Posted on 03/11/2008 5:56:52 AM PDT by jdm
A new study commissioned by the Pentagon has reviewed over 600,000 documents captured in the invasion of Iraq, and the analysis shows no evidence of operational ties between Saddam Hussein’s regime and al-Qaeda. It did find operational ties and more between Saddam and other terrorist groups, however, which will likely be lost in an avalanche of I-told-you-sos:
An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein’s regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network.
The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam’s regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy Newspapers. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.
The new study of the Iraqi regime’s archives found no documents indicating a “direct operational link” between Hussein’s Iraq and al-Qaida before the invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report.
The study found, though, that Saddam Hussein turned Iraq into a state sponsor of terrorism, including for groups with “global” scope. Saddam had openly bragged about some of his activities. He made a great show of paying $25,000 to families of Palestinian suicide bombers, for instance, and at one point held a convention for international terrorists in Baghdad.
McClatchy reporter Warren Strobel also includes a strange passage in this report:
As recently as last July, Bush tried to tie al-Qaida to the ongoing violence in Iraq.
“The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is a crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims,” the president said.
That has little to do with pre-war intelligence. Not too many people dispute that AQ has an active presence in Iraq in the post-invasion period, mostly because AQ keeps reminding people of it. The argument which the Pentagon report addresses is whether AQ existed in Iraq before we invaded, or whether they entered Iraq as a consequence of the invasion. Clearly, the Pentagon report believes it to be the latter.
As this report makes clear, though, Saddam sponsored terrorist groups outside of Iraq as well as conducted terror inside Iraq with his own security forces. He made himself into a malevolent force in the region, and he represented a threat to American and Western interests in the region. Had we let the sanctions regime collapse — which was what was happening when we invaded — Saddam would have restarted his WMD programs and would have continued in his ambitions to make himself the leader of a unified and hostile Arab state.
Maybe Sadaam should ask for a do-over....
The source article healine reads,” Iraq had no link to al-Qaida.”
The text says, “... shows no evidence of operational ties between Saddam Hussein’s regime and al-Qaeda.”
There is a huge dufference in those two statements.
Then, there is this:
According to a top secret U.S. government memorandum obtained by The Weekly Standard,”Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al Qaeda training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda.”
http://www.freedomsenemies.com/_more/saddamalqaeda.htm
What’s a body to believe?
Rubbish. Prove it.
Hi there, MurryMom.
The therapy isn’t working, I see.
Saddam was a thug
LOL you call a man who used biological chemicals on women and children a thug???????????????????????
Well just duh. Strange now isn't it that AQ would be attracted to killing US in any provinces on this globe. Think maybe that was a known to use their turf as the place to draw in a bunch of deranged killers. Or maybe you think it was unfair for US policy to be drawing a line in their sand pit.
The idea is not to expel them to another place but to rid this world of them once and for all. Here I thought the left was alll about saving things, why would you want them expelled to rebirth their barbaric slaughtering of innocence someplace else?
Glad to see that you have not let facts get in the way of your beliefs...stop by more often...I promise that we will lock up all pointy and sharp things so you will not hurt yourself.
Yep, Saddam had no WMD nor did he have the capacity to make them. /s
The clear operational ties are also that both were Sunni, both hated America, both hated Israel, both hated Shiites and both wanted to kill them all.
To this day, the Czechs still stand by their claim that Mohammed Atta met with Al-Ani, the Iraqi foreign minister, not long before 9/11; that Atta's presence cannot be accounted for during that time; and more than one witness has said he personally escorted al-Qaeda leaders IN Iraq around before 9/11.
Saddam violated all 17 points of the cease fire from 1991 Persian Gulf War. That should have been enough to depose this guy, but not for liberals who hate America. He also violated his agreements on weapons inspectors and UN oversight over his oil for palace program.
This is old news. We have known for years that this was hyped up to scare nervous Nellie conservatives into supporting a Wilsonian war.
I'm glad GWB has us playing as a "visitor" in their ballpark. I'd hate to have to play as the "home" team in this war. IMO
They will, I predict, use this to initiate a new round of impeachment rhetoric against President Bush and, by association, John McCain.
The Czechs may stand by it but the U.S. government long ago rejected the Atta story. I remember that at the time this fairy tale was used to quite effectively to scare conservatives into believing that the war somehow related to national defense rather than the truth that it was a Wilsonisan crusade.
The way McCain has been campaigning for Obama as of late, I wouldn't be surprised if he immediately resigned his Senate seat, cuffed himself, and walked all the way to prison on his own.
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