Saddam’s Link To Terrorism Proven
The headlines are all the same, just worded differently:
Pentagon says no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda
Pentagon Report Finds No Direct Saddam-al-Qaida Connection
Hussein’s Iraq and al Qaeda not linked, Pentagon says
Pentagon Report Fails to Link Saddam, Al-Qaida
There two types of reporters in the MSM these days: lazy and agenda-driven! If it weren’t for “executive summaries” the media would never have anything to report.
The media stepped all over themselves when a recent Pentagon report found no smoking gun linking the Saddam regime and Al Qaeda. The “I told you so’s” have been spread far and wide throughout the blogosphere, the MSM, and radio talk shows. But, it seems none of these people actually read the report even though they link to it.
The common theme among each of these stories and most others is that there was no link between Saddam and Al Qaeda. I’ve talked about this until I was blue in the face. I think I’ve done a very good job at reminding the naysayers that troll through here about Iraq’s ties to terrorism. The same report that the left and MSM (same thing, sorry) are quoting in an attempt to further discredit Bush and the reaons for in Iraq says the following:
Despite their incompatible long-term goals, many terrorist movements and Saddam found a common enemy in the United States. At times these organizations worked together, trading access for capability.
Instead the media read two paragraphs into the executive summary (in which the statement above falls) and instantly went to press upon reading this:
This study found no “smoking gun” (i.e., direct connection) between Saddam’s Iraq and al Qaeda.
If they would have read the very next sentence in the report, they would be telling the American people this:
Saddam’s interest in, and support for, non-state actors was spread across a variety of revolutionary, liberation, nationalist, and Islamic terrorist organizations.
Let’s read some other parts of just the executive summary of the report that the media and left in this country doesn’t want you to know about:
• 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.
• On occasion, the Iraqi intelligence servIces directly targeted the regime’s perceived enemies, including non-Iraqis. Non-Iraqi casualties often resulted from Iraqi sponsorship of non-governmental terrorist groups.
• Saddam’s regime often cooperated directly, albeit cautiously, with terrorist groups when they believed such groups could help advance Iraq’s long-term goals. The regime carefully recorded its connections to Palestinian terror organizations in numerous government memos. One such example documents Iraqi financial support to families of suicide bombers in Gaza and the West Bank.
• State sponsorship of terrorism became such a routine tool of state power that Iraq developed elaborate bureaucratic processes to monitor progress and accountability in the recruiting, training, and resourcing of terrorists. Examples include the regime’s development, construction, certification, and training for car bombs and suicide vests in 1999 and 2000.
I’ve mentioned before that Saddam funded and supported Ansar Al-Islam, a terrorist organization in northern Iraq whose main target were the Kurds. Ansar al-Islam and Al Qaeda were mutually supporting partners, providing training and funds to each other since as early as 1999.
Saddam also started the Saddam Fedayeen around this time. He trained these fighters in terrorist camp in and out of Iraq. Some fighters trained in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. These fighters were sent mainly to Europe, Iran, and northern Iraq to attack the Kurds. Would you believe that if you actually read the report, you’d learn this little bit of information as well, even if you didn’t read here a few years ago? I’m smarter than I look.
The casual observer (ie: media) won’t read far enough into the report to discover the evidence of closely linked relationship with terrorists groups like Abu Nadal, Palestine Liberation Front (which were “assigned and carried out commando operations for us against American interests in the [1991] war” and probably beyond), Renewal and Jihad Organization (which “believes in armed jihad against the Americans and Western interests”), Abu Dawoud, Islamic Jihad Organization [Egyptian Islamic Jihad], Islamic Scholars Group (the same terrorist organization the Code Stinkos met with in Jordan recently along with retired Colonel Ann Wright and war veteran Geoffrey Millard [a former Army “soldier” who still wears his desert camouflage uniform top with the US flag sewn on UPSIDE DOWN at events]), The Afghani Islamic Party and others.
As recently as 2001, Saddam was scheming with terrorist organizations to attack American interests as well as Arab nations like Kuwait friendly to the US. Documents included in the report shows that Saddam was aligning himself with terrorist groups in Kuwait. When I was in Kuwait in 2002, we lost Soldiers to some of these organizations. A convoy I was in had to personally shoot out the engine of car brandishing a weapon in our direction as we traveled from Camp Doha to our camp out in the desert. No one was injured, but it illustrates the threat to Americans in Kuwait as a result of Saddam’s actions.
Saddam directly funded terrorist organization throughout the world who openly assured Saddam that they could attack American interests. One particular part of the document quotes student terrorists who volunteered to “… carry out a suicide bombing targeting any American interest here in Thailand or elsewhere … any other place the Iraqi leadership order[s] them to carry out such [an] attack.”
Now, tell me again that Iraq was no threat to us!!
