Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It was reasonable to worry about the possibility of a Saddam/AQ collaboration after 9/11.
Why? Seriously, even if SH had had WMD, those would be strategic assets of very high importance, not something to be handed off to loose cannon like AQ. And the hyper-fundamentalist AQ weren't going to jump into bed with secular Baathism. Hell, they felt the need to tell their adherents that even though fighting the US occupation could be construed as helping Saddam Hussein, it was still compatible with their flavor of Islam.
Quote:
Saddam had many ties to terrorists. Abu Nidal did not retire to Iraq due to the balmy weather.
Abu Nidal was shot - beg pardon, "committed suicide while being arrested by Hussein's security forces" - in Iraq. No reason to think he was a particular friend of Hussein's.
Ummmm....even the Robb-Silbermann Report stated that Saddam and Al Qaeda
had ties & meetings. What they found was that they didn't have were "operational ties".
Saddam did harbor terrorists. They just didn't have anything to do with 911.
Posted with TapaTalk
No, he didn't. Page 44:
There is no new evidence that Iraq actively aided Al Qaeda. There is some evidence that there were no operational links.
Ummmm....even the Robb-Silbermann Report stated that Saddam and Al Qaeda
had ties & meetings. What they found was that they didn't have were "operational ties".
Iraqi officials (not SH) and AQ leaders had meetings along the lines of "Can we find a common interest?" and the answer was "Nope" every time. That was it. Compare and contrast:
Quote:
Rice, Sept. 25, 2002: "There clearly are contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraq that can be documented; there clearly is testimony that some of the contacts have been important contacts and that there's a relationship here. ... And there are some al-Qaeda personnel who found refuge in Baghdad."
Bush, Oct. 7, 2002: "We know that Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy — the United States of America. We know that Iraq and al-Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade" and "we've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases."
Bush, State of the Union address, Jan. 28, 2003: "And this Congress and the American people must recognize another threat. Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda."
Bush, Feb. 6, 2003: "Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and al-Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s. Iraq has sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al-Qaeda" and "Iraq has also provided al-Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training."
Cheney, Jan. 21, 2004: "I continue to believe — I think there's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi government. I'm very confident that there was an established relationship there."
40+ percent of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 for years. Dd that idea just pop into their heads uninvited?
That 40% of of Americans believe something is probably meaningless, given our education system. What pct believe that Elvis is alive, or that the world was going to end in 2012?
Who knows where they got the idea? If only 20% know the correct answer to a question, the other 80% have to guess. Those 80% have a 50-50 chance of getting the right answer, and half of 80% is 40%.
That 40% of of Americans believe something is probably meaningless, given our education system. What pct believe that Elvis is alive, or that the world was going to end in 2012?
Who knows where they got the idea? If only 20% know the correct answer to a question, the other 80% have to guess. Those 80% have a 50-50 chance of getting the right answer, and half of 80% is 40%.
Seems you think less of your countrymen than I do.
That 40% of of Americans believe something is probably meaningless, given our education system. What pct believe that Elvis is alive, or that the world was going to end in 2012?
Who knows where they got the idea? If only 20% know the correct answer to a question, the other 80% have to guess. Those 80% have a 50-50 chance of getting the right answer, and half of 80% is 40%.
It has been asked how Americans came to the conclusion that Saddam Hussein was in league with terrorists, had WMDs, and was somehow behind 9/11.
This is how:
President Bush 2003 State of the Union Address:
"Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications,and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of AlQaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own. Before September the11th, many in the world believed that Saddam Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained. Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and oher plans—this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known.” (President Bush, State of the Union, January 28, 2003)
This snippet includes:
1. A false connection to terrorists,
2. A false connection to 9/11,
3. The spectre of mushroom clouds,
4. A false assertion the Saddam Hussein had WMDs.
I'm surprised his pants didn't spontaneously combust after that load of crap.
Last edited by carterstamp; 08-21-2013 at 01:09 PM..
Why? Seriously, even if SH had had WMD, those would be strategic assets of very high importance, not something to be handed off to loose cannon like AQ. And the hyper-fundamentalist AQ weren't going to jump into bed with secular Baathism. Hell, they felt the need to tell their adherents that even though fighting the US occupation could be construed as helping Saddam Hussein, it was still compatible with their flavor of Islam.
Abu Nidal was shot - beg pardon, "committed suicide while being arrested by Hussein's security forces" - in Iraq. No reason to think he was a particular friend of Hussein's.
But all these 'ifs' are inherently speculative. Abu Nidal was shot, but the point is that he did wind up in Iraq as his retirement home. There were many terrorist types in Iraq who were tolerated by Saddam. It goes to the old ME maxim, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.'
Journalist Richard Engel was in Iraq prior to the invasion, staying in the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. He wrote that:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Engel
But there was a bigger problem with the Palestine. It was full of men dying to become suicide bomers. There were about twenty-five of them. Most were Arabs...also several Asians, including one man who looked to be in his early twenties. He had unkempt hair and wore a green bandana around his forehead that said, in Arabic, 'there is no god but god, and mohammed is the prophet of god'....A Greek journalist, Efi Pentaraki, who was in the room next to mine on the fourteenth floor, said she recognized several of the Arab volunteers from a training camp for suicide bombers....'
And more know the Brady Bunch theme song than the National Anthem.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
