border.

[tobyhill]

This non-story is propelling it's way through the MSM but one question the REPUBLICAN Controlled Senate Intelligence Committee has failed to answer is how did Zarqawi get into Iraq without someone knowing?

[Defiant]

Is that you, Jim Webb?

I recall reading many articles prior to the Iraq war about Ansar al-islam and how it was treating the people within its range. It was establishing a mini-taliban state around the camp, and villagers who wore western clothes or who violated the extreme sharia laws that al-qaida demands were being murdered. Was that false? What is the source of your all-knowing information?

[Positive]

"There's no evidence Saddam Hussein had ties with al-Qaida, according to a Senate report..."

This kind of opinionated reporting infuriates me.

There is a logical, old axiom that goes: Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

So even if the statement "there's no evidence Saddam Hussein had ties to al-Qaida" is a direct quote from the Senate report, it is not necessarily true.

Why doesn't the Senate declare that there is no evidence that Osammy bin laden is still alive? Would that be either accurate or meaningful.

[ChadGore]

Hello?

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-09-07T180146Z_01_L07918606_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ-QAEDA-MUHAJIR.xml

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Al Jazeera airs audio of new Iraq al Qaeda leader

Thu Sep 7, 2006 7:02 PM BST

| | RSS

[] []

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's new leader called on Muslims to unify ranks with insurgents in Iraq, according to an audio tape aired by Al Jazeera television on Thursday.

"Place your hands in our hands ... our enemy has unified his ranks, now is the time to unite," said the speaker, identified by Al Jazeera as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.

Muhajir, also believed to use the name Abu Ayyub al-Masri, became the group's leader after the killing of his predecessor Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. air strike in June. He has vowed to avenge Zarqawi's killing.

Al Qaeda makes up about five percent of Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency but its suicide bombers have been responsible for some of the worst violence, often killing over 100 people in a single attack.

Iraq's south is dominated by Shi'ites who took power in the country after the 2003 U.S.-led war while central and northern cities are chiefly Sunni areas, where insurgents have been active against the Shi'ite-led government and U.S.-led forces.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters

[ChadGore]

This is a real person.

He's in a real place. (Iraq)

He names his group of terrorists what ever he wants.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is a reality.

[lugsoul]

Ah, the old "I recall reading..." meme.

Yeah, a "mini-taliban state" - from the goat pen over to the creek.

The Kurds could've crushed this group like a bug. They were in a tiny, isolated area snug up against the Iranian border. They were as likely to "control the area brutally" as the Blue Man Group.

[ChadGore]

This was a real person.

He was in a real place. (Iraq)

He names his group of terrorists what ever he wants.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is a reality.

[eyespysomething]

OK, how about this then?

Document: Iraqi Intelligence met with Bin Laden in 1995 (Re-Post For A Reminder)

[lugsoul]

Trying to change the subject?

It is an unverified document that no one in military or civilian intelligence has authenticated or vouched for. There isn't a shred of corroborating evidence that it happened from any other intel source, whether sigint or humint.

I know this is a difficult thing for a lot - increasingly, a WHOLE lot - of FReepers to understand, but the fact that a piece of paper says something doesn't mean it is true. Paper will stand anything you can write on it.

[tobyhill]

Senate Intelligence Committee Determines Zarqawi Only Pretending To Be Al-Qaeda.

[Defiant]

Ah, the old use of the word "meme" meme, to make your opinion sound oh so sophisticated, while reducing the other person's to a mere recitation of something "out there" on the web. Yeah, that supports your opinion, just as much as your characterization of ansar's camp as a "goat pen". Unless you are in the military or CIA and have some basis for being so smug and snarky, you are just a guy in his underwear who has turned anti-war for some reason, and is out there trying to make everyone else as miserable as you are.

I read in 3rd grade that George Washington was our first President, and, mirabile dictu! I still remember it. That's an amazing thing about human beings--they have memories that stretch decades, and sometimes when they provide opinions, those opinions are based upon facts, figures, and information that they read days, weeks, even YEARS before. Wow. Now that is amazing, isn't it?

Instead of denying that such articles existed, or that they were wrong when they were written, you state matter of factly that it was impossible for Ansar to have committed brutal acts within its spere of influence in Northern Iraq. Unless you have special intelligence source information, you must have "read" articles that allowed you to form this opinion. Care to share with us the source of your expertise, so we don't have to just accept your words as the given truth? That might lend credence to your position. But you're just here for a drive by, aren't you?

[brazzaville]

Good morning.

Can anyone come up with a good reason why we are supposed to believe anything that comes out of the CIA?

Elements of the CIA have clearly tried to bring W down and at best the Agency appears to be incompetent. Tie the organization in with the State Department and the DNC and it looks to me like a coup is being attempted.

Michael Frazier

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[cwb]

"That's an impressive fabrication, since there is no evidence that the Ansar al-Islam camp was carrying out any operations against the Kurds to "control that area brutally."

---

And you are very WRONG...as usual.

Ansar agents killed Shawkat Hajji Mushir, a PUK general and member of the ruling council, along with several other people. Ansar has been involved in assassinations for some time, killing a governor of a Kurdish region and narrowly missed killing one of the Kurdistan Regional Government's prime ministers. In February 2001, they killed Franso Hariri, a prominent member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party leadership. While the International Crisis Group has made attempts to downplay the group's significance, calling it a "minor irritant in local Kurdish politics," that's not entirely true, as Ansar was extremely destabilizing to the PUK and to a lesser degree the KDP.

Both the Christian Science Monitor and Human Rights Watch have documented instances of brutality that Ansar has committed on the local Kurdish populations. HRW even interviewed Ansar members in PUK custody who gave credible details about training in AQ camps in Afghanistan. During the Afghanistan War, a document found in an al-Qaeda guest house by the NY Times discussed the creation of an "Iraqi Kurdistan Islamic Brigade" which vowed to "expel those Jews and Christians from Kurdistan and join the way of Jihad, [and] rule every piece of land...with the Islamic Shari'a rule." Below are just a few examples of these stories.


http://hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/ansarbk020503.htm (Human Rights Watch Report)

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5571 (Ansar, AQ and Al-Zarqawi)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0315/p01s04-wome.html

http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/2003/02/spotlight_on_ansar_alislam.php

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/1998/11/98110602_nlt.html

[Defiant]

Thanks for the quick backup documentation to what I was saying. So much for lugsoul's "I read an article meme" meme. Facts are a wonderful thing.

[cwb]

You're welcome. One of the reasons it was so quick is because it's a summation of an article I occassionaly post which contains many of your same points. It's rather long, but if you're interested, you can check it out as it also contradicts many of the liberals lies:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1683075/posts

[OldFriend]

Same old same old misrepresentations and lies. Just heard some reporterette add that the administration has ALWAYS insisted that there was a connection between Iraq and Al qaeda.