BBC would go with Kos, DU or the HuffPost before they’d actually check the solid facts.
The Iraq-Al Queda link was the reason that Bill Clinton launched a Cruise Missile attack on the Pharmaceutical Plant in Khartoum.
http:/www.9-11commission.gov/
9/11 Commission Report: Final Report Documents Iraq/alQaeda Link
National Commission on Terrorsit Attacks ^ | July 2004 | 9/11 Commission
Posted on 07/30/2004 6:33:08 PM EDT by beebuster2000
The 9/11 Commission Report is extraordinarily well written, reads like a gripping novel and contains many startling and astounding revelations. Probably most of what you think you know about 9/11 and the 15 years of terror activity leading up to it is wrong.
But no documentation from the report is more astounding, or has been more mis-reported than the links between Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. After the media blitz, you are probably under the impression that “no ties existed”?
How wrong you are, according to the report. Here are a few quotes from the body of the report:
Page 66:
“In March 1998, after Bin Ladin’s public fatwa against the United States , two al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraq intelligence. In July, an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan to meet first with the Taliban and then with Bin Ladin. Sources reported that one, or perhaps both of these meetings was apparently arranged through Bin Ladin’s Egyptian deputy, Zawahiri, who had ties of his own to the Iraqis.”
Page 66:
“According to the reporting, Iraqi officials offered Bin Ladin a safe haven in Iraq . Bin Ladin declined, apparently judging that his circumstances in Afghanistan remained more favorable than the Iraqi alternative. The reports describe friendly contacts and indicate some common themes in both sides’ hatred of the United States .”
Page 128:
On November 4, 1998 , the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York unsealed its indictment of Bin Ladin, charging him with conspiracy to attack U.S. defense installations. The indictment also charged that al Qaeda had allied itself with Sudan , Iran , and Hezbollah. The original sealed indictment had added that al Qaeda had “reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq.” This passage led (Richard) Clarke, who for years had read intelligence reports on Iraqi-Sudanese cooperation on chemical weapons, to speculate to Berger that a large Iraqi presence at chemical facilities in Khartoum was “probably a direct result of the Iraq-Al Qaida agreement” Clarke added that VX precursor traces found near al Shifa were the “exact formula used by Iraq”.
The 9/11 report does say that “no evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out attacks against the United States (page 66)” were documented.
But given the voluminous reports of repetitive contact between Iraq and al Qaeda, wouldn’t any responsible and forceful President of the Untied States correctly conclude that action against both al Qaeda and Iraq was prudent. And wouldn’t a bold and courageous leader take such action if International bodies failed to heed the warning and disarm Iraq according to their own numerous resolutions?
Oh, I guess a President did take such action.