Posted on 03/11/2008 12:22:16 PM PDT by newbie2008
The Clinton administration talked about firm evidence linking Saddam Hussein's regime to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network years before President Bush made the same statements. The issue arose again this month after the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States reported there was no "collaborative relationship" between the old Iraqi regime and bin Laden. Democrats have cited the staff report to accuse Mr. Bush of making inaccurate statements about a linkage. Commission members, including a Democrat and two Republicans, quickly came to the administration's defense by saying there had been such contacts. In fact, during President Clinton's eight years in office, there were at least two official pronouncements of an alarming alliance between Baghdad and al Qaeda. One came from William S. Cohen, Mr. Clinton's defense secretary. He cited an al Qaeda-Baghdad link to justify the bombing of a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan.
(Excerpt) Read more at papillonsartpalace.com ...
Proof Positive she is an Idiote! For only an Idiote would link the two - everyone knows, and has known for seven years, that Al Qida hated Saddam and Saddamists and would have nothing to do with them. To not know this is to be Ignorant about the whole Middle East - no way to be for someone who intends to rule the whole Free World!
Can we definitively say Hussein didn’t have connections with Al Qaida and the Taliban? That’s a pretty strong conclusion for something that wouldn’t require a whole lot of activity on Husseins part to be false.
That doesn’t count. Everyone knows the Iraq invasion was done on a whim with no prior intelligence.
"In 1998, the United States also changed its underlying policy toward Iraq from containment to regime change and began to examine options to effect such a change, including support for Iraqi opposition leaders within the country and abroad."
"In the 4 years since the inspectors, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al-Qaida members, though there is apparently no evidence of his involvement in the terrible events of September 11, 2001."
"It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein wiill continue to increase his capability to wage biological and chemical warfare and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East which, as we know all too well, affects American security."
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002
Congressional Record – Sen. Hillary Clinton
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2002_record&page=S10288&position=all
In in 1998, an Arab intelligence officer, who knows Saddam personally, predicted in Newsweek: "Very soon you will be witnessing large-scale terrorist activity run by the Iraqis." The Arab official said these terror operations would be run under "false flags" --spook-speak for front groups--including bin Laden's organization.
Then there were the predictions by an Iraqi with ties to Iraqi intelligence, Naeem Abd Mulhalhal, in Qusay's own newspaper several weeks before the attacks that stated bin Laden would “demolish the Pentagon after he destroys the White House and ”bin Laden would strike America “on the arm that is already hurting.” (referencing a second IRAQI sponsored attack on the World Trade Center). Another reference to New York was “[bin Laden] will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra everytime he hears his songs.” (e.g., “New York, New York”) which identified New York, New York as a target. Mulhalhal also stated, “The wings of a dove and the bullet are all but one and the same in the heart of a believer." which references an airplane attack.
The Arabic language daily newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabic also cited the cooperation between Iraq, bin Laden and Al December 1998 editorial, which predicted that “President Saddam Hussein, whose country was subjected to a four day air strike, will look for support in taking revenge on the United States and Britain by cooperating with Saudi oppositionist Osama Bin-Laden, whom the United States considers to be the most wanted person in the world.” This info is in the link provided below. How could these people have had foreknowledge without Iraq being involved?
Warning...slow loading .pdf file. This was from a lawsuit filed against Iraq after 9/11...the court ruled against Iraq.
There was also another lawsuit filed by the family of John O’Neill (a former FBI agent who captured Ramzi Yousef after the 1993 WTC bombings) after he died in the WTC on 9/11. His personal files from his years of traveling around the world investigating al-Qaeda are were used as evidence in the lawsuit. The evidence includes documents unearthed in the headquarters of the Mukhabarat (Iraq's intelligence service) and information gleaned from the interrogation of both al-Qaeda and Iraqi prisoners. (Link below). It also quotes Vincent Cannistraro, the former CIA counter-terrorism chief, who stated in October 2000 that Iraq had been wanting to carry out terrorist attacks, and that the Iraqi military had been in contact with Osama bin Laden.
We know from these IIS documents that beginning in 1992 the former Iraqi regime regarded bin Laden as an Iraqi Intelligence asset. We know from IIS documents that the former Iraqi regime provided safe haven and financial support to an Iraqi who has admitted to mixing the chemicals for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. We know from IIS documents that Saddam Hussein agreed to Osama bin Laden's request to broadcast anti-Saudi propaganda on Iraqi state-run television. We know from IIS documents that a "trusted confidante" of bin Laden stayed for more than two weeks at a posh Baghdad hotel as the guest of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
Abu Nidal, September 11 and Saddam The terrorist network may be closer knit than we think.
Weekly Standard: The Mother of All Connections
List of newspaper article in the 90's which mention the world's concern regarding the growing relationship between OBL and Saddam:
Son of Saddam coordinates OBL activities:
The AQ connection (excellent):
Western Nightmare:
Saddam's link to OBL:
NYT: Iraq and AQ agree to cooperate:
Document linking them:
Iraq and terrorism - no doubt about it:
A federal judge rules there are links:
Wall Street Journal on Iraq and AQ:
Iraq and Iran contact OBL:
More evidence:
Saddam's AQ connection:
Further connections:
What a court of law said about the connections:
Some miscellaneous stuff on connections:
Saddam's Ambassador to Al Qaeda: (February 2004, Weekly Standard)
Yes - it's NewsMax but loaded with interesting bullet points.
Saddam's Fingerprints on NY Bombing (Wall Street Journal, June 1993)
Colin Powell: Iraq and AQ Partners for Years (CNN, February 2003)
The Iraq-Al Qaeda Connections (September 2003, Richard Miniter)
Oil for Food Scandal Ties Iraq and Al Qaeda (June 2003)
Saddam and OBL Make a Pact (The New Yorker, February 2003):
Al Qaeda's Poison Gas (Wall Street Journal, April 2004):
Wolfowitz Says Saddam behind 9/11 Attacks:
Saddam behind first WTC attack - PBS, Laurie Mylroie:
Growing Evidence of Saddam and Al Qaeda Link, The Weekly Standard, July 2003:
Qusay Hussein Coordinated Iraq special operations with Bin Laden Terrorist Activities, Yossef Bodansky, National Press Club
The Western Nightmare: Saddam and Bin Laden vs. the Rest of the World, The Guardian Unlimited:
Saddam Link to Bin Laden, Julian Borger, The Guardian, February 1999
The Al Qaeda Connection, The Weekly Standard, July 2003
Cheney lectures Russert on Iraq/911 Link, September 2003:
No Question About It, National Review, September 2003
Iraq: A Federal Judges Point of View
Mohammed's Account links Iraq to 9/11 and OKC:
Free Republic Thread that mentions some books Freepers might be interested in on this topic:
The Proof that Saddam Worked with AQ, The Telegraph, April 2003:
Saddam's AQ Connection, The Weekly Standard, September 2003
September 11 Victims Sue Iraq:
Osama's Best Friend: The Further Connections Between Al Qaeda and Saddam, The Weekly Standard, November 2003
Terrorist Behind 9/11 Attacks Trained by Saddam, The Telegraph, December 2003
James Woolsey Links Iraq and AQ, CNN Interview, March 2004, Also see Posts #34 and #35
A Geocities Interesting Web Site with maps and connections:
Bin Laden indicted in federal court, read down to find information that Bin Laden agreed to not attack Iraq and to work cooperatively with Iraq:
Case Closed, The Weekly Standard, November 03
CBS - Lawsuit: Iraq involved in 9/11:
Exploring Iraq's Involvement in pre-9/11 Acts, The Indianapolis Star:
The Iraq/AQ Connection: Richard Minister again
Militia Defector says Baghdad trained Al Qaeda fighters in chemical weapons, July 2002
The Clinton View of Iraq/AQ Ties, The Weekly Standard, December 2003
Saddam Controlled the Camps (Iraq/AQ Ties): The London Observer, November 01
Saddam's Terror Ties that Critics Ignore, National Review, October 2003:
Tape Shows General Wesley Clark linking Iraq and AQ:
The Missing Link (What the Senate Ingelligence Report Said about Iraq/AQ Connections)
Credit to Peach for the above info.
Credit to joesbucks for the following links:
Dozens of links here:
Just a few of those links include:
The Clinton Justice Department's indictment against OBL in federal court which mentions the terrorist's connections to Iraq. November 4, 1998. The federal indictment:
Iraq and AQ agree to cooperate. The federal indictment against OBL working in concert with Iraq and Iran is mentioned. November 1998. The New York Times
Saddam reaching out to OBL January 1, 1999. Newsweek
ABC news reports on the Osama/Saddam connections January 14, 1999. ABC News
Western Nightmare: Saddam and OBL versus the World. Iraq recruited OBL. February 6, 1999. The Guardian
Saddam's Link to OBL February 6, 1999. The Guardian
Saddam offered asylum to bin Laden February 13, 1999. AP
Video coverage from drzz:
Saddam- Al Qaeda VIDEOS library (MUST SEE)
And kabar submitted these two little gems showing Bin Laden supported Iraq and its struggle against the US and the West.
1996 Fatwa: "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places."
Ping
Haven’t seen this one.
I hope it is made into a commercial closer to the Pres. elections. It will make both hillary and obama look like the idiots they are.
Clinton’s indictment of Bin Ladin makes the charge that Bin Ladin and Saddam were collaborating.
And, of course, under Clinton Congress passed its resolution calling for Saddam’s overthrow.
But that was nothing. Dems voting for war in 2003 ran straight outside from their “yes” vote to jump in front of TV cameras decrying the war. They are the supreme political acrobats.
Simpletons like to imagine that Bin Ladin was opposed to Saddam because he supposedly volunteered to fight him.
The reality is a bit more “nuanced”.
In a war between his country, Saudi Arabia, and Saddam, he refused to support his own country unless he were appointed commander of its armed forces. Fat chance.
In other words, he refused to oppose Saddam.
The reality is a bit more “nuanced”.
They have a similar simple view on the connections between Al Qaeda and Russia, thinking they couldn't possibly be conspiring together against the west because of what happened twenty years ago in Afghanistan, and the business in Chechnya.
Poisoned KGB Defector Exposed Russia's Backing of al-Qaeda
Since escaping to England in 2000, Litvinenko was a thorn in the side of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Litvinenko, a colonel in the FSB (the renamed Soviet KGB), made a number of explosive claims. In his 2002 book, Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within, he charged that the 1999 series of apartment bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities were the handiwork of Putin (a former KGB/FSB chief) and the FSB, not Chechen separatists, as Putin had claimed. Putin used the bombings, which killed over 300 and injured many more, to stir up outrage and public support for a second brutal war on Chechnya.
One of Litvinenko's most important accusations is his charge that Ayman al-Zawahiri, reportedly al-Qaeda's "Number 2" commander, second only to Osama bin Laden, had been trained by the Soviet KGB/FSB. "I was working in that section at the time," Litvinenko said in a 2005 interview in Poland, "and I can confirm the fact [that] Zawahiri was not the only link between the FSB and Al Qaeda."
While it remains to be seen if the media and authorities will ever report the truth about who really ordered the hit on Litvinenko, we can be certain that the Establishment press will not utter a peep regarding the ties between al-Qaeda and our "ally" Russia in the ongoing war on terror.
I have always heard that charge, but I have hesitated to give it credence. It doesn't strike me as being in any way out of line with other chechen attacks in Dagestan and the other neighboring republics.
I tended to support the chechens during the early nineties, right after the fall of the Soviet Union, seeing them as being something like central asian Estonians, yearning to be free. When they won effective independence in the mid-nineties, rather than begin to build their country, they began to launch attacks into Ingushetia and Dagestan, including fairly brutal attacks against civilian targets. Thats when I decided I had misjudged them. They were never going to simply build a free Chechnya, they would only launch further attacks until more of the region was at war.
This was years before 911, when I still saw Islam in a fairly neutral light. Why would they attack Moscow? During the same time period Bin Ladin was training central asians from every one of the 'Stans, including Chinese turks. And chechens. Bin Ladin was in effect building his own empire in Central Asia. So, why not? We effectively turned our head to what Bin Ladin was up to during the same time period. So why would he attack us? and the answer is, again, thats what they do.
ping
ping
Good work.
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