ZZOTT! Through A Glass Darkly

While I find those images on the Internet of a blunt little mustache digitally-scribbled onto President Bush's upper lip feeble and unhelpful, still, there are parts of Bush's character and behavior that strikingly resemble at least one major biographer's interpretation of Hitler. Ian Kershaw's two-volume life of Hitler puts great emphasis on his being a driving high-stakes gambler - with innate, animal-cunning about human psychology, few gifts of statesmanship or strategy, and little systematic learning - attributing most of his success and all of his failure to his compulsive quality.

When, for example, Bush waged his ferocious post-election pursuit of legitimacy through threats and court actions, finally securing appointment to office by America's Supreme Court, it resembled the way Hitler, never actually elected, worked ferociously behind the scenes and on the streets at a time of great political instability to secure appointment as Chancellor by President von Hindenburg.

Several observers have commented that Bush's recent stunt of flying to the deck of an aircraft carrier in order to make a televised speech might well have been copied directly from Hitler's flight to the gigantic Nuremberg rally, his plane dramatically circling in descent towards a million people gathered in barbarian tribute, his purpose being to make a filmed speech. Whether Bush's crowd consciously followed the script set down by Hitler nearly seventy years ago matters less than that the thinking is so similar, with the manipulation of dramatic, militaristic props for propaganda being identical.

Bush never goes anywhere where his stage crew has not first assembled giant flags as background. He always wears a sizeable American-flag pin on his lapel. This kind of totemic, obsessive use of flags was absolutely characteristic of Hitler.

Hitler was a troubled, difficult person, but there is no evidence of any genuine insanity or psychosis (see Dr. Fritz Redlich's excellent study, "Hitler, Diagnosis of a Destructive Prophet"). It is precisely this fact that made him, and makes those like him, all the more dangerous. It is easy to dismiss a genuine lunatic.

Given any circumstances other than those of the unique and troubled period in which he embraced German politics, Hitler would have been an utter failure, likely to be laughed off the stage with his sputtering, eye-bulging speech and fantasy claims. He had never, except for extremely brief and intermittent times, before entering politics in the revolutionary ruin that was post-war Germany, made an honest living.

There is a close parallel here with Bush. Except when friends of his powerful father made attractive, low-risk, undemanding opportunities available to him, young Bush was a failure. He demonstrated no business acumen, no academic application, and he did a lot of aimless drifting, much like Hitler's time in Vienna before the First World War. There are totally unexplained periods in Bush's early adult life, an extraordinary thing for an American national public figure.

Even as governor of Texas, Bush showed no skill other than the kind of animal cunning one associates with some of the nation's shabbiest politics. Many do not realize that the office of governor of Texas, despite sounding important, is a relatively weak office, so the people putting Bush forward at the time took a small risk of his doing any serious damage.

Bush was not a national figure when he was put up for the Republican presidential nomination. Yet, suddenly, he appeared on the national stage, pockets bulging with $77 million in campaign contributions, an amount that could render even Kermit the Frog a formidable opponent in America's phony, advertising- and marketing-drenched politics. Of course, as quickly as these funds were depleted, they were topped up again.

The support of German industrialists was an important part of Hitler's being able to sustain his slow rise to power. Many of these business people thought they would heavily profit from the success of the odd, theatrical little man they bankrolled. The one absolute certainty was that Germany under Hitler would rearm, massively and quickly, with lots of profitable contracts coming available. Bush's measures for defense and security after 9/11, almost instantly swelled to tumor-like masses, offer an unprecedented opportunity for well-positioned people to make new fortunes.

Bush's apparent ability to be charming face-to-face has been publicized by insiders wishing to humanize his public image. Well, that is a characteristic Hitler possessed in abundance: on the one hand, he could intimidate people with fits of horrifying anger, and yet, as many attested, he could be utterly charming. He could order wholesale murder and yet have a gracious, polite tea with his hardworking secretaries.

Of course, the sense of charm assumed you did not have to spend great periods of time with Hitler as did the captive members of his immediate party entourage. For them, Hitler was reduced to a boring, repetitive self-proclaimed expert on everything who insisted on discussing everything, endlessly. One can only imagine the tedious conversations of a Bush comfortable with his cronies over a charred cow down in Crawford. We actually got an unintended glimpse of this private world when the BBC "accidentally" ran some television shots of Bush before a big speech sharing the kind of gestures and comments to smiling flunkies one might expect from a small-town, grade-school basketball coach.

Bush has demonstrated his capacity for vicious anger a number of times, despite his handlers working very hard to hide this from the public. His response to the nomination challenge of John McCain was manic. His response to the rightful and fitting challenges of France or Germany to his Iraqi policies has been ugly, with pathetic factotum, Colin Powell, given the job of announcing various gibes, slights, and threats in the aftermath (Harry Belafonte's description of Powell, I regret to say, has proved devastatingly accurate).

The closest parallel to Hitler's behavior was in Bush's approach to Iraq. It is clear that he was determined - despite all facts contrary to his claims, despite the heroic efforts of weapons inspectors, despite the voice of most of the world's diplomatic community, and despite demonstrations by millions - to invade Iraq. The litany of false and even irrelevant claims made over and over combined with his lack of shame or embarrassment when found out time and again, closely mimics a behavior pattern of Hitler who more or less invented the "big lie" technique.

Even more closely resembling Hitler was Bush's insane rush towards a huge, high-stakes gamble on quick success in Iraq. He displayed not an ounce of statesmanship. It mattered not at all that he put the UN, NATO, and the EU through a crisis and embarrassed longstanding allies to get what he wanted. Had the invasion bogged down into bloody street-fights and large numbers of Americans been killed, Bush could not have survived the political results. This was the purest obsessive, go-for-broke gamble.

What we witnessed leading up to the invasion bore uncanny similarities to the Munich crisis of 1938, but not the ones so many American commentators point to about a weak-willed Chamberlain appeasing a brutal dictator. People seem to forget Bush was making the threats, not Hussein.

Hitler was going to invade the Czechs, and that was that, but he was willing to toy with war-weary Western statesmen, to gain a bit of time or psychological advantage, and to appear open to argument before hurling his divisions over the border. So, too, Bush paused in invading Iraq, allowing Western statesmen to argue their case a bit and make various proposals, but he never listened to them, only hoping he might gain a few more allies, a shred of legitimacy, or a bit of psychological advantage.

This provides a very good example of how we do not learn from history. We are most of us always looking for exactly the same lesson from a vaguely similar historical situation, much as generals are said always prepared to fight the last war. But history, as has been accurately observed, is a flowing river which is not the same when touched a second time. Current events are never quite parallel with those of an earlier time despite superficial similarities. However, human character, patterns of behavior, and human interactions are things that may be profitably studied, being constant enough to make valid comparisons over time.

Here, too, is an example of how history can be manipulated to abuse political opponents. Critics on the left, in opposing the invasion of Iraq, have been accused of supporting a dictator. This is nonsense, of course, but like many bits of propaganda that become lodged into day-to-day understanding through endless repetition on television and in newspapers, it is nevertheless a powerful nonsense.

Too many people do not understand that the preponderance of forces in Germany before the Second World War were for peace. Hitler sometimes spoke of peace eloquently, but, as we now know, he had a rather odd definition of the word. When it looked like Germany was on the brink of war, great waves of despair went through Germany. All the bands and panoply of Nazi propaganda could not cover up people's sullen reaction displayed even under dictatorship.

But when Hitler quickly defeated Poland and then quickly defeated France, the mood in Germany immediately changed. Hitler had achieved a relatively bloodless victory of stunning proportions. He became a hero, a national savior. And so with Bush's massive, high-tech assault on pathetic little Iraq. Anti-war feelings and demonstrations did not rise so suddenly at the start of the much greater conflict in Vietnam, but with a quick, safe victory (safe for Americans, that is), Bush has become something of a shining figure. So much so, that at a recent dinner, a single dinner, Bush raised $18 million in campaign funds.

Hitler's manipulation of the idea of peace is paralleled in Bush's manipulation of the idea of justice. Both are complete distortions. Bush's genuine feeling for justice was perhaps best captured during the election campaign with his smug, joking response to a question about a soul on death row in Texas. For those with acute perceptions, still not dulled on a steady diet of synthetic emotions and cardboard ideas from television and Hollywood, there could be no surer sign of how potentially dangerous this man is.

"pathetic little Iraq

1998 (near year's end) : (AFGHANISTAN, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY, HIJAZI, MET WITH BIN LADEN IN KANDAHAR) The source added that Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which has now effectively merged with al-Qaeda, maintained regular contacts with Iraq for many years. He confirmed the claims first made by the Iraqi National Congress - that towards the end of 1998, Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Turkey and a key member of the Mukhabarat leadership - went to Kandahar in Afghanistan, where he met bin Laden.

DECEMBER 21, 1998 : (HIJAZI & BIN LADEN TARGET LIST MADE) "Terrorist cells belonging to the network organized by Osama bin Laden...are ready go into action in the countries of the Persian Gulf and Europe...The list of targets is ready. It was agreed in Kandahar 21 December by Osama himself and Farouk Hijazi... The new recruits, together with the veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Bosnia, form the secret army that is expected to use its weapons against all those who oppose the rais of Baghdad. In order to make them even more dangerous, traditional training has been supplemented with training in the use of chemical weapons, toxins and viruses." [Corriere della Sera, February 1, 1999 (Italia)] see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/743697/posts?page=51#51

DECEMBER 1998 : (SADDAM HUSSEIN SENT HIJAZI TO MEET WITH BIN LADEN, ACCORDING TO FORMER CIA COUNTER-TERRORISM CHIEF CANNISTRARO) Vince Cannistraro, the CIA's former counter-terrorism chief, said Baghdad made an overture to Mr bin Laden in December 1998. Saddam was apparently so impressed by the bombings that year of the two US embassies in East Africa that he sent Iraq's ambassador to Turkey, Farouk Hijazi, to Afghanistan to meet Mr bin Laden. The CIA believed Mr Hijazi offered Mr bin Laden and al-Qa'ida, then being pursued by the Americans, a permanent refuge in Iraq but the offer was refused.- "The suicide bomber and the Baghdad conspiracy," By Chris Blackhurst, Independent.co.uk , 14 October 2001

DECEMBER 1998 : (IRAQI OFFICIALS MEET WITH BIN LADEN IN AFGHANISTAN) Vince Cannistraro, the CIA's former counter-terrorism chief, said Baghdad made an overture to Mr bin Laden in December 1998. Saddam was apparently so impressed by the bombings that year of the two US embassies in East Africa that he sent Iraq's ambassador to Turkey, Farouk Hijazi, to Afghanistan to meet Mr bin Laden. The CIA believed Mr Hijazi offered Mr bin Laden and al-Qa'ida, then being pursued by the Americans, a permanent refuge in Iraq but the offer was refused - "The suicide bomber and the Baghdad conspiracy," By Chris Blackhurst, Independent.co.uk , 14 October 2001

DECEMBER 25, 1998 : (BIN LADEN COMMENTS ON AMERICAN PEOPLE SUPPORTING IRAQ, SAYING IT JUSTIFIES MUSLIMS KILLING AMERICANS AND BRITS) ". Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi exile accused of masterminding the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, is calling on Muslims to kill Americans and Britons for the airstrikes their countries carried out against Iraq. ``The British and the American people loudly declared their support for their leaders' decision to attack Iraq,'' Bin Laden said in Friday's edition of the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al- Awsat. This made it ``the duty of Muslims to confront, fight and kill'' Britons and Americans, he said. ``And anything that can be taken from them by force is the rightful prize of Muslims,'' Bin Laden said..." - AP, 12/25/98 1995 : (ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISTS FIRST COME TO IRAQ FOR TRAINING AT SALMAN PAK CAMP BY BRIGADIER GENERAL JASSIM RASHID AL-DULAIMI, ACCORDING TO LATER INTERVIEW OF GENERAL AL-QURAIRY) - "INSIDE SADDAM'S TERROR REGIME," 00000101.htm http://www.iraq.net/erica/news-e/archives/00000101.htm , (2002/01/21)

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

FEBRUARY 19, 1998 : (IRAQI OFFICIALS PLAN FOR AL QAEDA ENVOY TO ARIVE IN IRAQ FROM SUDAN) Document 1, dated February 19, 1998
Marked "Top Secret and Urgent" in the margin and signed by "MDA", thought to be the codename for the director of one of the intelligence sections within the Mukhabarat. "The envoy is a trusted confidant and known by them. According to the above mediation we request official permission to call Khartoum station to facilitate the travel arrangements for the above-mentioned person to Iraq. And that our body carry all the travel and hotel expenses inside Iraq to gain the knowledge of the message from bin Laden and to convey to his envoy an oral message from us to bin Laden, the Saudi opposition leader, about the future of our relationship with him, and to achieve a direct meeting with him."
At the foot of the page, after the signature, the director recommends bringing the envoy to Iraq because "we may find in this envoy a way to maintain contacts with bin Laden". The deputy director general gives a signature of approval.*
*** One paper is marked "Top Secret and Urgent". It is signed "MDA", a codename believed to be the director of one of the intelligence sections within the Mukhabarat, and dated February 19, 1998. It refers to the planned trip from Sudan by bin Laden's unnamed envoy and refers to the arrangements for his visit. A letter with this document says the envoy is a trusted confidant of bin Laden. It adds: "According to the above, we suggest permission to call the Khartoum station [Iraq's intelligence office in Sudan] to facilitate the travel arrangements for the above-mentioned person to Iraq. And that our body carry all the travel and hotel costs inside Iraq to gain the knowledge of the message from bin Laden and to convey to his envoy an oral message from us to bin Laden." The letter refers to al-Qa'eda's leader as an opponent of the Saudi Arabian regime and says that the message to convey to him through the envoy "would relate to the future of our relationship with him, bin Laden, and to achieve a direct meeting with him." According to handwritten notes at the bottom of the page, the letter was passed on through another director in the Mukhabarat and on to the deputy director general of the intelligence service. It recommends that "the deputy director general bring the envoy to Iraq because we may find in this envoy a way to maintain contacts with bin Laden". The deputy director general has signed the document. All of the signatories use codenames. - "The proof that Saddam worked with bin Laden," By Inigo Gilmore, UK Telegraph, Filed: 27/04/2003

FEBRUARY 23, 1998 : (IRAQI OFFICIALS ARRANGEMENTS FOR MEETING WITH AL QAEDA ENVOY APPROVED) Document 2, dated February 23, 1998 Addressed to codename "M4/7", marked "Information M4 D1/3/4" and given the number 375 by the Mukhabarat bureaucracy.
"The permission of Mr Deputy Director of Intelligence has been gained on 21 February for this operation, to secure a reservation for one of the intelligence services guest's for one week in one of the first class hotels [the Al Mansour Melia hotel in Baghdad]".
Signed by "M.D. 1/3", next to which is written February 22. In the margin it is written that this has been done in co-ordination with the chief of the Saudi section and that they write to extend the period of host for one more week. A note at the bottom of the page says "The envoy H arrived 5th March". Another note mentions "room 414" next to the name, Mohammed F. Mohammed Ahmed.

MARCH 1998 : (AL QAEDA ENVOY MEETS WITH IRAQI OFFICIALS IN BAGHDAD, ARRANGEMENTS MADE FOR BIN LADEN TO VISIT BAGHDAD) Papers found Saturday [April 26, 2003] by journalists working for the Sunday Telegraph would eventually reveal that an al-Qaida envoy met with officials in Baghdad in March 1998. The envoy traveled from Khartoum in Sudan to Baghdad in March 1998 and that he stayed at the al-Mansour Melia hotel. The paper said the documents show that the purpose of the meeting was to establish a relationship between Baghdad and al-Qaida based on their mutual hatred of the United States and Saudi Arabia. The meeting went so well that it was extended by a week and ended with arrangements being discussed for bin Laden to visit Baghdad, the newspaper said. - "Intelligence documents reveal Iraq link to al-Qaida, London paper reports (France) " AP via Tribnet , 4/26/02

MARCH 24, 1998 : (IRAQI OFFICIALS HOTEL BID FOR ATTENDING TO AL QAEDA ENVOY IN IRAQ; WAS APPROVED FOR PAYMENT IN APRIL) Document 3, dated March 24, 1998 Written by hand and labelled number 736 and marked "Secret" in the margin. This paper has been given the code number M 4/7/2 and is addressed to codename "2/D1/3". "Your information numbered D1/3/4/375 dated 23rd February 1998, we enclose herewith the bill to host a guest in Mansour Melia Hotel. Please let it be known and get the official permission to spend the amount and return the permission back with our regards. Include the name of bills of the hotel." Signed by another official with the codename M.M. 4/7
At the foot of this document there is another note, dated April 13, that says that after 21 days: "We have been informed by Saudi section chief [of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, the Mukhabarat] that we get permission to send the amount and the permission is sent to directorate accountant." - "'We'll pay all expenses to gain the knowledge from bin Laden and convey a message back'," The Sunday Telegraph, April 27, 2003

MAY 1998 : (IRAQ, CYNTHIA MCKINNEY, KHALED ELGINDY, AAI, IRAQ TRIP) Khaled Elgindy joins a delegation of Arab-American activists on a humanitarian mission to Iraq and to observe the effects of sanctions first hand. Khaled previously served as Press Secretary to Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), who at the time became the first member of Congress to oppose military action against Iraq and has since called for the lifting of sanctions against the Iraqi people. Khaled Elgindy is in 2002, the National Coordinator for Political Action at the Arab American Institute in Washington, DC. Khaled represents AAI on a number of national coalitions, including the National Iraq Network, and is responsible for mobilizing Arab-American action on various legislative issues.e has a master's degree from Georgetown University's school of foreign service and a bachelor's degree in Poli-Sci from Indiana U. May be relative of Amr I. ``Tony'' Elgindy, arrested on charges related to stock dealing around 9/11/2002

APRIL 28, 2000 : (IRAQ : HUSSEIN'S SON UDAY PLAYS TAPE OF GENERAL AL-QURAIRY'S "STRIKERS" ATTACKING MOCK US WARSHIP FOR HIS FATHER'S BIRTHDAY) April 28, 2000, was a very special day in Iraq. The president, Saddam Hussein, had turned 63. Along the 106 miles of highway from the capital, Baghdad, to Saddam's official birthplace in the town of Tikrit, government officials had erected a line of marquees, from which they dispensed free rice and lamb from steaming cauldrons. In Tlkrit itself, top presidential aide Izzat Ibrahim cut an enormous, flower- shaped cake to the tune of "Happy Birth- day to you." He ended the ceremony with a prayer: "We ask God...to prolong his [Saddam's] life, and make this an occasion of victory to us and to our nation against our enemies and the enemies of humanity." Later that evening, Saddam's elder son, Uday, gave his father the perfect birthday gift. It had been a long time in the making. Uday had ordered his closest aide and confidant, Abu Zeinab al-Qurairy-a brigadier general in Iraq's feared intelligence service, the Mukhabarat-to put together a team of 30 specially trained fighters. In al-Qurairy's seasoned judgment, the men were the finest members of the secret unit he administered-the 1,200-strong commando force known as al-Qare'a, "the Strikers," Iraq's elite of elites, trained to a level far beyond ordinary special forces in sabotage, urban warfare, hijacking, and murder.
Al-Qurairy had given the 30 men new identities, complete with genuine United Arab Emirates passports supplied by a corrupt U.A.E. minister in the pay of the Mukhabarat: a means of travelling any- where, without creating the least suspicion they had originally come from Iraq. He had overseen their final training project-an exercise, using limpet mines and diving gear, to blow up a specially constructed mock-up of a U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet destroyer, moored in central Iraq's Habbaniya Lake. Like all al-Qare'a exercises, it had been conducted using real explosives and live ammunition. Uday had the fake ship's destruction videotaped, and that birthday evening he played the recording to his father. - "INSIDE SADDAM'S TERROR REGIME," 00000101.htm http://www.iraq.net/erica/news-e/archives/00000101.htm , (2002/01/21)

JULY 21, 2001 : (IRAQ STATE RUN PRESS - FOREWARNING?) On July 21, approximately six weeks before the September 11 th attacks, Iraqi columnist Mulhalhal reported that bin Laden was making plans to “demolish the Pentagon after he destroys the White House.” Mulhalhal’s July 21 article further informed that bin Laden would strike America “on the arm that is already hurting.” Upon information and belief, this references a second Iraqi sponsored attack on the World Trade Center. This interpretation is further bolstered by another reference to New York as “[bin Laden] will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra everytime he hears his songs.” (e.g., “New York, New York”) identifying New York, New York as a target. Mulhalhal further indicated, “The wings of a dove and the bullet are all but one and the same in the heart of a believer.” (Emphasis supplied) This appears to be a reference to the use of commercial aircraft as a weapon. The information was reported in an Iraqi newspaper who’s editor-in-chief serves as secretary to Uday Hussein’s Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists. The article expressed Iraqi admiration and support for bin Laden’s plans and its appearance in the newspaper would clearly have to be endorsed by Saddam Hussein himself. All Iraqi news media is strictly controlled and censored by the government of Saddam Hussein and is under the direct oversight of Uday Hussein. Various members of Iraqi intelligence work at and control the content of each and every newspaper published inside Iraq. The information contained in Mulhalhal’s published statements were known prior to the events of September 11 th , and that Mulhalhal has ties to Iraqi intelligence, demonstrates foreknowledge of the planned attacks by bin Laden and indicates support by Iraqi co-conspirators. - Findlaw, Ashton, et al. v. al Qaeda ... see also http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110003069 from the WSJ

JULY 21, 2001 : (IRAQI PAPER AL-NASIRIYA PRAISES BIN LADEN) More recently, and eerily, a July 21, 2001, commentary in the Iraqi publication Al-Nasiriya praised bin Laden: "In this man's heart you'll find an insistence, a strange determination that he will reach one day the tunnels of the White House and will bomb it with everything that is in it."
The article recounts bin Laden's attacks on U.S. targets and U.S. efforts "to pressure the Taliban movement so that it would hand them bin Laden, while he continues to smile and still thinks seriously, with the seriousness of the Bedouin of the desert about the way he will try to bomb the Pentagon after he destroys the White House."
The commentary is ominously prescient, especially since it could never have appeared without official sanction. "Bin Laden is a healthy phenomenon in the Arab spirit," it continues, speaking about his goal to "drive off the Marines" from Arabia. Most eerily of all, the writer adds that those Marines "will be going away because the revolutionary bin Laden is insisting very convincingly that he will strike America on the arm that is already hurting. That the man . . . will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra every time he hears his songs." Is that a reference to Sinatra's "New York, New York"? Did Saddam know what would happen two months later? - "Saddam and the Next 9/11 : The Iraqi dictator and his son talk about the uses of biological weapons," REVIEW & OUTLOOK, OpinionJournal, WSJ.com, Friday, February 14, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST

JULY 24, 2001 : (IRAQ FIRES AT U-2) Iraqis fire a missile at U2 aircraft; defence sources say it came close to hitting it.- Iraq - Scotsman says Saddam has weapons to wipe out world's population, nuclear bomb within 3 years "The Scotsman dossier - SPECIAL REPORT ON IRAQ" by Fraser Nelson, Westminster Editor

OCTOBER 21, 2001 : (JORDAN, IRAQI SHAKIR) Ahmad Hikmat Shakir left Doha on October 21 for Iraq via Jordan. He is an Iraqi citizen aged 37 years, was arrested at Amman Airport on October 21 during a transit-stop on his way from Qatar to Iraq. It appears that his arrest may have been in connection with suspicions on the part of the Jordanian authorities relating to visits he had made to Pakistan, Yemen and Malaysia. Ahmad Hikmat Shakir was held in incommunicado detention for several weeks before being allowed access to a lawyer. - Amnesty International

OCTOBER 2001 : (IRAQI AHMAD HIKMAT SHAKIR, JORDAN) The Iraqi, Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, 37, was picked up October 2001 in Amman, and his passport showed he had recently traveled to Pakistan, Yemen and Malaysia, all key terror trouble spots. A search of one of his apartments turned up telephone records linking him to suspects in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as well as a 1994 Philippine-based plot to blow up civilian airlines over the Pacific Ocean. - "Iraqi a Missing Link," by Aly Sujo, NY Post (Jordan eventually let him go and he went on to Bagdhad, Iraq)

Poor, pathetic little Iraq....

OCTOBER 29, 2001 : (IRAQ : HUSSEIN OPEN LETTER ON BAGHDAD RADIO, ANTHRAX) Saddam himself got into the anthrax game a month [after his son Uday's September 20, 2001 editorial in the Iraqi paper Babil], in a rambling October 29, 2001, "open letter" carried by Baghdad Radio. He ridicules reports "that American officials think that the source of anthrax is probably the U.S. itself. Is this conclusion or information just a tactic to divert the attention of those who were terrorized to hear that bin Laden is the source of anthrax, and to hear insinuations to other accusations, that many Americans think that they should not persist in harming the people he cares for, because that would push him to a stronger reaction in this way or by other means?" Neither Saddam nor his son are admitting here that they are the source of the anthrax. But the news is that both of them clearly believe in its utility to achieve their political goals. Saddam goes so far as to assert that U.S. officials are lying about anthrax because if Americans thought the source was bin Laden they'd force the Bush Administration to stop hunting him down. - "Saddam and the Next 9/11 : The Iraqi dictator and his son talk about the uses of biological weapons," REVIEW & OUTLOOK, OpinionJournal, WSJ.com, Friday, February 14, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST

OCTOBER 17, 1992 : (IRAQI-AMERICAN AL-KHAFAJI'S EXPATRIATE CONFERENCE) On October 17, 1992, the official Iraqi News Agency reported on the activities of that year's Expatriate Conference session, "Our Roots Remain in Iraq Wherever We Are." Iraqi prime minister Muhammed Hamza al-Zubaydi spoke of the United States and its coalition partners in Operation Desert Storm as Iraq's "enemies" and "referred to the U.S.-led aggression, saying it meant to hamper the country's progress by trying to overthrow the government, destroying Iraq's infrastructure and harming its national and historical unity." The news report continues, "In their final statement, the participants pledged to exert efforts to lift the embargo imposed on Iraq and to foil the enemies' attempts to divide Iraq and interfere in its internal affairs." The participants sent Saddam Hussein a telegram of support, promising "to do their utmost to defend justice, peace and freedom, especially at this time when the Iraqis are suffering from sanctions. The expatriates said they lived days of love, work and true dialogue to reach means of serving the motherland, and convey its message of civilization sincerely to [their] countries of residence." Al-Khafaji called the gathering "a sincere and faithful response to our motherland." - Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard.

JULY 1995 : (IRAQ ADMITS ITS PROGRESS IN BIOWEAPONS DEVELOPMENT) Iraq admits to have made substantial progress in its biological weapons programme, making just under 30,000 litres of biological agents and filled munitions. This included 19,000 litres of Botulinium, 8,400 liters of antrax and 2,000 liters of aflatoxin (causes cancer over the long haul) and clostridium- Iraq - Scotsman says Saddam has weapons to wipe out world's population, nuclear bomb within 3 years "The Scotsman dossier - SPECIAL REPORT ON IRAQ" by Fraser Nelson, Westminster Editor

AUGUST 1995 : (IRAQ ADMITS IT HAS PRODUCED BIOLOGICAL BOMBS) Iraq admits to having produced 191 biological bombs, of which 25 were missile warheads which had been loaded with anthrax, botulinum and aflatoxin for use in the Gulf war.- Iraq - Scotsman says Saddam has weapons to wipe out world's population, nuclear bomb within 3 years "The Scotsman dossier - SPECIAL REPORT ON IRAQ" by Fraser Nelson, Westminster Editor

1998 (near year's end) : (AFGHANISTAN, IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY, HIJAZI, MET WITH BIN LADEN IN KANDAHAR ) The source added that Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which has now effectively merged with al-Qaeda, maintained regular contacts with Iraq for many years. He confirmed the claims first made by the Iraqi National Congress - that towards the end of 1998, Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Turkey and a key member of the Mukhabarat leadership - went to Kandahar in Afghanistan, where he met bin Laden.

DECEMBER 23 +/-, 1998 : (BIN LADEN TIME INTERVIEW, FATWA, SOMALIA) Usama Bin Laden was asked by Time magazine whether he was responsible fo rthe August 1998 attacks. He replied: "The International Islamic Jihad Front for the Jihad against the US and Israel has, by the grace of God, issued a crystal clear fatwah calling on the Islamic nation to carry on Jihad aimed at liberating the holy sites. the nation of Mohammed has responded to this appeal. If intigation for jihad against the Jews and the Americans... is considered to be a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Our job is to instigate and, by the grace of God, we did that, and certain people responded tot his instigation." He was asked if he knew the attackers: "...those who risked their lives to earn the pleasure of God are real men. They managed to rid the Islamic nation of disgrace. We hold them in the highest esteem. " And what the US could expect of him: "...any thief or criminal who enters another country to steal should expect to be exposed to murder at any time... The US knows that I have attacked it, by the grace of God, for more than ten years now... God knows that we have been pleased by the killing of American soldiers (in Somalia in 1993.) This was achieved by the grace of God and the efforts of the mujahadeen... Hostility towards America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded for it by God. I am confident that Muslims will be able to end the legend of the so-called superpower that is America. "

....poor pathetic little Iraq...oh, what's this? A high-ranking Democrat...?

1990s (IRAQ'S ASSASSINATION OF DEFECTORS, THALLIUM POISONING, MOROCCO) A diplomat who defected in Morocco in 1990 was also killed. Aside from shooting, Iraqi agents long ago pioneered the technique of murdering dissidents by poisoning them with thallium. This technique was more than once used against London-based dissidents who made the mistake of dining with innocent-sounding emissaries from Baghdad. More recently, several active members of opposition groups have fled to British hospitals for treatment after succumbing to the poison. - "Saddam's Spies," Globalscan International, LLC, 1999 iraquespies.htm

OCTOBER 25, 2002 : (MCDERMOTT PAID BY AL-KHAFAJI ) On October 25, McDermott received a check for $5,000 from Shakir al-Khafaji. The money, first reported by Amy Keller in Roll Call, had been deposited in an account for the McDermott Legal Expense Trust, a fund the congressman set up to pay legal bills in a lawsuit brought against him by Rep. John Boehner. (In 1996, McDermott had released to the media the transcript of a phone conversation between Boehner and Newt Gingrich, taped by a Florida couple.) No one has accused McDermott of being a mouthpiece for Saddam Hussein simply for financial reasons. Indeed, McDermott has been saying stupid things for years with no evidence anyone has paid him to do so. A spokesman for McDermott says he "doesn't know off the top of [his] head" whether McDermott has plans to return the money. The formidable task of sifting through the mountains of documents Saddam's regime left behind is only beginning. Many of the answers at this point are obscured by more questions. But George Galloway most assuredly wasn't the only person lining his pockets by defending Saddam Hussein. Journalists and diplomats and businessmen have been doing it for years. Their stories will be told. - Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard.

MARCH 2003 : (JORDAN BASE POISON PLOT : JORDAN EXPELS IRAQI DIPLOMATS)

APRIL 2003 : (JORDAN BASE POISON PLOT : JORDAN SUSPECTS THAT IRAQI DIPLOMATS PLOTTED TO POISON WATER SUPPLIES SERVING BASES USED BY THE USA IN MARCH) Jordan supected Iraqi diplomats whom it expelled last month of plotting to poison water supplies serving military bases near the Iraqi border used by US service personnel, diplomatic sources said Tuesday. "The Iraqi diplomats expelled on March 23 were conspiring to poison water mains serving the east of Jordan," where most of the US forces deployed in the kingdom are based, one of the sources told AFP, declining to be identified. The source did not elaborate on the nature of the poison said to have been involved in the plot. Jordan originally expelled five embassy staff but later lifted the expulsion order against two of them. King Abdullah II also made clear the following day that Jordan was ready to allow Iraq to name replacements for those kicked out. - "Jordan suspected expelled Iraqi diplomats of poisoning plot (on U.S. military base water supply)," Agence France-Presse , April 1, 2003

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

MAY 2003 : (IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER LATIF aka ABU WA'IL BELIEVED TO BE INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN IRAQ & AL QAEDA) Sa'adoon Mohammed Abdul Latif, or Abu-Wa'il, an Iraqi intelligence officer who first visited Afghanistan in 1999 is believed to be an intermediary between Osama bin Laden and Iraq's intelligence ministry. - "U.S. negotiates trade of terror suspects," By Eli J. Lake, UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL via The Washington Times, May 9, 2003, http://washingtontimes.com/world/20030509-22822443.htm

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

FEBRUARY 26, 2003 : (NY : INDICTMENT UNSEALED ACCUSING 3 JORDANIANS -AL-WAHAIDY, JARWAN AND ZAGHA, & AN IRAQI, DHAFIR, OF FRONYING FOR IRAQ) In a 14-count federal indictment, unsealed Feb. 26 in U.S. District Court in Syracuse, three Jordanians and a Iraqi-born U.S. citizen were accused of fronting for Iraqi interests by illegally defying the sanctions that have been in place against Saddam's regime since 1990. To all outward appearances, the four men, who prosecutors say controlled Help the Needy's finances, embody the professional, middle-class immigrant culture that thrives in gritty Syracuse:
Dr. Rafil Dhafir, 55, a founder of Help the Needy, was a respected Iraqi-born oncologist practicing in upstate Rome and has been a member of the medical staff at Rome Memorial Hospital since 1982....

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

APRIL 2003 early : (ITALY ARRESTS SEVEN AL QAEDA OPERATIVES WHO WERE SENDING RECRUITS THROUGH SYRIA TO ALQAEDA/ANSAR AL ISLAM-BASES) Two weeks ago, Italian police arrested seven alleged al-Qaeda operatives. They were charged with sending about 40 extremists through Syria to terrorist bases operated jointly by al-Qaeda and Ansar al Islam, whose stronghold in north-eastern Iraq was recently overrun by Kurdish and US troops. - "Italian police uncover al-Qaeda link in Syria, " Australian News , April 17, 2003

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

APRIL 5, 2003 : (IRAQ : US MARINES SEIZE TRAINING COMPLEX & BIOWARFARE CENTER AT SALMAN PAK) Still, as coalition forces in Iraq searched high and low for concrete evidence of Iraq’s clandestine weapons programs, US Marines seized a high-security complex at Salman Pak, southeast of Baghdad, on April 5. It had been used as a training base for Iraqi Special Forces, as well as the Fedayeen Saddam, diehard followers of Saddam Hussein who fought coalition forces tenaciously, and non-Iraqi terrorist groups. - "The biowar threat: Jordanian ‘mastermind’ sought," by Ed Blanche, The Daily Star , April 29 2003

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

APRIL 7, 2003 : (IRAQ : US MARINES FIND PLF TRAINING CAMP : HUSSEIN, ABU ABBAS) NEAR BAGHDAD, April 7 (AFP) - US Marines in Iraq have discovered bomb-making facilities at a facility described as a training camp operated by the a faction of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), a military spokesman said Monday. Bomb-making facilities, chemicals, mortars, gas masks and AK-47s were found inside the 20-building complex to the east of Baghdad, said Public Affairs Officer Corporal John Hoellwarth. The complex, which was the size of a battalion headquarters, featured pictures of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, PLF faction leader Abu Abbas and the PLF's flag, Hoellwarth added. Other photos included pictures of Abu Abbas posing with a brigadier general from Saddam's Republican Guard inside the camp. Boxes of documents with PLF letterheads were also seized. Stores of fresh food including fresh tomatos and potatos were seen, indicating that the complex had recently been vacated. Followers of Abu Abbas carried the deadly attack in 1985 on the cruise ship Achille Lauro, but renounced terrorism after the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and Palestinians. Abbas had been based in Tunisia but was more recently thought to be based in Baghdad. - "US marines discover "PLF faction's bomb-making facility" in Iraq," AFP via ProLog , Monday, 07-Apr-2003 9:20AM

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

APRIL 13, 2003 : (ABDERRAZZAK & SYRIA) Mullah Abderrazzak wanted the terrorists to leave Europe and join the jihad against U.S. and British troops in Iraq, an Italian antiterror investigator tells TIME, and coordinated the movements of an alleged Milan-based terrorist cell. "He's directing everything from Syria," the investigator says. Abderrazzak's location doesn't prove the Syrian government is knowingly harboring him, but the investigator argues that "activity like this can't happen without [Syria's] security service knowing." Five members of the Milan cell Abderrazzak allegedly ran have been arrested in the past two weeks, charged with recruiting for Ansar, which is based in northern Iraq and has suspected ties to al-Qaeda. The fifth arrest was announced last week after police captured Mohamed Daki, a 38-year-old Moroccan, in the northern town of Reggio Emilia, and charged him with being part of a terror operation. Daki, who had been based in Hamburg until January, is also said to have lived for a year with Ramzi Binalshibh, the al-Qaeda ringleader nabbed last year in Pakistan. Investigators say Daki also had encounters with Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian who led the Sept. 11 attacks. - "DIALING DAMASCUS: Is Syria harboring Ansar al-Islam?," TIME Europe , April 13, 2003

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

MARCH 2003 first week : (CUBA : CASTRO TELLS IRAQ TO DESTROY ITS WMD & COMMENTS ON IRAN ) President Fidel Castro has urged Baghdad to destroy "the last cubic centimetre of chemical or biological weapons" to remove any pretext Washington might have to attack it. At the close of the new Cuban parliamentary legislature, in which Castro's re-election as head of the government and the state came as no surprise, the Cuban leader praised Iraq's decision to destroy its Al-Samoud 2 missiles. "The American Government will no longer have the least legal or moral pretext to attack Iraq," Castro said. He slammed Washington for closing its eyes to atomic weapons held by Israel having provided the means for their transportation. "Only the complete truth ... would give the Iraqi people enough moral strength and international support to defend their homeland and integrity right up to the last drop of blood," he said. Castro acknowledged that Iraq had "committed two grave and unjustifiable actions" in invading Iran and occupying Kuwait, but had also had to endure "very hard action" itself. Iraq "is not in a position, militarily speaking, to constitute the least risk to US security or of their allies in the region", Castro said.- "Castro tells Iraq: destroy weapons," Agence France-Presse , March 7, 2003

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

MARCH 2003 : (REPORTS HAVE EMERGED OF IRAQ PROVIDING HEZBOLLAH WITH ARMS, REPORTS THAT ZARQAWI IS IN SOUTHERN LEBANON UNDER THE PROTECTION OF HEZBOLLAH) The Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah has already publicly stated that it plans attacks on Israel . Although there is no hard link between al-Qaeda and Hezbollah on the one side and with the Iraqi regime on the other, reports have emerged of the Iraqi leadership providing Hezbollah with arms. There have also been reports that al-Qaeda leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi is in southern Lebanon under the protection of the Hezbollah. If Hezbollah indeed carries out its threats, Israeli retaliation can be expected, possibly against Lebanon and even Syria .- " A new war beyond the war," by Syed Saleem Shahzad, Asia Times, KARACHI , 03/21/2003

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

MARCH 28, 2003, 0800 GMT (IRAQ : IRAQI FEDEYEEN OPEN FIRE ON IRAQI CIVILIANS TO PREVENT THEM FROM LEAVING BASRA) UK military spokesmen say local Iraqi militia opened fire on 1,000 and 2,000 civilians trying to flee the southern city of Basra. - From the BBC "Iraq Latest: at a glance," Friday, 28 March (all times GMT!!)

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

FEBRUARY 11, 2003 : (PHILIPPINES : IRAQI DIPLOMAT LINKED TO ABU SAYYAF)-- The Philippine government said Tuesday it will continue to monitor the activities of an Iraqi diplomat for alleged links to a Philippine Muslim extremist group, the Abu Sayyaf. The Iraqi Embassy denied a Philippine intelligence report, announced by Foreign Secretary Blas Ople on Monday, that Iraqi Consul Husham Husain received a call from an Abu Sayyaf member shortly after a bombing that killed three people, including an American Green Beret, in southern Zamboanga city last year. The Abu Sayyaf member, who was not identified, was later arrested. Authorities offered no other details of the alleged incident. "Allegations of diplomatic involvement in terrorism constitute a grave matter anywhere in the world and should be dealt with vigilance and immediacy," presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said. "The investigation should leave no stone unturned, and the results must be made known to the Filipino people and the international community." - AP WorldStream via COMTEX

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

FEBRUARY 12 2003 : (UN INSPECTORS ANNOUNCE THEY FOUND IRAQ HAS ILLEGAL MISSILES) The UN weapons inspectors announce they have discovered that Iraq possesses illegal missiles: its Samoud 2 rockets exceed the maximum range of 150km set down in the 1991 Gulf war ceasefire agreement. - UN team finds Iraq has illegal missiles - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/page/0,12438,793802,00.html

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

FEBRUARY 14, 2003 : (BIN LADEN ADVOCATES WORKING WITH IRAQ AGAINST THE US) America is on orange alert, Osama bin Laden is issuing new threats, and already the opponents of military action against Iraq are preparing to blame the next terror attack on U.S. policy. By threatening Iraq, which has nothing to do with al Qaeda, the U.S. is said to be inviting Saddam Hussein to become another bin Laden. This argument manages to ignore the detail that we were attacked the first time without any provocation. But more importantly it ignores the shared anti-American purpose that has long united both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Certainly bin Laden's latest taped threat shows he understands this mutual purpose. Bin Laden refers to "our mujahideen brothers" inside Iraq and stresses "the importance of martyrdom operations against the enemy, these attacks that have scared Americans and Israelis like never before." Iraq may be run by Baath Party "infidels," he adds, but "it does no harm in these circumstances that the interests of Muslims and socialists crisscross in the fighting against the Crusaders." What our readers should understand is that the rulers in Iraq have also long admired the methods of bin Laden and other anti-American terrorists, going back before September 11, 2001. This is clear simply from reading the Iraqi press, which is of course government controlled. We sort through some of that evidence below, and nearby we reprint Iraqi magazine covers that give the most graphic indication of how much Saddam admires bin Laden's 9/11 handiwork. - "Saddam and the Next 9/11 : The Iraqi dictator and his son talk about the uses of biological weapons," REVIEW & OUTLOOK, OpinionJournal, WSJ.com, Friday, February 14, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

FEBRUARY 26, 2003 : (NY : SYRACUSE CELL : TERROR CHARITY "HELP THE NEEDY" LINKED TO IRAQ : DHAFIR, ZAGHA, JARWAN, AL-WAHAIDY) Action News has confirmed that the U.S. Justice Department has raided a Syracuse-area charity called "Help The Needy." 3 men have been arrested in Syracuse; 4 in all are indicted on charges of illegally transfering money to Iraq. That is illegal under sanctions placed on Iraq after the Gulf War - "Justice Department Raids Local Charity " (Syracuse NY ) WSTM 2/26/03 * A central New York charity is being prosecuted on charges of sending illegal aid to Iraq. A photocopying business on East Genesee Street in Syracuse is listed as the group's headquarters. Federal agents have also removed boxes of materials from the home of a charity accused of helping Iraq. Federal agents have raided at least three Syracuse area locations connected to a charitable organization called "Help the Needy." 4 local arrests have been made; oncologist Rafil Dhafir, Maher Zagha, Ayman Jarwan and Osamed al Wahaidy; 4 are indicted on charges of illegally transferring money to Iraq. The Help the Needy website asks for a $25-a-month donation to sponsor an Iraqi orphan or $45-a-month to sponsor an Iraqi family. Nearly $4-million was instead funneled from Key Bank and Oneida Savings Bank to banks in Jordan. U.S. Attorney Glen Suddaby says the case concerns Iraqi sanctions violations and money laundering. Federal law prohibits Americans to send aid to Iraq, in place since the Gulf War. Suddaby has scheduled a news conference this afternoon ... NewsChannel 9 will carry this live.- “Help the Needy” Aiding Iraq? , Last Update: 2/26/2003 1:12:54 PM , 2/26/03

Poor, pathetic little Iraq...

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