No Connection

[Dr. Shane]

I am starting a new thread so two independant topics don't get mixed up.

Bevin posted the following:

Saddam saw al-Qaida as threat

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

"WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein regarded al-Qaida as a threat rather than a possible ally, a Senate report says, contradicting assertions President Bush has used to build support for the war in Iraq.

Released Friday, the report discloses for the first time an October 2005 CIA assessment that before the war, Saddam's government "did not have a relationship, harbor or turn a blind eye toward" al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or his associates.

Saddam told U.S. officials after his capture that he had not cooperated with Osama bin Laden even though he acknowledged that officials in his government had met with the al-Qaida leader, according to FBI summaries cited in the Senate report.

"Saddam only expressed negative sentiments about bin Laden," Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi leader's top aide, told the FBI."

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

[Dr. Shane]

The Administration NEVER claimed there was a connection. Just after the 9/11 attacks Dick Cheney stated on NBC's Meet The Press that there was no such connection. Two years later on the same program he stated he wasn't sure if there was a connection.

The primary reason the US went into Iraq was because we believed Iraq had WMDs and was going to use terrorists to attack the US. What we discovered was our intelligence was outdated. Recordings from 1996 do in fact show Saddam was planning to attack the US with WMDs using terrorists. If Saddam would have been forthcoming, the war would have been avoided.

The second reason the US invaded Iraq was because he provided a safe harbor for terrorists. That was true. He was also funding suicide attacks by Hamas. Members of Saddam's government had met with members of Al Quieda. We did not know what was discussed or if anything resulted from such meetings. Now that we have invaded and have all the Iraqi documents, we know nothing ever came of those meeting.

The anti-war talking points have so long repeated "no connection" that many people don't even know what would have lead a reasonable person to believe there could have been a connection.

• In October 1990 there was a fundamentalist meeting in Jordan where al Qaeda and Iraqi officials met together.
• An Iraqi terrorist admitted to mixing the chemicals which were used to bomb the WTC in 1992
• Another 1992 WTC conspirator had made 46 phone calls to Iraq
• Yet another 1992 WTC conspirator returned to Bagdad with the assistance of the Iraqi embassy in Jordan and received safe haven.
• Saddam invited Zawahiri to Bagdad in 1992 when he was running Egyption Islamic Jihad which later merged with al Qaeda.
• In 1994 Saddam funded an Algerian terrorist group, Groupe Islamique Armé, which had ties to bin Laden.
• One of bin Laden’s lieutenants, Abu Hajer, went to Iraq in 1995 to discuss cooperation with the Iraqi government.
• Bin Laden recived bomb making training from the Iraqi Intelligence Service (ISS) in 1995 and 1996.
• 20 miles south of Bagdad, Sadam ran a “non-Iraqi Arab” terrorist camp named Salman Pak.
• In 1996, the director of the ISS met privately with bin Laden in Sudan.
• Al Libi, an al Qaeda leader, captured in November of 2001, reported that Iraq and al Qaeda worked together on WMDs in 1997.
• Abdullah al-Iraqi, and al Qaeda official, traveled from Afghanistan to Iraq several times between 1997 and 2000 to aquire poisons and gases.
• Zawahiri met with the ISS on February 1998.
• In late 1998 an ISS official was sent to Afghanistan to meet with al Qaeda officials, one of which was Zawahiri.
• The headline of Jan. 11, 1999 issue of Newsweek read “Saddam + Bin Laden?”
• On Jan. 14, 1999, ABC News reported that Saddam had offered asylum to bin Laden.
• Faruq Hijazi and other Iraqi officials went to Afghanistan in 1999 to meet with bin Laden.
• Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, was hired by the Iraqi embassy in Malaysia and participated in the January 5, 2000 al Qaeda meeting to bomb the USS Cole. Three of the 9/11 hijackers also participated in the same meeting.
• According to the Czech government there was a meeting in April of 2001 between Mohamed Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker, and an Iraqi intelligence official.

ABC News Report "Saddam & Bin Laden"

[Dr. Shane]

Now, after invading we have all the information we had to guess at or rely on questionable intelligence for.

Now we know that Iraq and al Qeada never had any type of formal alliance. However with everything that was going on in the 1990s and with Saddam being so secretive. It is understandable why some reasonable people could have suspected some kind of formal alliance between the two.

There was no conspiracy. President Bush never lied to the American people.