No committee has said there were no terrorist in Iraq as you said. You're trying to conflate Saddam having no operational involvement in the 911 attack with Saddam having no involvement with Al Qaida or terrorism. That's deliberately misleading.
Here's some factual info for you:
A few facts about Saddam Hussein and terrorism:
In 1991 an Iraqi embassy car took two terrorists to the Thomas Jefferson Cultural Center in Manila. As they were attempting to plant a bomb, it exploded killing one of them. Iraqi diplomat Muwafak al-Ani was expelled from the Philippines.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaida's #2 man, visited Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 1992 per Qassen Hussein Muhammed, a 20 year veteran of Iraqi intelligence. This was reported by ABC's Nightline and by PBS in 2002.
US forces found documents in Tikrit showing that Ahmed Rahman Yasin, who made the explosive used in the first attempt to bring down the WTC in 1993 (six killed, 1042 injured), was given a house and a monthly salary by Saddam. The attack occurred on the Friday just before the weekend in which fell the second anniversary of Iraq's defeat in the first Gulf war.
Osama bin Ladin's February 22, 1998 fatwa calling on Muslims to kill Americans followed President Bill Clinton's February 18, 1998 threat of war with Saddam and was seemingly in answer to it. UN sanctions on Iraq were a chief complaint cited in bin Ladin's fatwa. The August 7, 1998 Kenyan and Tanzanian US embassy bombings by al Qaida occurred on the anniversary of
sanctions on Iraq. A few days before Saddam had demanded the end of sanctions and threatened violent repercussions if they weren't immediately lifted.
The Clinton Justice Dept's indictment of bin Ladin included this charge:
"Al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq."
Malaysian intelligence took photos in January 2000 of Iraqi intelligence agent Ahmed Hikmat Shakir meeting with al Qaida members.
In October 2000, Iraqi intelligence agent Salah Sulieman was arrested by Pakistani authorities near the Afghan border.
In October 2002, members of Abu Musab al Zarqawi's cell operating from Iraq murdered Lawrence Foley, an AID official, in Amman Jordan. The captured assassin said he received orders and funds from Zarqawi in Iraq. His accomplice escaped to Iraq after the attack. Zarqawi's organization is now
called "al Qaida in Iraq". Zarqawi had previously taught bomb-making at an al Qaida training camp in Afghanistan until the US invasion of Afghanistan, whereupon he fled to Iraq.
The Philippine government expelled Hisham al-Hussein, second secretary at Iraq's embassy in Manila, on February 13, 2003. Cell phone records showed he'd been in contact with two Abu Sayyaf (an al Qaida affiliate) leaders, Abu Madja and Hamsiraji Sali, just before and after an attack on October 2,
2002. In the attack, two Filipinos and one American, US Special Forces Sergeant First Class Mark Wayne Jackson, were killed.
A partial tally of casulties from some of the terror groups funded, sheltered, or trained in Iraq:
Total Total Americans Americans
Killed Wounded Killed Wounded
Abu Nidal organization 407 788 10 58
Ansar al-Islam 114 16 1 0
Arab Liberation Front 11 6 0 0
Hamas 224 1445 17 90
Kurdistan Workers Party 44 327 0 2
Mujahedin-a Khalq 17 43 7 1
Palestine Liberation Front 1 42 1 0
Totals 811 2667 36 91
Note: Abu Nidal lived in Iraq from 1992-2002, when he is said to have shot himself at his home. Khala Khadar al-Salahat, an Abu Nidal deputy who provided the Semtex to Libyan agenst which brought down Pan Am 103 in December 1988 (259 dead), was captured in Baghdad by Marines after the invasion of Iraq.
The Palestine Liberation Front killed handicapped American Leon
Klinghoffer, a passanger on the Achille Lauro cruise ship. The terrorists involved in this attack, including leader Abu Abbas, were captured in Italy after their plane was forced to land at a NATO base in Sicily by US planes. Abu Abbas was released by Italian authorities as he was carrying an Iraqi
diplomatic passport. Abbas died in US custody after being captured by US forces during the invasion of Iraq.
Information from Richard Miniter's book, Disinformation, on media myths about the war on terror and
nationalreview.com
usatoday.com (abdul rahman yasin) ww.washtimes.com
nationalreview.com
weeklystandard.com
us.rediff.com.news |
