"Experts Know There is No Link Between Al Qaeda and Saddam
It's amazing that Condi "I had an oil tanker named after me" Rice can continue to perpetuate the Al Qaeda-Saddam connection Big Lie in the media with a straight face. Of course, she never offers any proof, as details are always "to come later". This is because people who actually KNOW the Middle East say the possibility of any Al Qaeda-Saddam collaboration is slim to none. "There's not a scintilla of any evidence of any Iraqi involvement with al-Qaida or with Sept. 11," said history Professor Juan Cole of the University of Michigan. Rather, Saddam Hussein's Baath political party "is the deadliest enemy to religious fundamentalism you can find," Cole told a policy forum at Case Western Reserve University. The Iraqi dictator has "persecuted and killed both Sunni and Shiite fundamentalists in great number," he said. Bush's justifications for War are all ... well, read below."
Iraq no friend of al-Qaida, experts say
09/26/02
Elizabeth Sullivan
Foreign affairs correspondent
Two experts on the Islamic world warned yesterday that misperceptions about Arabs were clouding the fight against terrorism and could provoke war against Iraq.
"There's not a scintilla of any evidence of any Iraqi involvement with al-Qaida or with Sept. 11," said history Professor Juan Cole of the University of Michigan. Rather, Saddam Hussein's Baath political party "is the deadliest enemy to religious fundamentalism you can find," Cole told a policy forum at Case Western Reserve University. The Iraqi dictator has "persecuted and killed both Sunni and Shiite fundamentalists in great number," he said.
About 200 people attended the free forum, titled "Is America at War with the Muslim World?"
Speakers said the answer to that question was: Not yet, but maybe.
Iraq, they agreed, was the key.
"We're whipping up the fervor" for war, said Wat Cluverius, a former U.S. ambassador to Bahrain who spent 40 years on naval and diplomatic assignments in the Middle East. "I have a terrible feeling this is going to happen."
Cluverius, who heads the Cleveland Council on World Affairs, said it was important not to lump the Islamic world into one "enemy" category or to exaggerate the extent of fundamentalism.
The Sept. 11 plot was hatched by an al-Qaida cell in Germany. But Cole said German police estimate that only about 2,000 of Germany's 7 million Muslims sympathize with al-Qaida and only 200 are active members.
Similarly exaggerated, said Cole, is the notion that the Islamic world is dominated by anti-American "hatred and rage."
Instead, he said, surveys have found that "Middle Easterners to a person are firm democrats," and many wish the United States would stop supporting autocratic leaders in such countries as Egypt and Algeria.
Even nondemocratic Arab regimes can be surprisingly nuanced and modern, said Cluverius.
Jordan is a "middle-class country" toying with notions of parliamentary democracy, he said. And there are "more American Ph.D.s in the Saudi Cabinet than in the whole U.S. Congress," Cluverius added.
A group of Islamic students attending the forum said they were pleased that it emphasized the narrow roots of Islamic terrorism.
"I think they did a really great job of making a distinction between mainstream Muslims vs. the clear minority who are terrorists," said Sharmin Shahjahan, 18, of Pepper Pike, a sophomore majoring in management. Her family emigrated from Bangladesh 11 years ago.
Yesterday's forum was the first of a series of free CWRU events this fall focusing on policy questions in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. A forum beginning at noon today looks at implications for higher education.
Contact this Plain Dealer reporter at: bsullivan@plaind.com, 216-999-6153
© 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.
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