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The inhumane reign of Saddam Hussein: Pt. 3 - USA Today, LA Times
The Wall Street Journal | 6/28/1993 | Laurie Mylroie
Military retaliation from Baghdad was the main administration concern following Saturday's strike on Iraq. Yet U.S. officials should start thinking seriously about the question of retaliation through terror. It is quite possible, for example, that there was a connection between Saddam and recent attempts to blow up Manhattan. It is quite possible that New York's terror is Saddam's revenge.
Speculation about the responsibility for last week's bombing plot and the earlier World Trade Center bombing has focused on Iran, Sudan, and the fundamentalist Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Much energy has been spent linking the terror to Islamic fundamentalism. Yet Saddam, a secular tyrant, is also suspect.
Information already in the public domain allows us to make this case. Start with the fact that the most important person in the Trade Center bombing is an Iraqi, Ramzi Ahmad Yusuf. Known in New York as Rashid, Mr. Yusuf has 11 aliases. The U.S. press has reported that he left Iraq in early 1992, transiting Jordan to Pakistan. He entered New York in early September on Pakistan Airways. Mr. Yusuf, traveling on his Iraqi passport, passed through immigration by requesting asylum. The FBI claims the plot began in August, while Mr. Yusuf was abroad...
This information, although sketchy, indicates Iraqi activity. If Mr. Yusuf, the key figure, had worked for Iran, Tehran would not have let him return to Iraq. Given the totalitarian nature of the Iraqi regime, even Abboud Yassin's return to Iraq is significant. An innocent man would, arguably, have chosen to stay in the U.S. - he would have a better chance of a fair hearing in a U.S. court than before an Iraqi intelligence officer. If Abboud Yassin was involved in the bombing - but was not acting under Baghdad's instruction - then it was even more imprudent for him to return to Iraq. Mr. Yusuf and Abboud Yassin could have gone to Afghanistan, where they would not have exposed themselves to the potentially fatal suspicions of Baghdad's intelligence agencies....
1999 ABC News Report : The Osama - Hussein Connection
Radio America ^ | January 1999 | ABC News
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1229608/posts
http://www.radioamerica.org/audio/MR_ABC-Osama-Hussein-connections.mp3
Transcript of the linked MP3 file.
-- Sheila MacVicar, ABC News, January 14, 1999
". . . [Mamdouh Mahmud] Salim, alleged to be a key military advisor and believed to be privy to bin Laden's most secret projects, is also apprehended. The US government alleges that he was under secret orders to procure enriched uranium for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons.
"These are allegations bin Laden does not now deny. "It would be a sin for Muslims not to try to possess the weapons that would prevent the infidels from inflicting harm on Muslims, but how we could use these weapons if we possessed them is up to us.
"With an American price on his head, there weren't many places bin Laden could go, unless he teamed up with another international pariah, one also with an interest in weapons of mass destruction. Osama believes in the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend, and someone I should cooperate with.' That is certainly the current case with Iraq. Saddam Hussein has a long history of harboring terrorists: Carlos the Jackal, Abu Nida, Abu Abbas. The most notorious terrorist of their era all found shelter and support at one time in Baghdad."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1835199/posts
Troops exposed to sarin risk brain damage: report (”Where are the WMDs, Mr. Bush?”)
Reuters ^ | 05/17/07
Posted on 05/17/2007 9:27:28 AM PDT by presidio9
Scientists have found evidence that the kind of low-level exposure to sarin gas experienced by more than 100,000 U.S. troops in the first Gulf war can cause “lasting brain deficits,” The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
While the results are preliminary, scientists working with the U.S. Department of Defense said they found apparent changes in the brain’s connective tissue — known as white matter — in soldiers exposed to the gas.
The extent of the changes — less white matter and slightly larger brain cavities — correspond to the extent of exposure, the Times reported on its Web site. The results are to be published in the June issue of the journal NeuroToxicology, it said.
The report is likely to revive the debate over why so many troops returned from the 1991 Gulf conflict with unexplained physical problems. Many scientists have questioned whether Gulf war-related illnesses have a physiological basis.
Far more research will have to be done before it is known whether those illnesses can be traced to exposure to sarin, the Times reported, and the long-term effects of sarin exposure on the brain are not well understood.
The Times said several lawmakers briefed on the study say the Department of Veterans Affairs is obligated to provide increased neurological care to veterans who may have been exposed to sarin gas.
The article named Sen. Patty Murray (news, bio, voting record), a Washington state Democrat, and Christopher Bond (news, bio, voting record), a Missouri Republican.
Approximately one in seven of the 700,000 troops deployed in the first Gulf war experienced a mysterious set of ailments, with problems including persistent fatigue, chronic headaches, joint pain and nausea, the paper noted in the story to appear in Thursday’s print edition.
The Veterans Affairs department says those symptoms persist today for more than 150,000 troops, more than the number of troops exposed to the gases.
In a companion study, researchers tested 140 troops thought to have experienced differing degrees of exposure to the chemical agents to check their fine motor coordination.
Individuals with potentially greater exposure had a deterioration in fine motor skills, performing the tests at a level similar to people 20 years their senior, the Times said.