Cheney claims ties between Saddam, al Qaeda (again)
Here's your missing link right here:
Report: Iraq Document Details Bin Laden Contacts
By REUTERS
Filed at 2:40 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraqi intelligence agents contacted Osama bin Laden when he was in Sudan in the mid-1990s as part of an effort by Baghdad to work with foes of the Saudi ruling family, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing a newly disclosed document.
U.S. officials described the document as an internal Iraqi intelligence report detailing efforts to seek cooperation with several Saudi opposition groups, the newspaper said.
The contacts described in the report came before bin Laden's al Qaeda organization had become a full-fledged terrorist group, the Times said.
The document states that Iraq agreed to rebroadcast anti-Saudi propaganda, and that a request from bin Laden to begin joint operations against foreign forces in Saudi Arabia went unanswered, the newspaper said. There was no further indication of collaboration, the Times said.
President Bush insists that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had a dangerous relationship with al Qaeda.
But the bipartisan commission probing the Sept. 11 attacks has said there was no evidence of a "collaborative relationship'' even though there were contacts between Iraqis and al Qaeda, including a Sudan meeting between bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence officers.
The newspaper said the newly released document was obtained from the Iraqi National Congress as part of a trove that the exile group gathered after Saddam was toppled last year. Some of the intelligence provided by the group has been discredited.
A U.S. government task force studied the document and concluded it appeared authentic, the newspaper said.
Report: Iraq Document Details Bin Laden Contacts
By REUTERS
Filed at 2:40 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraqi intelligence agents contacted Osama bin Laden when he was in Sudan in the mid-1990s as part of an effort by Baghdad to work with foes of the Saudi ruling family, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing a newly disclosed document.
U.S. officials described the document as an internal Iraqi intelligence report detailing efforts to seek cooperation with several Saudi opposition groups, the newspaper said.
The contacts described in the report came before bin Laden's al Qaeda organization had become a full-fledged terrorist group, the Times said.
The document states that Iraq agreed to rebroadcast anti-Saudi propaganda, and that a request from bin Laden to begin joint operations against foreign forces in Saudi Arabia went unanswered, the newspaper said. There was no further indication of collaboration, the Times said.
President Bush insists that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had a dangerous relationship with al Qaeda.
But the bipartisan commission probing the Sept. 11 attacks has said there was no evidence of a "collaborative relationship'' even though there were contacts between Iraqis and al Qaeda, including a Sudan meeting between bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence officers.
The newspaper said the newly released document was obtained from the Iraqi National Congress as part of a trove that the exile group gathered after Saddam was toppled last year. Some of the intelligence provided by the group has been discredited.
A U.S. government task force studied the document and concluded it appeared authentic, the newspaper said.
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Oops. I guess someone replaced "n" with "q" in the war plans and nobody noticed. (slaps forehead) Iran was the one with WMDs and al Qaeda ties! Oh, how silly of us.
Ryan
9-11 panel links al-Qaida network with Iran
By Dan Eggen ~ The Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- While it found no operational ties between al-Qaida and Iraq, the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has concluded that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network had long-running contacts with Iraq's neighbor and historic foe, Iran.
Al-Qaida, the commission determined, may even have played a "yet unknown role" in aiding Hezbollah militants in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia, an attack the United States has long blamed solely on Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors.
The notion that bin Laden might have had a hand in the Khobar bombing would mark a rare operational alliance between Sunni and Shiite Muslim groups that historically have been at odds. That possibility, largely overlooked in the furor of new revelations released last week by the commission, comes amid worsening relations between the United States and Iran, which announced Thursday that it would resume building equipment necessary for a nuclear weapons program.
The Sept. 11 panel's findings on Iran have been eclipsed by the continuing political debate over Iraq, which the commission said had not developed a "collaborative relationship" with al-Qaida despite limited contacts in the 1990s. That appeared to conflict with previous characterizations made by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other administration officials in their justifications for launching the war against Saddam Hussein.
In relation to Iran, commission investigators said intelligence "showed far greater potential for collaboration between Hezbollah and al-Qaida than many had previously thought." Iran is a primary sponsor of Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based anti-Israel group that the United States has designated a terrorist organization.
The commission's Republican chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, also said in a television appearance last week that "there were a lot more active contacts, frankly, with Iran and with Pakistan than there were with Iraq."
But perhaps most startling was the commission's finding that bin Laden may have played a role in the Khobar attack. While previous court filings and testimony have indicated that al-Qaida and Iranian elements had contacts during the 1990s, U.S. authorities have not publicly linked bin Laden or his operatives to that strike, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen. A June 2001 indictment of 14 defendants in the case makes no mention of al-Qaida or bin Laden and lays the organizational blame for the attacks solely on Hezbollah and Iran.
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert who heads the Washington office of the Rand Corp., said that while bin Laden's then-fledgling group was an early suspect in the blasts, "the evidence kept pointing to an Iranian connection, so people tended to discount a bin Laden connection."
"What the commission report is raising is that the relationship might have been much tighter and was in fact operational and not just spiritual," Hoffman said.
U.S. officials who have worked on the Khobar case are more skeptical. A law enforcement source with knowledge of the case, who declined to be identified because of the ongoing criminal investigation, said authorities searched carefully for an al-Qaida connection but found no basis for it.
The broader notion of links between bin Laden's group and Hezbollah or hard-line elements in Iran's security forces has been a hot topic in U.S. law enforcement and intelligence circles for years. Many analysts have viewed such an alliance as dubious, largely because of ancient animosities between Shia and Sunni Muslims. Several leaders of al-Qaida, a Sunni organization, have issued rabidly anti-Shiite proclamations.
Nonetheless, the United States has previously compiled evidence of limited contacts between Iranian inte/* Vs and al-Qaida. U.S. officials alleged after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that Iran was harboring al-Qaida militants who had fled neighboring Afghanistan following the U.S. invasion there.
Iran has denied that al-Qaida operatives were operating from its territory, and announced earlier this year that it would put on trial a dozen suspected members of the terrorist group.
The original U.S. indictment of bin Laden, filed in 1998, said al-Qaida "forged alliances... with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States."
But the Sept. 11 commission's findings regarding Khobar Towers, if confirmed, would deepen the known relationship between al-Qaida, Iran and Hezbollah. A commission staff report issued June 16 said that in addition to evidence that the attack had been carried out by Saudi Hezbollah with assistance from Iran, "intelligence obtained shortly after the bombing ... also supported suspicions of bin Laden's involvement."
"There were reports in the months preceding the attack that bin Laden was seeking to facilitate a shipment of explosives to Saudi Arabia. On the day of the attack, bin Laden was congratulated" by al-Qaida militants, the report says.
The report recounts some of the previously alleged contacts between al-Qaida and Iran or Hezbollah and concludes, "We have seen strong but indirect evidence that (bin Laden's) organization did in fact play some as yet unknown role in the Khobar attack."
The report also says that several years before the Khobar attack, "bin Laden's representatives and Iranian officials had discussed putting aside Shia-Sunni divisions to cooperate against the common enemy." A group of al-Qaida representatives then traveled to Iran and to Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon for "training in explosives, intelligence and security," the report says.
Bin Laden himself, the report added, "showed particular interest in Hezbollah's truck bombing tactics in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 241 U.S. Marines."
Flynt Leverett, a former Middle East expert in the Clinton and Bush administrations who is now a Brookings Institution scholar, said active cooperation between al-Qaida and Iran "cannot be ruled out as wholly implausible.''
"There are going to be serious structural limits to how much al-Qaida and Iran might cooperate,'' Leverett said. ``Within those limits, though, there is some room for very tactical and self-serving cooperation between al-Qaida and some parts of Iranian intelligence.'' Leverett pointed as an example to the allegations that Iran had harbored al-Qaida operatives fleeing Afghanistan.
But Daniel Benjamin, a former Clinton administration national security official, said he was "still skeptical'' of any link between al-Qaida and Khobar, arguing that the evidence shows "Saudi Hezbollah was very much a creature of some in Iran.''
"I don't quite see the need that this operation had for assistance from al-Qaida,'' Benjamin said. "Second of all, my understanding of the larger relationship between Iran and al-Qaida suggests that while there were plenty of contacts, many more than there were with Iraq, it was never clear they developed a serious cooperative relationship.''
Ryan
9-11 panel links al-Qaida network with Iran
By Dan Eggen ~ The Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- While it found no operational ties between al-Qaida and Iraq, the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has concluded that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network had long-running contacts with Iraq's neighbor and historic foe, Iran.
Al-Qaida, the commission determined, may even have played a "yet unknown role" in aiding Hezbollah militants in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia, an attack the United States has long blamed solely on Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors.
The notion that bin Laden might have had a hand in the Khobar bombing would mark a rare operational alliance between Sunni and Shiite Muslim groups that historically have been at odds. That possibility, largely overlooked in the furor of new revelations released last week by the commission, comes amid worsening relations between the United States and Iran, which announced Thursday that it would resume building equipment necessary for a nuclear weapons program.
The Sept. 11 panel's findings on Iran have been eclipsed by the continuing political debate over Iraq, which the commission said had not developed a "collaborative relationship" with al-Qaida despite limited contacts in the 1990s. That appeared to conflict with previous characterizations made by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other administration officials in their justifications for launching the war against Saddam Hussein.
In relation to Iran, commission investigators said intelligence "showed far greater potential for collaboration between Hezbollah and al-Qaida than many had previously thought." Iran is a primary sponsor of Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based anti-Israel group that the United States has designated a terrorist organization.
The commission's Republican chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, also said in a television appearance last week that "there were a lot more active contacts, frankly, with Iran and with Pakistan than there were with Iraq."
But perhaps most startling was the commission's finding that bin Laden may have played a role in the Khobar attack. While previous court filings and testimony have indicated that al-Qaida and Iranian elements had contacts during the 1990s, U.S. authorities have not publicly linked bin Laden or his operatives to that strike, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen. A June 2001 indictment of 14 defendants in the case makes no mention of al-Qaida or bin Laden and lays the organizational blame for the attacks solely on Hezbollah and Iran.
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert who heads the Washington office of the Rand Corp., said that while bin Laden's then-fledgling group was an early suspect in the blasts, "the evidence kept pointing to an Iranian connection, so people tended to discount a bin Laden connection."
"What the commission report is raising is that the relationship might have been much tighter and was in fact operational and not just spiritual," Hoffman said.
U.S. officials who have worked on the Khobar case are more skeptical. A law enforcement source with knowledge of the case, who declined to be identified because of the ongoing criminal investigation, said authorities searched carefully for an al-Qaida connection but found no basis for it.
The broader notion of links between bin Laden's group and Hezbollah or hard-line elements in Iran's security forces has been a hot topic in U.S. law enforcement and intelligence circles for years. Many analysts have viewed such an alliance as dubious, largely because of ancient animosities between Shia and Sunni Muslims. Several leaders of al-Qaida, a Sunni organization, have issued rabidly anti-Shiite proclamations.
Nonetheless, the United States has previously compiled evidence of limited contacts between Iranian inte/* Vs and al-Qaida. U.S. officials alleged after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that Iran was harboring al-Qaida militants who had fled neighboring Afghanistan following the U.S. invasion there.
Iran has denied that al-Qaida operatives were operating from its territory, and announced earlier this year that it would put on trial a dozen suspected members of the terrorist group.
The original U.S. indictment of bin Laden, filed in 1998, said al-Qaida "forged alliances... with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States."
But the Sept. 11 commission's findings regarding Khobar Towers, if confirmed, would deepen the known relationship between al-Qaida, Iran and Hezbollah. A commission staff report issued June 16 said that in addition to evidence that the attack had been carried out by Saudi Hezbollah with assistance from Iran, "intelligence obtained shortly after the bombing ... also supported suspicions of bin Laden's involvement."
"There were reports in the months preceding the attack that bin Laden was seeking to facilitate a shipment of explosives to Saudi Arabia. On the day of the attack, bin Laden was congratulated" by al-Qaida militants, the report says.
The report recounts some of the previously alleged contacts between al-Qaida and Iran or Hezbollah and concludes, "We have seen strong but indirect evidence that (bin Laden's) organization did in fact play some as yet unknown role in the Khobar attack."
The report also says that several years before the Khobar attack, "bin Laden's representatives and Iranian officials had discussed putting aside Shia-Sunni divisions to cooperate against the common enemy." A group of al-Qaida representatives then traveled to Iran and to Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon for "training in explosives, intelligence and security," the report says.
Bin Laden himself, the report added, "showed particular interest in Hezbollah's truck bombing tactics in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 241 U.S. Marines."
Flynt Leverett, a former Middle East expert in the Clinton and Bush administrations who is now a Brookings Institution scholar, said active cooperation between al-Qaida and Iran "cannot be ruled out as wholly implausible.''
"There are going to be serious structural limits to how much al-Qaida and Iran might cooperate,'' Leverett said. ``Within those limits, though, there is some room for very tactical and self-serving cooperation between al-Qaida and some parts of Iranian intelligence.'' Leverett pointed as an example to the allegations that Iran had harbored al-Qaida operatives fleeing Afghanistan.
But Daniel Benjamin, a former Clinton administration national security official, said he was "still skeptical'' of any link between al-Qaida and Khobar, arguing that the evidence shows "Saudi Hezbollah was very much a creature of some in Iran.''
"I don't quite see the need that this operation had for assistance from al-Qaida,'' Benjamin said. "Second of all, my understanding of the larger relationship between Iran and al-Qaida suggests that while there were plenty of contacts, many more than there were with Iraq, it was never clear they developed a serious cooperative relationship.''
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney
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Rspaight
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I like the part about "aggressive interrogation techniques."
Iraq and Al Qaeda
Forget the 'Poisons and Deadly Gases'
By Michael Isikoff
Investigative Correspondent
Newsweek
July 5 issue - A captured Qaeda commander who was a principal source for Bush administration claims that Osama bin Laden collaborated with Saddam Hussein's regime has changed his story, setting back White House efforts to shore up the credibility of its original case for the invasion of Iraq. The apparent recantation of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a onetime member of bin Laden's inner circle, has never been publicly acknowledged. But U.S. intelligence officials tell NEWSWEEK that al-Libi was a crucial source for one of the more dramatic assertions made by President George W. Bush and his top aides: that Iraq had provided training in "poisons and deadly gases" for Al Qaeda. Al-Libi, who once ran one of bin Laden's biggest training camps, was captured in Pakistan in November 2001 and soon began talking to CIA interrogators. Although he never mentioned his name, Secretary of State Colin Powell prominently referred to al-Libi's claims in his February 2003 speech to the United Nations; he recounted how a "senior terrorist operative" said Qaeda leaders were frustrated by their inability to make chemical or biological agents in Afghanistan and turned for help to Iraq. Continuing to rely on al-Libi's version, Powell then told how a bin Laden operative seeking help in acquiring poisons and gases had forged a "successful" relationship with Iraqi officials in the late 1990s and that, as recently as December 2000, Iraq had offered "chemical or biological weapons training for two Al Qaeda associates."
But more recently, sources said, U.S. interrogators went back to al-Libi with new evidence from other detainees that cast doubt on his claims. Al-Libi "subsequently recounted a different story," said one U.S. official. "It's not clear which version is correct. We are still sorting this out." Some officials now suspect that al-Libi, facing aggressive interrogation techniques, had previously said what U.S. officials wanted to hear. In any case, the cloud over his story explains why administration officials have made no mention of the "poisons and gases" claim for some time and did not more forcefully challenge the recent findings of the 9-11 Commission that Al Qaeda and Iraq had not forged a "collaborative relationship."
The debate, however, is far from over. Vice President Dick Cheney has sought to more vigorously defend the Iraq- Qaeda link, even reading to one TV interviewer from a U.S. intelligence report recounting a meeting between an Iraqi intel official and bin Laden on a farm in Sudan in the summer of 1996. (One possible problem: bin Laden had left Sudan for Afghanistan in May of that year.) Meanwhile, NEWSWEEK has learned, Pentagon officials are culling through captured Iraqi documents they say will provide hard evidence of multiple contacts between Iraqi officials and Qaeda members over a decade. Current plans call for a massive "document dump" before the election. But officials acknowledge ultimate proof may prove elusive. "It all depends on what your definition of a relationship is," said one.
Iraq and Al Qaeda
Forget the 'Poisons and Deadly Gases'
By Michael Isikoff
Investigative Correspondent
Newsweek
July 5 issue - A captured Qaeda commander who was a principal source for Bush administration claims that Osama bin Laden collaborated with Saddam Hussein's regime has changed his story, setting back White House efforts to shore up the credibility of its original case for the invasion of Iraq. The apparent recantation of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a onetime member of bin Laden's inner circle, has never been publicly acknowledged. But U.S. intelligence officials tell NEWSWEEK that al-Libi was a crucial source for one of the more dramatic assertions made by President George W. Bush and his top aides: that Iraq had provided training in "poisons and deadly gases" for Al Qaeda. Al-Libi, who once ran one of bin Laden's biggest training camps, was captured in Pakistan in November 2001 and soon began talking to CIA interrogators. Although he never mentioned his name, Secretary of State Colin Powell prominently referred to al-Libi's claims in his February 2003 speech to the United Nations; he recounted how a "senior terrorist operative" said Qaeda leaders were frustrated by their inability to make chemical or biological agents in Afghanistan and turned for help to Iraq. Continuing to rely on al-Libi's version, Powell then told how a bin Laden operative seeking help in acquiring poisons and gases had forged a "successful" relationship with Iraqi officials in the late 1990s and that, as recently as December 2000, Iraq had offered "chemical or biological weapons training for two Al Qaeda associates."
But more recently, sources said, U.S. interrogators went back to al-Libi with new evidence from other detainees that cast doubt on his claims. Al-Libi "subsequently recounted a different story," said one U.S. official. "It's not clear which version is correct. We are still sorting this out." Some officials now suspect that al-Libi, facing aggressive interrogation techniques, had previously said what U.S. officials wanted to hear. In any case, the cloud over his story explains why administration officials have made no mention of the "poisons and gases" claim for some time and did not more forcefully challenge the recent findings of the 9-11 Commission that Al Qaeda and Iraq had not forged a "collaborative relationship."
The debate, however, is far from over. Vice President Dick Cheney has sought to more vigorously defend the Iraq- Qaeda link, even reading to one TV interviewer from a U.S. intelligence report recounting a meeting between an Iraqi intel official and bin Laden on a farm in Sudan in the summer of 1996. (One possible problem: bin Laden had left Sudan for Afghanistan in May of that year.) Meanwhile, NEWSWEEK has learned, Pentagon officials are culling through captured Iraqi documents they say will provide hard evidence of multiple contacts between Iraqi officials and Qaeda members over a decade. Current plans call for a massive "document dump" before the election. But officials acknowledge ultimate proof may prove elusive. "It all depends on what your definition of a relationship is," said one.
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney
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lukpac
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And the pundits keep insisting there's a connection:
Kerry Camp Contradicts 9/11 Report
Oct. 5, 2004
This column from The Weekly Standard was written by Stephen F. Hayes.
The Kerry campaign continued its attempt to dissociate the Iraq war from the broader war on terror on Monday. In a conference call with reporters, senior Kerry advisers Joe Lockhart and Susan Rice previewed the questions John Edwards will ask Dick Cheney during the debate this evening. Expect the Iraq-al Qaeda connection to come up several times. It was the first issue that Rice, a former Clinton administration official who advises Kerry on foreign policy, raised during the conference call.
Rice claimed that the "reality" in Iraq was that there were "no links to al Qaeda." The Bush administration, she charged, has "now successfully tried to create a new front in the war on terror in Iraq where it wasn't before." Rice wasn't done. "Given that the 9/11 Commission and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence have said repeatedly that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 or Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, and that even Condoleezza Rice has confirmed that there was no such link, is [Cheney] going to be the last person to contend that there is such a connection?"
Not likely. Thomas Kean, co-chairman of the September 11 Commission, went far beyond mere "links" between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda.
"There was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," he said at a press conference on July 22, 2004. "Relationship" is also the word used to describe Iraq-al Qaeda contacts in an internal Iraqi Intelligence document, authenticated by U.S. intelligence and first disclosed on June 25, 2004, in the New York Times. When bin Laden left the Sudan in 1996, according to the document, his Iraqi Intelligence contacts began "seeking other channels through which to handle the relationship, in light of his current location." The document makes no mention of any formal arrangement between Iraq and al Qaeda, but instructs that ''cooperation between the two organizations should be allowed to develop freely through discussion and agreement."
Rice is simply wrong when she claims that the 9/11 Commission "repeatedly" dismissed a link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. In fact, the commission's final report details numerous "friendly contacts" between Iraq and al Qaeda before concluding that the evidence it had seen did not suggest a "collaborative operational relationship."
"With the Sudanese regime acting as an intermediary, bin Laden himself met with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer in Khartoum in late 1994 or early 1995. Bin Laden is said to have asked for space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but there is no evidence that Iraq responded to this request."
In March 1998, according to the 9/11 report, two al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraqi intelligence." Iraqi officials traveled to Afghanistan in July 1998 to meet with representatives from the Taliban and later directly with Osama bin Laden. According to the 9/11 report, "sources reported that one, or perhaps both, of these meetings was apparently arranged through bin Laden's Egyptian deputy, [Ayman al] Zawahiri, who had ties of his own to the Iraqis."
Let's review: Kerry adviser Susan Rice claims the 9/11 Commission dismissed "links" between Iraq and al Qaeda. In fact, the 9/11 Commission co-chairman says there is "no question" of an Iraq-al Qaeda relationship. The final commission report notes numerous "friendly contacts" between Iraq and al Qaeda and declares that bin Laden's top deputy "had ties of his own to the Iraqis."
And what of Rice's claim that the Senate Intelligence Committee also dismissed the Iraq-al Qaeda connection? Or that Iraq was not involved with terrorism before the Iraq War?
The report contains 66 pages on "Iraq's Links to Terrorism." The CIA's counterterrorism center undertook an aggressive study of the Iraq-al Qaeda connection because "any indication of a relationship between these two hostile elements could carry great dangers to the United States." Note that phrase: Any indication of a relationship. The Senate report also quoted a CIA analysis called "Iraqi Support for Terrorism."
Iraq continues to be a safehaven, transit point, or operational node for groups and individuals who direct violence against the United States, Israel and allies. Iraq has a long history of supporting terrorism. During the last four decades, it has altered its targets to reflect changing priorities and goals. It continues to harbor and sustain a number of smaller anti-Israel terrorist groups and to actively encourage violence against Israel. Regarding the Iraq-al Qaeda relationship, reporting from sources of varying reliability points to a number of contacts, incidents of training, and discussions of Iraqi safehaven for Usama bin Laden and his organization dating from the early 1990s.
Did the Bush administration really "create a new front in the war on terror in Iraq where it wasn't before?" Not according to the Senate Intelligence Committee report.
From 1996 to 2003, the IIS [Iraqi Intelligence Service] focused its terrorist activities on western interest, particularly against the U.S. and Israel. The CIA summarized nearly 50 intelligence reports as examples, using language directly from the intelligence reports. Ten intelligence reports [redacted] from multiple sources indicate IIS "casing" operations against Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in Prague began in 1998 and continued into early 2003. The CIA assessed, based on the Prague casings and a variety of other reporting that throughout 2002, the IIS was becoming increasingly aggressive in planning terrorist attacks against U.S. interests.
And is Cheney really alone in his belief that the Iraq-al Qaeda connection was a threat? Hardly. Along with most Republicans in Congress, so do Democratic Senators Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh. So do several 9/11 commissioners. So does Ayad Allawi, the new Iraqi Prime Minister. He said as much during a July 29, 2004, interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw: "I believe very strongly that Saddam had relations with al Qaeda. And these relations started in Sudan. We know Saddam had relationships with a lot of terrorists and international terrorism. Now, whether he is directly connected to the September atrocities or not, I can't vouch for this. But definitely I know that he has connections with extremism and terrorists." (Joe Lockhart, who last week suggested that Allawi was little more than an American puppet, will not likely find this persuasive.)
Barham Salih, current deputy prime minister of Iraq, agrees with Allawi. "Saddam Hussein, a 'secular infidel' to many jihadists, had no problem giving money to Hamas. This debate [about whether Saddam worked with al Qaeda] is stupid. The proof is there."
William Cohen, Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration, testified about the Iraq-al Qaeda connection in front of the September 11 Commission on March 23, 2004. Executives from a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant that the U.S. bombed in response to al Qaeda attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa "traveled to Baghdad to meet with the father of the VX program."
The list goes on.
Stephen F. Hayes is a staff writer at The Weekly Standard.
Kerry Camp Contradicts 9/11 Report
Oct. 5, 2004
This column from The Weekly Standard was written by Stephen F. Hayes.
The Kerry campaign continued its attempt to dissociate the Iraq war from the broader war on terror on Monday. In a conference call with reporters, senior Kerry advisers Joe Lockhart and Susan Rice previewed the questions John Edwards will ask Dick Cheney during the debate this evening. Expect the Iraq-al Qaeda connection to come up several times. It was the first issue that Rice, a former Clinton administration official who advises Kerry on foreign policy, raised during the conference call.
Rice claimed that the "reality" in Iraq was that there were "no links to al Qaeda." The Bush administration, she charged, has "now successfully tried to create a new front in the war on terror in Iraq where it wasn't before." Rice wasn't done. "Given that the 9/11 Commission and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence have said repeatedly that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 or Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, and that even Condoleezza Rice has confirmed that there was no such link, is [Cheney] going to be the last person to contend that there is such a connection?"
Not likely. Thomas Kean, co-chairman of the September 11 Commission, went far beyond mere "links" between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda.
"There was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," he said at a press conference on July 22, 2004. "Relationship" is also the word used to describe Iraq-al Qaeda contacts in an internal Iraqi Intelligence document, authenticated by U.S. intelligence and first disclosed on June 25, 2004, in the New York Times. When bin Laden left the Sudan in 1996, according to the document, his Iraqi Intelligence contacts began "seeking other channels through which to handle the relationship, in light of his current location." The document makes no mention of any formal arrangement between Iraq and al Qaeda, but instructs that ''cooperation between the two organizations should be allowed to develop freely through discussion and agreement."
Rice is simply wrong when she claims that the 9/11 Commission "repeatedly" dismissed a link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. In fact, the commission's final report details numerous "friendly contacts" between Iraq and al Qaeda before concluding that the evidence it had seen did not suggest a "collaborative operational relationship."
"With the Sudanese regime acting as an intermediary, bin Laden himself met with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer in Khartoum in late 1994 or early 1995. Bin Laden is said to have asked for space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but there is no evidence that Iraq responded to this request."
In March 1998, according to the 9/11 report, two al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraqi intelligence." Iraqi officials traveled to Afghanistan in July 1998 to meet with representatives from the Taliban and later directly with Osama bin Laden. According to the 9/11 report, "sources reported that one, or perhaps both, of these meetings was apparently arranged through bin Laden's Egyptian deputy, [Ayman al] Zawahiri, who had ties of his own to the Iraqis."
Let's review: Kerry adviser Susan Rice claims the 9/11 Commission dismissed "links" between Iraq and al Qaeda. In fact, the 9/11 Commission co-chairman says there is "no question" of an Iraq-al Qaeda relationship. The final commission report notes numerous "friendly contacts" between Iraq and al Qaeda and declares that bin Laden's top deputy "had ties of his own to the Iraqis."
And what of Rice's claim that the Senate Intelligence Committee also dismissed the Iraq-al Qaeda connection? Or that Iraq was not involved with terrorism before the Iraq War?
The report contains 66 pages on "Iraq's Links to Terrorism." The CIA's counterterrorism center undertook an aggressive study of the Iraq-al Qaeda connection because "any indication of a relationship between these two hostile elements could carry great dangers to the United States." Note that phrase: Any indication of a relationship. The Senate report also quoted a CIA analysis called "Iraqi Support for Terrorism."
Iraq continues to be a safehaven, transit point, or operational node for groups and individuals who direct violence against the United States, Israel and allies. Iraq has a long history of supporting terrorism. During the last four decades, it has altered its targets to reflect changing priorities and goals. It continues to harbor and sustain a number of smaller anti-Israel terrorist groups and to actively encourage violence against Israel. Regarding the Iraq-al Qaeda relationship, reporting from sources of varying reliability points to a number of contacts, incidents of training, and discussions of Iraqi safehaven for Usama bin Laden and his organization dating from the early 1990s.
Did the Bush administration really "create a new front in the war on terror in Iraq where it wasn't before?" Not according to the Senate Intelligence Committee report.
From 1996 to 2003, the IIS [Iraqi Intelligence Service] focused its terrorist activities on western interest, particularly against the U.S. and Israel. The CIA summarized nearly 50 intelligence reports as examples, using language directly from the intelligence reports. Ten intelligence reports [redacted] from multiple sources indicate IIS "casing" operations against Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in Prague began in 1998 and continued into early 2003. The CIA assessed, based on the Prague casings and a variety of other reporting that throughout 2002, the IIS was becoming increasingly aggressive in planning terrorist attacks against U.S. interests.
And is Cheney really alone in his belief that the Iraq-al Qaeda connection was a threat? Hardly. Along with most Republicans in Congress, so do Democratic Senators Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh. So do several 9/11 commissioners. So does Ayad Allawi, the new Iraqi Prime Minister. He said as much during a July 29, 2004, interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw: "I believe very strongly that Saddam had relations with al Qaeda. And these relations started in Sudan. We know Saddam had relationships with a lot of terrorists and international terrorism. Now, whether he is directly connected to the September atrocities or not, I can't vouch for this. But definitely I know that he has connections with extremism and terrorists." (Joe Lockhart, who last week suggested that Allawi was little more than an American puppet, will not likely find this persuasive.)
Barham Salih, current deputy prime minister of Iraq, agrees with Allawi. "Saddam Hussein, a 'secular infidel' to many jihadists, had no problem giving money to Hamas. This debate [about whether Saddam worked with al Qaeda] is stupid. The proof is there."
William Cohen, Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration, testified about the Iraq-al Qaeda connection in front of the September 11 Commission on March 23, 2004. Executives from a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant that the U.S. bombed in response to al Qaeda attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa "traveled to Baghdad to meet with the father of the VX program."
The list goes on.
Stephen F. Hayes is a staff writer at The Weekly Standard.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD
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lukpac
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And the administration doesn't quite know what to think:
Rumsfeld: Al Qaeda comments 'misunderstood'
Also concedes WMD claims about Iraq were proved wrong
From Jamie McIntyre
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld conceded Monday that U.S. intelligence was wrong in its conclusions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and appeared to back off earlier statements suggesting former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had links to al Qaeda.
"Why the intelligence proved wrong (on WMDs), I'm not in a position to say," Rumsfeld said in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "I simply don't know."
When asked about any connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, Rumsfeld said, "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."
But a short time later, Rumsfeld released a statement: "A question I answered today at an appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations regarding ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq regrettably was misunderstood.
"I have acknowledged since September 2002 that there were ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq."
Rumsfeld's restated position mirrors what Vice President Dick Cheney had said as recently as June.
"There clearly was a relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming," Cheney said in an interview with CNBC's "Capitol Report." "It goes back to the early '90s. It involves a whole series of contacts, high-level contacts with Osama bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence officials."
Suggesting that the 9/11 commission had reached a contradictory conclusion was "irresponsible," he said.
Before the war, in a speech in Atlanta in September 2002, Rumsfeld said he the CIA provided "bulletproof" evidence demonstrating "that there are in fact al Qaeda in Iraq."
In Monday's address, Rumsfeld told the Council on Foreign Relations that U.S. intelligence analysts have changed their assessment: "I have seen the answer to that question migrate in the intelligence community over a period of a year in the most amazing way."
The 9/11 commission report, issued in July, concluded there may have been meetings between Iraqi officials and Osama bin Laden or his aides in 1999 but there was "no evidence that these or the earlier contacts ever developed into a collaborative operational relationship."
Nor did the commission find any evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States," the commission report said.
In June, President Bush repeated his administration's claim that Iraq was in league with al Qaeda under Saddam Hussein's rule, saying that fugitive Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ties Saddam to the terrorist network.
"Zarqawi's the best evidence of a connection to al Qaeda affiliates and al Qaeda," Bush told reporters at the White House. "He's the person who's still killing."
But Rumsfeld Monday in his address to the CFR questioned whether al-Zarqawi is working with al Qaeda even as he seemed to have a similar agenda.
"In the case of al Qaeda, my impression is most of the senior people have actually sworn an oath to Osama bin Laden, and to my knowledge, even as of this late date, I don't believe Zarqawi, the principal leader of the network in Iraq, has sworn an oath, even though what they're doing -- I mean, they're just two peas in a pod in terms of what they're doing," Rumsfeld said.
On the question of whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, Rumsfeld dropped his common assertion that weapons "may yet be found," instead saying the world is "a lot better off" without Saddam Hussein.
"It turns out that we have not found weapons of mass destruction. And does everyone know he had them at one point? Certainly. Does everyone believe -- even those in the U.N. who voted the other way -- acknowledge the fact that he had filed a fraudulent declaration with the United Nations?" Rumsfeld said.
"And why the intelligence proved wrong, I'm not in a position to say. I simply don't know. But the world is a lot better off with Saddam Hussein in jail than they were with him in power."
Rumsfeld also said the United States must remain steadfast in Iraq, lest the perception of wavering empower its enemies. Comparing the war against terrorism to the Cold War, he credited a firm approach for the ultimate success of the United States against the Soviet Union.
Though many Americans failed to take communism seriously, the United States and its allies "showed perseverance and resolve," Rumsfeld said. "Year after year, they fought for freedom. They dared to confront what many thought might be an unbeatable foe. And eventually, the Soviet regime collapsed."
But the lesson "that weakness can be provocative" has to be relearned, he said.
To have second thoughts in Iraq, he said, "would embolden the extremists and make the world a far more dangerous place."
Asked if the "no-go" zones that exist in a number of major cities in Iraq would invalidate the results of January's planned elections, Rumsfeld was circumspect.
"It seems to me that, that is up to the Iraqis, number one. They have a sovereign country. They're going to decide what their elections are. They're going to make every call with respect to it."
He added, "Needless to say, your first choice is to say that every -- we know every Iraqi deserves the right to vote. And one would anticipate that that would be the case."
That answer differed from the one he gave to a similar question last month, when he implied that voting need not be universal. "Let's say you tried to have an election and you could have it in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country, but some places you couldn't because the violence was too great," he said. "Well, that's -- so be it. Nothing's perfect in life. So you have an election that's not quite perfect."
Rumsfeld: Al Qaeda comments 'misunderstood'
Also concedes WMD claims about Iraq were proved wrong
From Jamie McIntyre
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld conceded Monday that U.S. intelligence was wrong in its conclusions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and appeared to back off earlier statements suggesting former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had links to al Qaeda.
"Why the intelligence proved wrong (on WMDs), I'm not in a position to say," Rumsfeld said in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "I simply don't know."
When asked about any connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, Rumsfeld said, "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."
But a short time later, Rumsfeld released a statement: "A question I answered today at an appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations regarding ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq regrettably was misunderstood.
"I have acknowledged since September 2002 that there were ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq."
Rumsfeld's restated position mirrors what Vice President Dick Cheney had said as recently as June.
"There clearly was a relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming," Cheney said in an interview with CNBC's "Capitol Report." "It goes back to the early '90s. It involves a whole series of contacts, high-level contacts with Osama bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence officials."
Suggesting that the 9/11 commission had reached a contradictory conclusion was "irresponsible," he said.
Before the war, in a speech in Atlanta in September 2002, Rumsfeld said he the CIA provided "bulletproof" evidence demonstrating "that there are in fact al Qaeda in Iraq."
In Monday's address, Rumsfeld told the Council on Foreign Relations that U.S. intelligence analysts have changed their assessment: "I have seen the answer to that question migrate in the intelligence community over a period of a year in the most amazing way."
The 9/11 commission report, issued in July, concluded there may have been meetings between Iraqi officials and Osama bin Laden or his aides in 1999 but there was "no evidence that these or the earlier contacts ever developed into a collaborative operational relationship."
Nor did the commission find any evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States," the commission report said.
In June, President Bush repeated his administration's claim that Iraq was in league with al Qaeda under Saddam Hussein's rule, saying that fugitive Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ties Saddam to the terrorist network.
"Zarqawi's the best evidence of a connection to al Qaeda affiliates and al Qaeda," Bush told reporters at the White House. "He's the person who's still killing."
But Rumsfeld Monday in his address to the CFR questioned whether al-Zarqawi is working with al Qaeda even as he seemed to have a similar agenda.
"In the case of al Qaeda, my impression is most of the senior people have actually sworn an oath to Osama bin Laden, and to my knowledge, even as of this late date, I don't believe Zarqawi, the principal leader of the network in Iraq, has sworn an oath, even though what they're doing -- I mean, they're just two peas in a pod in terms of what they're doing," Rumsfeld said.
On the question of whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, Rumsfeld dropped his common assertion that weapons "may yet be found," instead saying the world is "a lot better off" without Saddam Hussein.
"It turns out that we have not found weapons of mass destruction. And does everyone know he had them at one point? Certainly. Does everyone believe -- even those in the U.N. who voted the other way -- acknowledge the fact that he had filed a fraudulent declaration with the United Nations?" Rumsfeld said.
"And why the intelligence proved wrong, I'm not in a position to say. I simply don't know. But the world is a lot better off with Saddam Hussein in jail than they were with him in power."
Rumsfeld also said the United States must remain steadfast in Iraq, lest the perception of wavering empower its enemies. Comparing the war against terrorism to the Cold War, he credited a firm approach for the ultimate success of the United States against the Soviet Union.
Though many Americans failed to take communism seriously, the United States and its allies "showed perseverance and resolve," Rumsfeld said. "Year after year, they fought for freedom. They dared to confront what many thought might be an unbeatable foe. And eventually, the Soviet regime collapsed."
But the lesson "that weakness can be provocative" has to be relearned, he said.
To have second thoughts in Iraq, he said, "would embolden the extremists and make the world a far more dangerous place."
Asked if the "no-go" zones that exist in a number of major cities in Iraq would invalidate the results of January's planned elections, Rumsfeld was circumspect.
"It seems to me that, that is up to the Iraqis, number one. They have a sovereign country. They're going to decide what their elections are. They're going to make every call with respect to it."
He added, "Needless to say, your first choice is to say that every -- we know every Iraqi deserves the right to vote. And one would anticipate that that would be the case."
That answer differed from the one he gave to a similar question last month, when he implied that voting need not be universal. "Let's say you tried to have an election and you could have it in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country, but some places you couldn't because the violence was too great," he said. "Well, that's -- so be it. Nothing's perfect in life. So you have an election that's not quite perfect."
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD