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.
The American flag flies over Taiwan for the first time since 1979.
Bush to have Jiang Zemin to the Crawford ranch October 25.
Qatar is a reality.
We're arranging climate-controlled shelters for B-2's on Diego Garcia.
Saddam harbors al-Qaeda in Baghdad, assists their chemical weapons development, while his agents scour Africa for uranium.
That's uranium, Senator Daschle--you've been studying Uranus.
Let's roll--over the Quislings and through the woods
To Saddam's house we go.
The Air Force knows the way to pull the sleigh
Through the white and drifting o-zone.
They can't - they have to debate seriousssssly the committing of Americaaaan soldiers.
Guess we just have to die. Wonder what Daschle will tell his family about their inability to act on the president's requests?
The trap is to let the Dashholes and Gores of the world question his Iraq initiative, get firmly on the record as opposing the war and then hit them and their weak-kneed Democratic candidates with the evidence conveniently close to the election.
Is this politicizing the war? Yes it is and there is nothing wrong with it. If the Dems want to play to their 60's hippy clientele then they can pay for it in the election which is now only a few weeks away.
They are in a trap and they know it. That is the reason for the Dashhole flare up today. They are desperate to get Bush’s War on Terrorism/Iraqi war poll numbers down. The loss of the Senate and a bigger Republican majority in the house is coming at them like a freight train if they can’t turn this around and they are frightened to death at the prospect.
Brilliant Bush politics in my opinion.
Top Stories - Reuters
U.S. Detects Al Qaeda Camp in Iran - NBC News
Wed Sep 25, 9:18 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence has detected what appears to be an al Qaeda training camp in a remote region of eastern Iran along the border with Afghanistan ( news - web sites), NBC News reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified sources.
The network said it was told by its sources that overhead imagery of the site shows a suspected terrorist camp that includes a driving course and rifle range very much like al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan that were used to train for assassinations, NBC reported.
NBC quoted the sources as saying that Iran's civilian government may not know the camp exists but that Iranian military and intelligence certainly would.
Asked about the report, a U.S. official said "there are some pockets of al Qaeda in Iran near the border" but would not comment further. A Pentagon ( news - web sites) spokeswoman declined to comment, referring calls to the intelligence community.
The Washington Post reported last month that two top al Qaeda deputies were harbored in Iran along with dozens of al Qaeda fighters.
Iran has denied that al Qaeda members have sought refuge within its borders "It has become a bad habit of some American circles to issue repetitious and baseless charges against Iran. Those al Qaeda members are not in Iran," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told Reuters in response to the earlier report.
Washington has named Iran part of an "axis of evil" accusing it of seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction and sponsoring terrorism, a charge Iran denies.
Heheh.
AND, one by one, the leftist apologists in the Democrat party are marching down the road that leads to irrelevence. Witness: Goron, Daschole, Byrd-brain...
Once the dims have played all of their pre-election cards -- already under way -- GW will play the trump card. Game and match.
Ooohhh! You're good!
Very interesting.
Bush isn't stretching this out in order to play politics. He's stretching it out because Saddam has us by the balls right now. Bush could pick up a phone and Saddam would be dead in 24 hours. He could have done that any time in the last year, he could it today, or tomorrow or at any time in the future. There is no "window of opportunity" for removing Saddam -- Saddam's removal is militarily a trivial exercise for the United States. What isn't trivial is ensuring that Saddam doesn't kill millions of Americans with anthrax during the end game. The rate-determining step in the campaign on Iraq is US civil defense against anthrax attack. By comparison, every other consideration fades into insignificance. That is why Bush is stringing this out, in terms of acting militarily against Saddam, in terms of pointing the finger at Saddam for 9-11, and in terms of identifying the origin of the anthrax letters which followed 9-11.
So what sort of time frame are we looking at for this thing? My guess is that Bush has set himself the goal of removing Saddam from power before his first term in office is out. Three years is probably sufficient to put the appropriate civil defense measures in place, it's not so long as to risk too many new unknowns entering into the equation, and, in an historical sense, it's the mere blink of an eye. Bush has repeatedly reminded us, with respect to the objective of regime change in Iraq, that he is a very patient man. Barring a stroke of luck (good or bad) this will not play out to its conclusion in a matter of weeks or months. We will have Saddam Hussein to kick around for quite some time to come.
Sometimes I'll stand back from my anger at the liberal cancer that is destroying us from within and say to myself "WTF are they talking about...how can anyone be this stupid? They really don't get it, do they?" I don't mind having a difference of opinion with someone, but the liberals stupidity absolutely amazes me.
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U.S. intelligence has detected what appears to be an al Qaeda training camp in a remote region of eastern Iran along the border with Afghanistan, NBC News reported on September 25, 2002, citing unidentified sources. The network said it was told by its sources that overhead imagery of the site shows a suspected terrorist camp that includes a driving course and rifle range very much like al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan that were used to train for assassinations. (Reuters Graphic) - Sep 25 10:29 PM ET |
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