Posted on 03/28/2004 6:10:42 AM PST by truthandlife
Why did the Bush administration immediately suspect that Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks when there was no evidence of any connection, as Richard Clarke and other Bush critics maintain?
Maybe it was because there was indeed evidence, very dramatic evidence, in fact - in the form of warnings in the state-run Iraqi press that such an attack was coming, along with praise for Osama bin Laden and his kamikaze hijackers in the days after the World Trade Center was destroyed.
Less than two months before 9/11, the state-controlled Iraqi newspaper "Al-Nasiriya" carried a column headlined, "America, An Obsession Called Osama Bin Ladin." [July 21, 2001] In the piece, Baath Party writer Naeem Abd Muhalhal predicted that bin Laden would attack the U.S. "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 same state-approved column also insisted that bin Laden "will strike America on the arm that is already hurting," and that the U.S. "will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra every time he hears his songs" - an apparent reference to the Sinatra classic, "New York, New York." [Two 9/11 families were awarded over $100 million last May by U.S. District Court Judge Harold Baer based on this and other evidence that Iraq was involved in 9/11]
Saddam's threats of a 9/11-style attack before 9/11 weren't limited to that single report. In 1992, his son Uday used an editorial in Babil, the newspaper he ran, to warn of Iraqi kamikaze attacks inside America, saying, "Does the United States realize the meaning of every Iraqi becoming a missile that can cross countries and cities?"
Then in the late 1990s, according to UPI, "a cable to Saddam from the chief of Iraqi intelligence was transmitted by Baghdad Radio. The message read, 'We will chase [Americans] to every corner at all times. No high tower of steel will protect them against the fire of truth.'"
Coincidence? Perhaps.
But after the 9/11 attacks, Saddam became the only world leader to offer praise for bin Laden, even as other terrorist leaders, like Yassir Arafat, went out of their way to make a show of sympathy to the U.S. by donating blood to 9/11 victims on camera.
The day after the attacks, in quotes picked up by Agence France Press, Saddam proclaimed that "America is reaping the thorns planted by its rulers in the world."
"There is hardly a place (in the world) that does not have a memorial symbolizing the criminal actions committed by America against its natives," AFP quoted the Iraqi dictator complaining, based on reports in the Iraqi News agency.
After excoriating the U.S. for ending World War II by using nuclear weapons, and for its involvement in Vietnam, Saddam gloated, "[He] who does not want to reap evil must not sow it, and [he] who considers the lives of his people precious must remember that the lives of the people in the world are precious also."
"The American peoples should remember that no one ever crossed the Atlantic carrying weapons to be used against them. They are the ones who crossed the Atlantic carrying death, destruction and ugly exploitation to the whole world."
A day later Saddam told visiting Tunisian Foreign Minister Habib ben Yahya, "America brought the hatred of the world upon itself."
For his part Uday flat-out praised the 9/11 attacks, saying, "These were courageous operations carried out by young Arabs and Muslims," according to quotes picked up by the Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat.
As Richard Clarke and his fans in the Democrat-media complex report in ominous tones that President Bush ordered him to launch an unwarranted investigation into the 9/11-Iraq connection, it's worth remembering how much Iraq had done justify that order.
-Bush and Clinton and 911- some facts... --
Thanks!
Ironic, though, that the evidence supporting the NewsMax article was read into the record by a Democrat, Fritz Hollings.
I doubt Hollings meant to help the Bush administration.
http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/2001/08/01/11487.html
14:40 2001-08-01
OSAMA BIN LADEN TO LEAD TALIBAN MILITARY OPERATIONS
Citing high-ranking Afghan sources, the Pakistani newspaper, Nation, has reported that the Taliban have appointed two international terrorists, Osama bin Laden and Juma Namangani, to lead military operations against the Northern Alliance.
According to the paper's information, the Taliban leadership has de facto appointed terrorist no.1, bin Laden, as defence minister. He is currently organising offensives from his secret hide-out. Another terrorist, the Uzbek Juma Namangani, has become bin Laden's assistant, carrying out his orders on the northern front.
In the paper's opinion, the new appointments will increase the role of Arab, Pakistani and other foreign mercenaries fighting for the Taliban and could lead to new groups of religious fanatics entering Afghanistan. According to Nation's information, up to 60,000 foreign mercenaries are now fighting for the Taliban.
Clinton didn't seem willing to oppose public opinion to do what he thought was right.
Thanks for providing the additional validation that the Bush administration was aware of alQaeda.
19 Jan 2001 United Nations ban on military aid to Afghanistan takes effect
29 May 2001 Four Al Qaeda associates convicted for role in African embassy bombings
Jun 2001 U.S. warns Afghanistan that its government will be held responsible for attacks by terrorists sheltered by Afghanistan
6 Aug 2001 Taliban arrests 24 foreign aid workers, including two American women, in Afghanistan on charges of spreading Christianity
21 Aug 2001 CIA asks FBI to find al-Midhar and Alhamzi; they are not located, and will hijack Flight 77 on 11 September
Aug 2001 Osama bin Laden threatens "unprecedented attacks" against the U.S.
9 Sep 2001 Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of Northern Alliance, seriously injured in car bombing assassination; he dies days later
10 Sep 2001 Osama bin Laden's deadline for his deputies to return to Afghanistan
Taliban Slammed Over bin Laden Appointment, United Press International, August 30, 2001
MOSCOW -- Russia's Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned the appointment of Saudi terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, the official RIA Novosti news agency reported.Bin Laden's appointment confirmed that a center of international terrorism is being set up in Taliban-controlled territory, the ministry said in a statement.
"Pseudo-religious values are being used as a cover to prepare a bridgehead for expansion of militant extremism and separatism far beyond the region's borders," added the statement.
I wonder about the details here - I recall hearing he was killed by someone posing as a journalist whose camera contained a bomb.
Only a liberal would claim an Iraqi newspaper as a credible source. Maybe because they don't know the meaning of the word, credible.
Unfortunately, this is always the question we have to ask with newsmax.
I suspect so, the two salient facts are easily verifyable: Iraqi media praised bin Laden mid-2001 and praised 9/11 afterwards.
Why that leads Limbacher to believe Iraq knew anything is beyond me, though. Al Qaeda was not exactly a secret organization and had done several anti-Western attacks in the past. Of course Saddam would praise them.
Saddam's behavior after 9/11, though, doesn't suggest anything to me. If he'd known, he would have either bragged or tried to hide that he knew.
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