Pentagon: No Al Qaeda-Hussein Link

[db44]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/alqaeda.saddam/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military's first and only study looking into ties between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda showed no connection between the two, according to a military report released by the Pentagon.

The report released by the Joint Forces Command five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq said it found no "smoking gun" after reviewing about 600,000 Iraqi documents captured in the invasion and looking at interviews of key Iraqi leadership held by the United States, Pentagon officials said.

The assessment of the al Qaeda connection and the insistence that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were two primary elements in the Bush administration's arguments in favor of going to war with Iraq.

The Pentagon's report also contradicts then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who said in September 2002 that the CIA provided "bulletproof" evidence demonstrating "that there are, in fact, al Qaeda in Iraq."

Although other groups, like the September 11 commission, have concluded that there was no link between Hussein and al Qaeda, the Pentagon was able to analyze much more information.

The documents cited in the report do reveal that Hussein supported a number of terrorists and terrorist activities inside and outside Iraq.

"The Iraqi regime was involved in regional and international terrorist operations prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom. The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq," according to the report.

Most of the terrorism was aimed at keeping Hussein and his Baath party in power, according to Pentagon officials.

[DoubleEdgeSword]

Wow. Color me surprised. Not.

[db44]

Surprised... Is that pink or more of a mauve?

[DoubleEdgeSword]

Rose. As in rose-colored glasses. ;)

[lions1mew]

I want rose-colored glasses!! Where are mine? I ordered them from the Dubya Halliburton "Tighten The Screws" Company eons ago!! *taps foot*

[DoubleEdgeSword]

Dang. I don't have $4,367,000 to spend on a pair of glasses. Where'd you come up with that kind of money, Margaret? :p

[lions1mew]

Well I would say that lottery win came in but alas no ... I funnelled money like a Republican would ... from the company to my private off-shore Jamacian account!!

[ConnieB]

How funny...because I remember reading in the 9/11 commission report that Bin Laden explored possible cooperation with Iraq during his time in Sudan despite his opposition to Saddam's secular regime. They also stated in the report that Bin Laden once sponsored anti-islamists in Iraqi Kurdistan. Also that a senior Iraqi Intelligence officer finally met with Bin Laden in 1994. But yet there is NO connection....

I also remember George Tenet stated that they had solid evidence of senior level contacts between Iraq and Al-qeada going back for over a decade...He also stated to the congress that he had credible information that al-qeada leaders sought contacts in Iraq who could help them aquire WMD. Tenet also stated to the congress that Iraq has provided training to Al-qeada members in the areas of poisons, gases, and conventional bombs. Just a reminder, Tenet also said this under oath as he testified before the Senate. If this information is not true, then Tenet provided faulty information to our congress which lead to this conflict....So why isn't there any charges being pressed against him?

The 9/11 commission has stated that "We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States." but with the tesitmony given from Tenet and a few others, the commission can not deny nor have they denied that Bin laden and Saddam have cooperated over the years...there's just no evidence that they worked together on any of the terrorist attacks.

Now back in the spring of 1998, Clinton's justice department prepared an indictment for Bin Laden and it states in the fourth paragraph "Al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq", but yet there is no connection.......

Also after al Qaeda bombed two American embassies in East Africa, numerous Clinton officials (Pickering, Richardson, Berger, Clarke, and Cohen just to name a few) cited an Iraq-al Qaeda connection as the basis for retaliatory U.S. strikes against the al Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan. But now, they are disclaiming any knowledge of an iraq - al qeada connection....Although the New York Times in 2004 revealed the contents of an Iraqi intelligence document dated during the early 1990's (authenticated by the U.S. government) that dicusses the relationship between Saddam and Bin Laden, and how this cooperation should be allowed to develop freely through discussion and agreements. But yet there is no connection........

With both administrations finding/stating a connection between Saddam and Bin Laden over the past decade, I have a hard time believing that there wasn't one.....

[DoubleEdgeSword]

Connie, what you fail to grasp here, is that the Commission's report, while verifying some of the information that al-Qaeda did in fact pursue a relationship with Iraq before the 1990s, and even provided support to Saddam's campaign against Kurds who opposed him, the report goes on to say this:

Bin Laden ceased that support in the early 1990s, opening the way for a meeting between the al-Qaida leader and a senior Iraqi intelligence officer in 1994 in Sudan, the report said. At the meeting, bin Laden is said to have requested space to establish training camps in Iraq as well as Iraqi assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded, the staff report said.

The report, the 15th released by the commission staff, concluded, “We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaida cooperated on attacks against the United States.”


That is what question the report seeks to answer -- did Iraq and al-Qaeda cooperate in any way on the attacks of 9/11? There is no evidence they did. Given that this is the scenario that Bush fed the American public to get us into the war, he flat-out lied.

[db44]

What? Because Al Qaeda searched a connection, that automatically implicates Saddam?

That would be equivilant to you being guilty of 9/11 if an Al Qaeda operative came to you and said he wanted to be your friend. Because the other side wants something doesn't incriminate the other party.