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SANLIURFA, Turkey — When Abu Hamza, a former Syrian rebel, agreed to join the Islamic State, he did so assuming he would become a part of the group’s promised Islamist utopia, which has lured foreign jihadists from around the globe. Instead, he found himself being supervised by an Iraqi emir and receiving orders from shadowy Iraqis... All of the men, however, were former Iraqi officers who had served under Saddam Hussein... His account, and those of others who have lived with or fought against the Islamic State over the past two years, underscore the pervasive role played by members of...

The recent turmoil in Iraq brought on by the rise of the Sunni extremist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has ironically struck a blow to the American LeftÂ’s endlessly repeated narrative that there were no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq prior to the war. The State Department and other U.S. government officials have revealed that ISIS now occupies the Al Muthanna Chemicals Weapons Complex. Al Muthanna was Saddam HusseinÂ’s primary chemical weapons facility, and it is located less than 50 miles from Baghdad.The Obama administration claims that the weapons in that facility,...

The Kurdish judge who sentenced former Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein to death has himself been captured and executed by ISIS. Raouf Abdul Rahman, was killed by militants in retaliation for the killing of the former Iraqi dictator, according to Al-Mesryoon. Jordanian Member of Parliament Khalil Attieh wrote on his Facebook page that: “Iraqi revolutionaries arrested him and sentenced him to death in retaliation for the death of the martyr Saddam Hussein.” So far the Iraqi government has not confirmed the death of Judge Rahman, but they have refused to deny the kidnapping. Attieh also claimed that Rahman was only captured...

I know it’s a terrible thing to say, but sometimes I miss Saddam Hussein.

BAGHDAD — American and Iraqi officials have completed nearly the last chapter in dismantling Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program with the removal of hundreds of tons of natural uranium from the country’s main nuclear site. The uranium, which was removed several weeks ago, arrived in Canada over the weekend, according to officials. The removal was first reported by The Associated Press. [snip] American military personnel helped move about 600 tons of uranium in the form called yellowcake. It had been stored at Tuwaitha, an installation 12 miles south of Baghdad, which had been the site of Iraq’s nuclear program. [snip] This...

From The Economist print edition Iraqi commanders say they can run the show on their own. Really?<\b> AMERICAN commanders in Baghdad have been here before. In 2004, a year after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, they handed the reins of security to freshly trained forces of a once-again sovereign Iraq and encouraged them to take control of the main towns. But the Iraqis proved unable or unwilling to hold the line against the insurgents. The Americans delayed their exit and set about retraining the Iraqis. This time will it be different? Probably yes. Since they again took control of...

THE knock on the door came just before 6am. Saddam Hussein’s executioners were disguised with black balaclavas. He spent his last minutes yesterday in the sordid bowels of Iraqi military intelligence headquarters, once home to his own torturers and killers. Just as the dawn call to prayer was beginning over the city, he was led, shambling in leg irons, to the scaffold to pay the price for his crimes against the Iraqi people. “We took him to the gallows room and he looked like he wondered what was going on,” said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi government’s national security adviser, who...

This document CMPC-2004-000167 talks about a project that started in early 2001 by the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) to use components from the previously destroyed TAMUZ (also known as OZIRAQ) Nuclear Reactor to build a Nuclear Simulator Reactor. The TAMUZ Nuclear Reactor was destroyed by an Israeli air attack in 1981. In September 2002, after almost a year and a half since the start of this Nuclear Project and when it became very clear to the Iraqi Regime that the UN inspectors were coming back to Iraq, a decision was made to stop this Nuclear Activity project. What is...

NIGERGATE: BUSH DIDN’T LIE TO THE AMERICANS REGARDING URANIUM FROM AFRICA Today’s Il Foglio newspaper from Italy reports on the recent scoop by The Sunday Times and a follow-up article, “Clueless Joe Wilson” published by Slate. The piece in today’s Il Foglio, signed by top investigative reporter Christian Rocca, examines the true reason why the famous ‘16 words’ were included in the 2003 State of the Union address: President George W. Bush didn’t lie to the American public regarding Saddam Hussein’s attempts to procure uranium from Africa, Saddam had been out trying to do his shopping in Niger. The left...

When Saddam Hussein threatened to terminate massive imports of Australian wheat in 2002, Australian Wheat Board (AWB) executives rushed to Iraq in a panic. Reuters reported that Iraq’s Minister wished “to resume and increase future business with AWB on the basis that the Australian government supports diplomatic solutions to the current situation in Iraq.” Then a peculiar thing happened. Australia did not change its foreign policy but after the meeting with Iraqi officials, the AWB emerged with a new deal. Iraq had agreed not only to continue buying Australian wheat but also to pay more for it. Australian Prime Minister...

A former military intelligence analyst, who currently works as a civilian contractor, believes he has found a cache of extremely confidential--and very shocking--audio recordings of Saddam Hussein's office meetings. The audiotapes, which had apparently been overlooked, were found in a warehouse along with many other untranslated Iraqi intelligence files. These tapes are extremely significant, since they may be the best evidence yet of Saddam's secret intentions concerning weapons of mass destruction. Before 9/11, many intelligence experts were convinced that a very strong and important Iraqi WMD connection existed, only to change their minds when no concrete evidence of that connection...

Special Dispatch Series - No. 955 August 11, 2005 No.955 Presiding Judge in the Saddam Hussein Trial Reveals Details of Charges and Discusses Possibility of Execution The following are excerpts from an interview with the presiding judge in the Saddam Hussein trial, Munir Haddad, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on August 8, 2005. (To view this clip visit http://memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=801.) Interviewer: "You have decided that the trial will be public, and open to the media and anyone who wants to attend." Haddad: "Our court is just and transparent. We have nothing to hide, and no reason for the trial not...

Saddam bids to challenge case in the US LONDON (AFP) - Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) is preparing a legal challenge in the United States to his trial for war crimes, a newspaper reports, citing leaked papers prepared by his defense team. Clive Stafford Smith, a British human rights lawyer, has prepared a 50-page brief which contains advice to take the case to US courts to ensure he receives a fair trial, the Sunday Times reported after saying it had seen the document. there's more here @ Free Republic...  and here Free Republic Post ... The...

Amman, Jordan - Members of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime are considering suing the Bush administration in the World Court for alleged war crimes in Iraq, the chief of the former dictator's legal team said on Monday. Ziad al-Khasawneh told The Associated Press that Saddam's Jordan-based defence team could not initiate legal action on its own against the US government in the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands, because the tribunal refuses to hear any individual cases. "Since the World Court doesn't accept cases from individuals, the lawsuit could be filed on behalf of members of President Saddam's government,"...

Medic treated imprisoned Iraqi leaders His patients came right from the top - of old regime By SCOTT WILLIAMS swilliams@journalsentinel.com Posted: Nov. 13, 2004 Entering a small prison cell under heavy security, Cook used Arabic to exchange a few introductory words with the patient. "Hello. God be with you," he said, employing a common Muslim greeting. "God be with you," replied Saddam Hussein. It was the first of a handful of face-to-face encounters Cook had with the ousted Iraqi leader while serving on an elite medical team entrusted to care for top officials of Hussein's regime. Cook also worked unsuccessfully...

Did we miss something here? Over the last several years, starting with a crisp Manhattan morning in September of 2001 and leading up to the present, their have been numerous startling revelations concerning the nature of this Nation's present struggle. Taken in their entirety, they hint at a picture too ghastly for many to comprehend. Recall for an instant, the image of our rebirth to reality. Fast forward, being the select method for reticent rationalized denial, America has skipped back one day and forward 1143 to the threshold of domestic chaos and a divisive Presidential election fueled on 9/10 rhetoric...

"There's no conclusive evidence the Saddam Hussein regime had harbored Zarqawi," a U.S. official said on Tuesday about the CIA findings. But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that the report, which was a mix of new information and a look at some older information, did not make any final judgments or come to any definitive conclusions. "To suggest the case is closed on this would not be correct," the official said in confirming an ABC News story about the CIA report that the network said was delivered to the White House last week. ABC quoted an unnamed...

This is a telephone poll in dire need of Freeping. Please call 412-333-9190. This normally conservative paper is carrying a front-page article on the 8-11 Commission report and then asking the public to vote yes or no on whether there is any linkage between al-Qaida and Saddam's regime. Please call 412-333-9190 to vote yes. The results will air on KQV-AM (1410) at 6:58 p.m. tonight.

Labour MP Ann Clwyd tells of her experience of visiting Iraq in The Times"There was a machine designed for shredding plastic. Men were dropped into it and we were again made to watch. Sometimes they went in head first and died quickly. Sometimes they went in feet first and died screaming. It was horrible. I saw 30 people die like this. Their remains would be placed in plastic bags and we were told they would be used as fish food...on one occasion, I saw Qusay personally supervise these murders." This is one of the many witness statements that were taken...

There is a global war on terrorism that is being fought in many countries throughout the world. The enemies of peace, freedom, and civilization have been fighting this war, unhindered until very recently, for decades. It took us from November of 1979 to September of 2001, an astonishing 21 years and 11 months, to commit ourselves to treating the terrorism on the US as a war on our country and our way of life. In November of 1979 a revolution swept across Iran, resulting in the overthrow of the US backed Shah and the beginning of the radical Islamist movement’s...