EXCLUSIVE: 3-Star General reveals additional details of former regime’s ties to terror (al Qaeda)

Regime of Terror ^ | 12-4-06 | Mark

[ikez78]

Lt. General Michael DeLong discusses intelligence behind U.S. concern over Ansar al-Islam terror/poison camp in Northern Iraq

A recent conversation Lt. General Michael DeLong revealed new information on prewar intelligence on Iraq that has received little, if any, public attention thus far. General DeLong was the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and was directly involved with the pre-invasion preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom. He offered the observation that Bush administration officials appear to have been reluctant thus far in explaining the prewar intelligence and evidence tying members of Saddam Hussein’s regime to the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al Islam terrorist group.

[ikez78]

nice list PING

[BIGLOOK]

Bump

[PhilDragoo]

MSNBC.com’s Preston Mendenhall is on assignment in northern Iraq. Greg Mathieson contributed to this report.

© 2006 MSNBC Interactive

[PhilDragoo]

See also Stephen F. Hayes, THE CONNECTION: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered AMERICA, HarperCollins, 1994.

[faq]

Appreciate all your time and research. Thanks for the ping.

[Valin]

ABSOLUTLY!

[GoLightly]

I sorta figure this to be a way to gear up for all of the hearings in the coming two years.

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[TexKat]

Bookmark

[dixiechick2000]

Thanks for the post and the pings!

BTTT!

I'll always bump that graphic, devolve.

[Peach]

Thanks for the ping, Ikez78. Like you, I remain actually stunned that the administration doesn't discuss or defend this position at ALL.

If a housewife sitting at her computer can do it, why can't the president?

And I'll add that if the president had discussed this matter with the seriousness it deserves, the support for the war in Iraq would be much, much higher than it currently is and our troops wouldn't be wondering why so many Americans don't support their mission.

[ikez78]

Bingo, and yet you have men like Gen. DeLong williing to stick their necks out and say it.

[TADSLOS]

Bookmarking.

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for the ping. In essence I have been harping this route since I joined this site. They had the stuff, hid and destroyed a lot of it, and shipped some to Syria and elsewhere.
And some had been found by our troops.
The problem obviously is will main stream America ever realize why the intel was much better then many on different fronts have made it appear.
And even if they where to be convinced given some hard to hide big finds, would they give two bits. After all the news might get in the way of their prime time boob tube fantasies.
It is easier to just keep repeating the mantra....Bush lied, and vote for demorats and RINOS.
And this is why the L/MSM will not go out of existence. To few percentage wise even have access to alternate news and views.

[There's millions of'em]

Mark

[browngreengold]

How dare you bring up actual facts when the lefty dims are still slumbering in their comfortable fantasy land.

Shame on you.

In addition to that, now I have to set aside several hours to actually read all that stuff you posted.

Shame on you.

When I should be spending my time helping to get the house cleaned up for company this weekend but now I have an excuse.

Shame on me.

:)

[Milligan]

"The only problem with this theory is that the camp was in a part of Iraq not under Saddam's control."

This is so old and not true. Saddam thought he still controlled that area in question. The war did not start in March of 2003. You have to remember the In between Wars from 1992-2003.

"Iraqi President Saddam Hussein does not recognize the no-fly zones and had been challenging U.S. and British aircraft there since Dec. 1998."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-02-25-us-airstrike_x.htm

The No Fly Zones were not approved by the UN.

"....Other countries, notably China and Russia, have condemned the no-fly zones as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, and they insist there is no backing for the policy under international law or UN resolutions."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1175950.stm


Plus Saddam did not like the Kurds having their autonomy.

If Saddam's forces were able to shoot US/UK planes patrolling illegal NFZ why couldn't he send his Iraqi Intelligence to give aid to Ansar al-Islam to destablize the Kurds autonomy?

And he did. The Kurds captured this man.

"A captured Iraqi intelligence officer of 20 years' standing, Abu Iman al-Baghdadi, who is held by the PUK, said Abu Wa'il is actively manipulating the Ansar on behalf of Iraqi intelligence.


Abu Iman al-Baghdadi: "Some of Ansar trained in Iraq"

"I was captured by the Kurds after Iraqi intelligence sent me to check what was happening with Abu Wa'il, following rumours that he'd been captured and handed over the CIA," al-Baghdadi said.

He added that Baghdad smuggles arms to the Ansar through the Kurdish area, and is using the group to make problems for the PUK, one of the opposition factions ranged against Saddam Hussein.

"The Ansar's basic allegiance is to al-Qaeda, but some of them were trained in Iraq and went Afghanistan," he said, interviewed in a Kurdish prison."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2149499.stm

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1122/p01s02-wome.html

Also....

"According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, a top captured Iraqi intelligence officer, Abu Iman al-Baghdadi, has indicated that one of the senior Ansar leaders, Abu Wail, is an Iraqi intelligence officer. If this is true then Saddam and his security services have some influence on Ansar. Al-Baghdadi’s claims are reinforced when one considers the radio chatter between Ansar forces and Iraqi army units heard by the Kurdish military. Furthermore, the leader of the PUK, Barhim Salih, claims that a group affiliated with Ansar is operating from Mosul, a city under Iraqi control at the time of writing."

http://www.ciss.ca/Comment_EnemyofMyEnemy.htm




If you read articles before the 2003 invasion of Iraq...there is so many connections between Iraqi Intelligence and al Queda affiliated terrorist groups.



Now we have amnesia about what happen in the past.

Are we going to sit around and let the Saddamite pull the wool over our eyes? It's starting to get me mad...its frustrating.

Bush Administration needs to get off their butts and let the cat out of the bag. Declassify some information please because I know there is a connection.

[Milligan]

The No Fly Zones were illegal according Saddam.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/crisis_in_the_gulf/latest_news/244582.stm

[Milligan]

3 January 1999
Yemen kidnappings 'were revenge for Iraq bombing'
By Tim Reid, Philip Sherwell and David Bamber


THE FBI has evidence that the Yemeni extremists involved in the kidnap and deaths of three British tourists last week were trained at terrorist camps run by the international terrorist Osama bin Laden.

Ten United States intelligence officers, who have flown to Yemen to investigate the hostage shoot-out, also believe that the 16 British, American and Australian tourists were kidnapped as "direct retribution" for last month's air strikes on Iraq, and not to achieve the release of local Islamic militants as Yemeni authorities claimed originally. The detectives suspect that the tourists may have been kidnapped to "shield" Saddam Hussein from further bombing raids, with a warning that they would die if Iraq was attacked again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1999/01/03/wyem03.html

Tuesday 5 January 1999

Yemen tourists were revenge targets
By Christopher Lockwood, Diplomatic Editor


"EVIDENCE was mounting yesterday that the three British tourists killed in Yemen last week were the first casualties of Operation Desert Fox.

As fear grew of more revenge attacks, it emerged that the "jihadists", holy warriors who seized the 16 Westerners, had apparently done so after failing to blow up the British consul in the port of Aden in southern Yemen. That plan was thought to have been a direct reprisal for the air strikes - making the three Britons the unwitting casualties of Tony Blair's inseparable alliance with Bill Clinton.....

...At the forefront of demands for revenge against Britain and America is the exiled Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, who reportedly trained the Yemeni kidnappers. He called on Islamic fighters to drive both powers from the Middle East, claiming that the air strikes were undertaken at the behest of Israel."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1999/01/05/wyem05.html

[shield]

bttt