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Iraqi Official Testifies to Links Between Saddam and Al Qaeda
New York Sun ^ | September 14, 2006 | ELI LAKE

Posted on 09/14/2006 4:32:52 AM PDT by Jim Robinson

WASHINGTON — A deputy prime minister of Iraq yesterday offered a sharp contradiction of the conventional wisdom here that Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Al Qaeda had no connection before the 2003 war, flatly contradicting a recent report from the Senate's intelligence committee.

In a speech in which he challenged the belief of war critics that Iraqis' lives are now worse than under Saddam Hussein, Barham Salih said, "The alliance between the Baathists and jihadists which sustains Al Qaeda in Iraq is not new, contrary to what you may have been told." He went on to say, "I know this at first hand. Some of my friends were murdered by jihadists, by Al Qaeda-affiliated operatives who had been sheltered and assisted by Saddam's regime."

A Kurdish politician who took his high school exams from inside a Baathist prison, Mr. Salih said he was the target of the alliance between jihadists, Baathists, and Al Qaeda in 2001, when a group known as Ansar al-Islam tried to assassinate him. In 2002, envoys of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two Kurdish parties sharing sovereignty over northern Iraq between the two Iraq wars, presented the CIA with evidence that the organization that tried to kill Mr. Salih had been in part funded and directed by Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard.

Those words directly contradict a recent report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that declassified a 2005 CIA assessment of Iraq's pre-war ties to Al Qaeda and found that none existed. In an interview after the speech yesterday, Mr. Salih said he was unaware of the CIA assessment. But he added, "There were links between Ansar al-Islam and Al Qaeda. The information at time [in 2002] was quite different...

(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; barhamsalih; iraq; nicepostboss; saddam; wot
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1 posted on 09/14/2006 4:32:53 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
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To: Jim Robinson

Well i wonder if the NYSun is going to be the only paper publishing this little tidbit.


2 posted on 09/14/2006 4:36:18 AM PDT by Reform4Bush
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To: Reform4Bush

Wait ... Sen. Rockefeller said ...


3 posted on 09/14/2006 4:37:20 AM PDT by sono (One Party is interested in confronting this threat - the other only in confronting Bush - Mark Steyn)
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To: Jim Robinson
It's a whole other world inside the Beltway!

Wonder why the Dems are so worried about having more seats, when they already call the shots.(sarcasm)

4 posted on 09/14/2006 4:37:32 AM PDT by airborne (Fecal matter is en route to fan! Contact is imminent!)
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To: Jim Robinson

Thanks for posting this!! BTTT !!


5 posted on 09/14/2006 4:37:35 AM PDT by musicman
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To: Jim Robinson

bttt


6 posted on 09/14/2006 4:39:21 AM PDT by BenLurkin ("The entire remedy is with the people." - W. H. Harrison)
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To: Jim Robinson; Coop; Just A Nobody

Bump and ping.


7 posted on 09/14/2006 4:40:30 AM PDT by RedRover (Dump Murtha! Support Diana Irey for Congress!)
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To: Jim Robinson
I always found it interesting that Al Qaeda was in just about every single ME country EXCEPT supposedly Iraq.
8 posted on 09/14/2006 4:41:20 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
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To: mainepatsfan

Well Saddam would never allow it. Never ever. Saddam hated radical Islamic terror groups, dontchaknow?

/sarcasm


9 posted on 09/14/2006 4:48:14 AM PDT by Reform4Bush
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To: mainepatsfan

BTTT


10 posted on 09/14/2006 4:53:16 AM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK (In everyday life there is more than meets the eye to reach the depths of truth we must DRAGTHEWATERS)
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To: Jim Robinson
Good find, Jim! Many Muslim groups consider Muslims of other sects to be infidels but, when it comes down to hating the Jews and the West, alliances are deemed a necessity.
11 posted on 09/14/2006 4:55:53 AM PDT by wolfcreek (You can spit in our tacos and you can rape our dogs but, you can't take away our freedom!)
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To: Reform4Bush

Yeah he was our great ally against them. /s


12 posted on 09/14/2006 4:59:32 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
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To: Jim Robinson
Thanks for posting...just e-mailed it to Limbaugh, Hannity, Hume, etc.


13 posted on 09/14/2006 5:01:48 AM PDT by pookie18 ([Hillary Rotten] Clinton Happens...as does Dr. Demento Dean, Bela Pelosi & Benedick Durbin!!)
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To: Jim Robinson; ikez78

Paging the Senate Senate Intelligence Committee.

Ikez78 - ping aling.


14 posted on 09/14/2006 5:05:08 AM PDT by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they captured or killed.)
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To: mainepatsfan
I always found it interesting that Al Qaeda was in just about every single ME country EXCEPT supposedly Iraq.

Following that logic, it's reasonable to assume that just because AQ is somewhere doesn't mean that they're welcome.

Al-Qa'ida is in America. American CIA agents have contact with al-Qa'ida members. That doesn't mean that AQ and the U.S. are in cahoots, or that the CIA launched 9/11.

Powers, even opposing ones, having low-to-mid level contact isn't as nefarious as it sounds in the intelligence game. We've been overplaying the ominous sounding "Saddam/AQ" link, just as the Democrats are trying to deny it existed at all. Both views are misleading, but we should know better than to give them ammo like this. It winds up hurting us more when we stretch the truth.

15 posted on 09/14/2006 5:06:58 AM PDT by Steel Wolf (- Islam will never survive being laughed at. -)
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To: Jim Robinson

Excellent.


16 posted on 09/14/2006 5:09:50 AM PDT by jveritas (Support The Commander in Chief in Times of War)
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To: Jim Robinson
The other day on FOX they had that Iraqi general (I think his name is Sadar...or something like that) and he also said that UBL/Al Qaeda was in Iraq well before the war. He even recounted a conversation he had with Saddam about who UBL was. Saddam told him he was a rich Saudi there to "build air fields."

This is the same general that says Saddam loaded up planes with WMD to get them out of Iraq before the war. I believe he's written a book.

17 posted on 09/14/2006 5:26:20 AM PDT by tsmith130
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To: jveritas
I believe that Saddam was providing funding and sanctuary to AlQueda and that he provided his experts and the anthrax for the events following 9-11.

We know with absolute certainty that he was giving monies to the families of terrorists willing to blow themselves up in Israel.

He is the hater of Christians and Jews and the United States in particular. His goal, as we know for certain, was to annihilate Israel.

If you are a supporter of Alqueda and its' branches, YOU ARE A PART OF AL QUEDA!!

18 posted on 09/14/2006 5:26:54 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: Jim Robinson

Can we expect to see this via Maureen D., Katie C., CNN, ABC, NBC, and all the others? No? How foolish of me.


19 posted on 09/14/2006 5:47:50 AM PDT by Old Grumpy
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To: pookie18
Perhaps it may be worth emailing to liberal media establishment with a short letter asking a similar question:

Can you imagine how much your ratings will go up if you shed your liberal burden pressing you down for a just a couple of broadcasts and report what is actually happening?
20 posted on 09/14/2006 6:05:02 AM PDT by FreedomProtector
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