Posted on 09/25/2002 6:00:43 PM PDT by HAL9000
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's national security adviser on Wednesday accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime of sheltering members of the al-Qaida terrorist network in Baghdad and helping Osama bin Laden's operatives in developing chemical weapons.Condoleezza Rice's comments -- by far the strongest statements yet from the U.S. government alleging al-Qaida contacts with the Iraqi government -- were aired Thursday on PBS' "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.''
Her accusations came as the Bush administration continues to make its case to a skeptical world that Saddam should be removed from power, by force if necessary. The charges also came as the White House sought to fend off accusations from Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle that Bush was playing politics with the debate over war in Iraq.
"We clearly know that there were in the past and have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of al-Qaida going back for actually quite a long time,'' Rice said. "We know too that several of the (al-Qaida) detainees, in particular some high-ranking detainees, have said that Iraq provided some training to al-Qaida in chemical weapons development.''
Previously, the widely held view has been that while Saddam and bin Laden both oppose the United States, their motivations are too different for them to work together. Saddam seeks secular power; bin Laden's drive comes from religious motivations and his opposition to the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world.
But Rice said, "There clearly are contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq that can be documented; there clearly is testimony that some of the contacts have been important contacts and that there's a relationship here.''
She suggested that details of the contacts will be released later.
Previously, U.S. intelligence officials have said that some al-Qaida members have been detected in Iraq, but that they appeared to simply be crossing the country after fleeing Afghanistan for their native countries on the Arabian peninsula or in North Africa. U.S. intelligence has also received information that some al-Qaida leaders are hiding in Iran, and the U.S. government is looking into reports that al-Qaida operatives are conducting training just over the Iranian border from Afghanistan.
Rice said that much of the information is coming from al-Qaida operatives captured since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. This includes several senior leaders whom the U.S. alleges organized terrorist attacks.
"No one is trying to make an argument at this point that Saddam Hussein somehow had operational control of what happened on Sept. 11, so we don't want to push this too far, but this is a story that is unfolding, and it is getting clearer, and we're learning more,'' Rice said.
"And there are some al-Qaida personnel who found refuge in Baghdad,'' Rice said.
Earlier in the day, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made a vague reference to Iraq-al Qaida links during a NATO meeting in Warsaw, Poland, but didn't offer details.
Administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Rice's disclosure was significant because it marked the first time that the White House claimed that al-Qaida operated in Saddam-controlled Baghdad. It was an effort to counter suggestions that al-Qaida operatives were solely in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, which he doesn't control. The disclosure is part of an effort to strengthen the case against Saddam, the officials said.
Previously, it's been known that Ansar al-Islam, an Islamic extremist group in northern Iraq, sent about a dozen of its members to bin Laden's camps. The group is largely composed of ethnic Kurds and had experimented with biological weapons, U.S. officials have said. But any links to Saddam's government were dubious.
Bin Laden has sought chemical, biological and nuclear weapons for a decade, U.S. intelligence officials have said. His followers are believed to have experimented with rudimentary chemical and biological weapons, but they lacked the sophistication to use them in a way that would kill large numbers of people.
Saddam's military used chemical weapons against Iran in the 1980s and on rebelling Iraqi Kurds. He has also researched biological and nuclear weapons -- previously, the key complaint of the Bush administration against Saddam.
Saddam's government denies having any of these weapons.
After Sept. 11, officials in the Czech Republic said that chief hijacker Mohamed Atta had met with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague, which some viewed as a link between Iraq and the attacks. But U.S. officials have since said they doubt the meeting took place.
The Iraqi government has been linked to other groups labeled terrorist by the United States -- primarily those that oppose Iran and Israel.
Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Coup-de-grace (and you must wonder if they've hung onto something this devastating just for a moment like this).
The question becomes: how long will it take before all the know-it-all leftist (computer programmers/grad students/unemployed) self-proclaimed intelligence experts on the web each start posting their huge opuses designed to prove that, according to their research and expertise, the National Security Advisor is wrong in her information. Or lying about it for some reason.
It really oughta be entertaining. It's going to take quite some creativity, after all, for the knee-jerk antiwar leftists to explain why their intelligence information is superior to that of the NSA....
See if Condi Rice's information conforms to the "classified info" you have access to.
I noticed, and am waiting for the documentation.
Meanwhile, Gore and Daschle are out acting like Iraq is a diversion. Apparently they think they are too smart to read what the administration says.
Now here is Condi, saying the same thing.
I hope the Rats are stupid enough to demand that the President make his case before the Americian people in prime time.
Bush was paying attention on those fishing trips in Maine.
How to catch the big one!
First you bait the hook........
Then you let the fish bite and run with the bait.......
Finally you set the hook and reel it in!
This is not aired until tomorrow?
Well, yeah, exhibit one: Al-Forest-Gore.
He's even dummer in real life than in the movie.
Abu Nidal. We even have a body to prove it.
a.cricket
It won't. This is what is referred to in the restaurant trade as a "soft opening".
The "Grand Opening" is yet to come. But it's on its way -- and now we know this revelation will be a part of it.
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Received form letter cop-out from Bingaman after numerous faxes to Domenici and him.
Sees no sign Saddam would use WMD on U.S. Worried that unilateral action would dilute focus. Afraid invasion would stretch military too thin.
Yo, Bingaman (who gave Charlie Trie a seat on his Beijing Commission), trust me: Saddam would.
"Dilute focus"? What are you focusing on--your navel?
"stretch military too thin"? Vote for the defense bill, dumbass.
No patient with Demodorks.
Send a SEAL team to find Daschle's privates. If any, place them next to his tonsils.
We aren't waiting for a NBC hit on a major city--let's roll.
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