BackwoodsSquatches
22-06-2006, 12:10
I have repeatedly heard George Bush Junior say that the invasion of Iraq is part of the global "War on Terrorism".
So what link is there between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein? I always thought that they hated each other.
You'd really be doing yourself a favor if you did NOT try to learn about this subject here.
Youre not going to get any objective opinions, just biased ranting to the left, or right.
The truth is there was no link between them.
Hussein and Osama are entirely different kinds of muslim, and traditionally, the two hate each other.
Before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Al-Qaida had no discernable presence in Iraq.
Bush planned the invasion of Iraq, before he even became President.
His agenda is pretty much securing oil, and american finacial interests for his best friends, the uberly-rich and powerful.
His mistake was telling the world that Saddam was sitting on a dangerous stockpile of chemical and nuclear weapons that may use at any second!...
Only to discover that if saddam had such weapons, they were not only unused, but absent altogether.
It was his attempt to rally the world behind his agenda, by showing Saddam to be a ruthless dictator bent on global domination, and implying that Saddam directly threatened the U.S.
The truth is however, that Saddam was indeed a dickhead, and even a ruthless dictator, but he barely posed a threat to any nation, especially the last remaining global super-power.
Now, what we have is a shit-storm and a quagmire, and a country teetering on the brink of all-out civil war, all because we let George do our thinking for us.
Ultraextreme Sanity
22-06-2006, 13:41
You'd really be doing yourself a favor if you did NOT try to learn about this subject here.
Youre not going to get any objective opinions, just biased ranting to the left, or right.
The truth is there was no link between them.
Hussein and Osama are entirely different kinds of muslim, and traditionally, the two hate each other.
Before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Al-Qaida had no discernable presence in Iraq.
Bush planned the invasion of Iraq, before he even became President.
His agenda is pretty much securing oil, and american finacial interests for his best friends, the uberly-rich and powerful.
His mistake was telling the world that Saddam was sitting on a dangerous stockpile of chemical and nuclear weapons that may use at any second!...
Only to discover that if saddam had such weapons, they were not only unused, but absent altogether.
It was his attempt to rally the world behind his agenda, by showing Saddam to be a ruthless dictator bent on global domination, and implying that Saddam directly threatened the U.S.
The truth is however, that Saddam was indeed a dickhead, and even a ruthless dictator, but he barely posed a threat to any nation, especially the last remaining global super-power.
Now, what we have is a shit-storm and a quagmire, and a country teetering on the brink of all-out civil war, all because we let George do our thinking for us.
Yad yad blah blah....so her'e another view...blah blah ad nauseum..
Back to Warriors For Truth News
Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, & the 9-11 hijackers received assistance from Iraq.
Bill Clinton declared in Executive Order 13129 of July 4, 1999: I, William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States of America, find that the actions and policies of the Taliban in Afghanistan, in allowing territory under its control in Afghanistan to be used as a safe haven and base of operations for Usama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda (sic) organization who have committed and threaten to continue to commit acts of violence against the United States and its nationals, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the U.S., and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.
On June 30, 2001 President George W. Bush continued the same Executive Order from Bill Clinton, using nearly identical language in a notice repeated here:
23. On information and belief, Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and the hijackers also received material support and assistance from Iraq, by and through its officials, agents, and/or employees, to carry out terrorist attacks on the United States, including the September 11, 2001 attacks.
24. In their February 23,1998 Fatwah, Bin Laden, and Al Qaeda expressly referenced the United States’ “continuing aggression” towards Iraq as one of their reasons for calling on all Muslims to kill Americans “wherever and whenever” the are found:
The best proof of this is the Americans’ continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the [Arabian] Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, still they are helpless.
Bin Laden’s and Al Qaeda’s Fatwah also cited the alleged “great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people” by the United States, as well as the United States alleged “eagerness to destroy Iraq.”
25. Bin Laden reportedly visited Baghdad for consultations in March 1998. Giovanni De Stefano, an international lawyer visiting Baghdad on business, had a chance encounter with Bin Laden in the lobby of the Al-Rashid Hotel, during which the two men introduced themselves and engaged in polite conversation. De Stefano did not, at the time, recognize Bin Laden’s name. Five months after the chance encounter, agents of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda attacked the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
26. Between April 25 and May 1, 1998, two of Bin Laden’s senior military commanders, Muhammad Abu-Islam and Abdallah Qassim, reportedly visited Baghdad for discussions with Saddam Hussein’s son -- Qusay Hussein -- the “czar” of Iraqi intelligence matters. Qusay Hussein’s participation in the meetings highlights the importance of the talks in both symbolic and practical terms. As a direct result of these meetings, Iraq reportedly made commitments to provide training, intelligence, clandestine Saudi border crossings, and weapons and explosives to support Al Qaeda.
27. By mid-June, 1998, operatives of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda reportedly were at the al-Nasiriyah training camp in Iraq receiving instruction and training from Iraqi intelligence and military officials on reconnaissance and targeting American facilities and installations for terrorist attacks. Another group of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives from Saudi Arabia reportedly were trained by intelligence officials in Iraq to smuggle weapons and explosives into Saudi Arabia, and, upon returning to Saudi Arabia, successfully smuggled weapons and explosives into that country. A third group of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives reportedly received a month of sophisticated guerrilla operations training from Iraqi intelligence officials later in the Summer of 1998.
28. Bin Laden reportedly sought to strengthen and reinforce the support he and Al Qaeda received from Iraq. In mid-July 1998, Bin Laden reportedly sent Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian co-founder of Al Qaeda, to Iraq to meet with senior Iraqi officials, including Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan. The reported purpose of this meeting was to discuss and plan a joint strategy for a terrorist campaign against the United States. Iraqi officials reportedly pledged Iraq’s full support and cooperation on the condition that Bin Laden and Al Qaeda not incite the Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamic organization, against the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Zawahiri reportedly toured a potential site for a new headquarters for Bin Laden and Al Qaeda near al-Fallujah in Iraq and observed training by Iraqi intelligence officials of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives at al-Nasiriyah. In recognition of Bin Laden’s and Al Qaeda’s leadership role in the terrorist war against the United States, Iraqi officials allowed Zawahiri to assume formal command over the al-Nasiriyah training camp in the name of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
29. By mid-November 1998, Saddam Hussein reportedly came to the conclusion (with the advice and prompting of his son and intelligence chief, Qusay), that a campaign of terrorist attacks against the United States, under the banner of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, was the most effective means of deflecting U.S. attempts to topple his regime.
30. Shortly thereafter, Iraqi intelligence officials reportedly met with Bin Laden in Afghanistan. Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and Iraq reportedly agreed to join efforts in a detailed, coordinated plan for a protracted terrorist war against the United States. Iraq also reportedly agreed to provide Bin Laden and Al Qaeda with the assistance of an expert in chemical weapons, and Bin Laden reportedly agreed to hunt down Iraqi opposition leaders who cooperated with the United States against Hussein. In furtherance of this agreement, Bin Laden reportedly dispatched four hundred of Al Qaeda’s “Afghan” Arabs to Iraq to fight Kurds.
31. Following a four day air strike by the United States in December 1998, Iraqi trade minister Muhammad Mahdi Salah reportedly stated that he expected terrorist activities against the United States to increase as a result of the bombing of Iraq. The Arabic language daily newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi first raised the issue of cooperation between Iraq, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda in a late December 1998 editorial, which predicted that “President Saddam Hussein, whose country was subjected to a four day air strike, will look for support in taking revenge on the United States and Britain by cooperating with Saudi oppositionist Osama bin-Laden, whom the United States considers to be the most wanted person in the world.” The editorial noted that this type of cooperation was very likely considering that “bin-Laden was planning moving to Iraq before the recent strike.”
32. Following the December 1998 air strikes, Saddam Hussein reportedly dispatched Faruq al-Hijazi to Kandahar, Afghanistan in order to meet with Bin Laden. Hijazi, the former deputy chief of Iraqi intelligence, had first met Bin Laden in 1994. During his visit to Kandahar, Hijazi reportedly offered expanded cooperation and assistance to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, as well as a re-extension of the offer of shelter and hospitality Iraq previously extended to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Bin Laden reportedly agreed in principle to give Iraq assistance in a revenge campaign against the United States, but suggested further study and coordination before committing to a specific course of action or agreeing to a particular terrorist strike.
33. To demonstrate Iraq’s commitment to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, Hijazi reportedly presented Bin Laden with a pack of blank, official Yemeni passports, supplied to Iraqi intelligence from their Yemeni contacts. Hijazi’s visit to Kandahar was reportedly followed by a contingent of Iraqi military intelligence officials who provided additional training and instruction to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan. These Iraqi officials reportedly included members of “Unit 999,” a group of elite, Iraqi intelligence officials who provided advanced sabotage and infiltration training and instruction for Al Qaeda operatives.
34. In addition to the al-Nasiriyah training camp, by January 1999, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives also were reportedly being trained by Iraqi intelligence and military officers at training camps on the outskirts of Baghdad.
35. Following the Hijazi meetings, Qusay Hussein reportedly dispatched representatives to follow-up with Bin Laden and obtain his firm commitment to exact revenge against the United States for the December 1998 bombing campaign. Iraq reportedly offered Bin Laden and Al Qaeda an open-ended commitment to joint operations against the United States and its “moderate” Arab allies in exchange for an absolute guarantee that Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and their allies would not attempt to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.
36. Israeli sources reportedly claim that, for the past two years, Iraqi intelligence officers have been shuttling back and forth between Baghdad and Afghanistan. According to the Israelis, one of these Iraqi intelligence officers, Salah Suleiman, was captured last October by Pakistani officials near the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
37. In January 1999, Iraq reportedly began reorganizing and mobilizing intelligence front operations throughout Europe in support of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
38. According to Czech intelligence sources, Mohammad Atta, the operational ringleader of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, met in June 2000 with Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, a consul and second secretary at the Iraqi embassy in Prague. Al-Ani is one of Iraqi’s most highly decorated intelligence officers, a special forces veteran, and a senior leader of Iraq’s “M-8” special operations branch. Other reports indicate that Al-Ani may have met with another hijacker, Khalid Almihdar.
39. Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross has confirmed that Atta met with al-Ani in early April 2001 in Prague. Atta also reportedly met with the Iraqi ambassador to Turkey and the former Iraqi deputy intelligence director, Farouk al-Hijazi, in Prague sometime in early April 2001.
40. Czech intelligence sources further report that Atta and al-Ani embraced upon meeting at Prague’s Ruzyne airport, and that Atta may have visited the Czech capitol on four other occasions.
41. Czech intelligence sources also reported that al-Ani had been under surveillance because he had been observed apparently surveying the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty headquarters in Prague. Czech authorities believed the site had been selected for attack by terrorists. Later in 2001, al-Ani was expelled from the Czech Republic for espionage activities.
42. Reports of additional intelligence ties between Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and Iraq continue to mount. The CIA reportedly believes Iraq provided falsified passports for the nineteen hijackers who carried out the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Further, senior U.S. intelligence sources have revealed that, in the Spring of 2001, Marwan al-Shehri and Ziad Jarrah -- two of Atta’s closest associates and members of the Al Qaeda “cell” in the Federal Republic of Germany -- met with known Iraqi intelligence agents outside the United States.
43. Italian security sources have reported that Iraq made use of its embassy in Rome to foster and cultivate Iraq’s partnership with Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Habib Faris Abdullah al-Mamouri, a general in the Iraqi secret service, and, from 1982 to 1990, a member of Iraq’s “M-A” special operations branch charged with developing links with Islamist militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the states of the Persian Gulf, was stationed in Rome as an “instructor” for Iraqi diplomats. Al-Mamouri reportedly met with Mohammed Atta in Rome, Hamburg, and Prague. Al-Mamouri has not been seen in Rome since July 2001, shortly after he last met with Atta.
44. Recent Iraqi defectors provide additional details of Iraq’s support for international terrorism throughout the 1990s. The Public Broadcasting Service documentary program entitled “Frontline” interviewed former Iraqi intelligence and army officers with first-hand accounts of highly secret installations run by an international terrorist known to Iraqi staffers only as “the Ghost.” “The Ghost” is reported to be Abdel Hussein, the chief trainer at a training camp inside Iraq, which includes the fuselage of a Boeing 707 jetliner that is used to practice hijacking scenarios. U.N. inspectors independently confirmed the existence of this particular training camp inside Iraq.
45. The Iraqi defector known as “Saddam’s Bomb-maker,” Dr. Khidhir Hamza, who served as Iraq’s Director of Nuclear Weaponization, analyzes Iraqi’s sponsorship of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda as follows:
What I think is there is somehow a change in the level of the type of operation Bin Laden has been carrying [out]. What we are looking at initially is more or less just attempts to blow some buildings, just normal use of explosives for a terrorist. What we have in the September 11 operation, [is a] tightly controlled, very sophisticated operation; the type an Iraqi intelligence agency, well versed in the technology [could pull off]. ... So my thinking is a guy sitting in a cave in Afghanistan is not the guy who will do an operation of this caliber. It has to have in combination with it a guy with the sophistication and know-how on how to carry these things.
. . . Iraq [also] has a history of training terrorists, harboring them, and taking good care of them, by the way. A terrorist is well cared for with Saddam. So he has a good reputation in that type of community, if you like.
46. Several leading authorities on Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden, and Al Qaeda concur on the likelihood of Iraq’s sponsorship and coordination of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The former head of Israel’s Mossad secret service, Rafi Eitan, and former CIA Director James Woolsey, share the view that Iraq, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda conspired in the attacks. Their views also are shared by Laurie Mylroie, an academic and Iraqi affairs expert at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.. Mylroie cites the role of Iraqi operatives in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center to support her claim that the September 11, 2001 attacks are a matter of unfinished business for Iraq, which considers itself to be at war with the United States.
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WFT interviewed Republican National Headquarters in 2003. They said they were unaware of Executive Order 13129. We directed them to this web site. They are still silent on the connection that Saddam Hussein had direct links to Al Qaeda, Bin Laden & the World Trade Center Attacks
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http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), section 5 of the United Nations Participation Act of 1945, as amended (22 U.S.C. 287c), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that the situation that gave rise to the declaration of a national emergency in Executive Order 13129 of July 4, 1999, with respect to the Taliban, in allowing territory under its control in Afghanistan to be used as a safe haven and base of operations for Usama bin Ladin and the Al-Qaida organization, has been significantly altered given the success of the military campaign in Afghanistan, and hereby revoke that order and terminate the national emergency declared in that order with respect to the Taliban. At the same time, and in order to take additional steps with respect to the grave acts of terrorism and threats of terrorism committed by foreign terrorists, the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on United States nationals or the United States, and the national emergency described and declared in Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001, I hereby order:
Section 1. The Annex to Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001, is amended by adding thereto the following persons in appropriate alphabetical order:
Mohammed Omar (aka, Amir al-Mumineen [Commander of the Faithful])
The Taliban.
Sec. 2. For the purposes of this order and Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001, the term "the Taliban" is also known as the "Taleban," "Islamic Movement of Taliban," "the Taliban Islamic Movement," "Talibano Islami Tahrik," and "Tahrike Islami'a Taliban". The Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, is hereby authorized to modify the definition of the term "the Taliban," as appropriate.
Sec. 3. Nothing contained in this order shall create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by any party against the United States, its agencies or instrumentalities, its officers or employees, or any other person.
Sec. 4. Pursuant to section 202 of the NEA (50 U.S.C. 1622), termination of the national emergency with respect to the Taliban shall not affect any action taken or proceeding pending not finally concluded or determined as of the date of this order, or any action or proceeding based on any act committed prior to the date of this order, or any rights or duties that matured or penalties that were incurred prior to the date of this order.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
July 2, 2002.