"it is the administrations own viewport."
As President Reagan would say, "There you go again".
It's not just about Al Qaeda..... It's a global war on
terrorism..... all terrorist groups & the regimes that
support, harbor & train terrorists...... that's a fact.
Prez Bush - State of the Union Address
Jan 29, 2002
.....So long as training camps operate, so long as nations harbor terrorists, freedom is at risk. And America and our allies must not, and will not, allow it..... ....Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction..... Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror..... States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world..... We can't stop short. If we stop now -- leaving terror camps intact and terror states unchecked -- our sense of security would be false and temporary.....
State of the Union Address
Jan 28, 2003
.....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..... Secretary of State Powell will present information and intelligence about Iraqi's....links to terrorist groups......
VP Cheney
July 31, 2003
".....In Iraq, a dictator with a deep and bitter hatred of the United States, who built, possessed and used weapons of mass destruction and cultivated ties to terrorists, is no more....."
whitehouse.gov
Prez Bush....... July 1, 2003
"Also present in Iraq are terrorist groups seeking to spread chaos and to attack American and coalition forces. Among these terrorists are members of Ansar al-Islam, which operated in Iraq before the war and is now active in the Sunni heartland of the country. We suspect that the remnants of a group tied to al Qaeda associate al-Zarqawi are still in Iraq, waiting for an opportunity to strike. We're also beginning to see foreign fighters enter Iraq."
whitehouse.gov
September 11 report alludes to Iraq-al Qaeda meeting
The 850-page congressional report on September 11 intelligence failures says that a key terrorist organizer may have met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in the months before the attack......
washingtontimes.com
May 17, 2003
"With the liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan, we have removed allies of al Qaeda, cut off sources of terrorist funding, and made certain that no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussein's regime."
whitehouse.gov
May 1, 2003
"The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more. (Applause.)"
whitehouse.gov
May 2, 2003
"As a result of the bravery and skill of our Armed Forces and coalition forces, the war on terror is much longer down the road because of what happened in Iraq. You see, the al Qaeda no longer have a ally in the regime in Iraq. Terrorists no longer have a funding source in the regime of Iraq. One thing is for certain: Terrorists will no longer have a source of weapons of mass destruction in the regime that used to be in Iraq, because the regime that used to be in Iraq is no longer." (Applause.)
whitehouse.gov
Iraq Yields Al-Qaeda Information, AFP Says, Citing U.S. General
July 30 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is gaining intelligence on the al-Qaeda terror network as a result of military operations in Iraq, Agence France-Presse cited the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, as saying today.
The information is helping U.S. authorities to understand the organization and to hunt for its leaders, Myers told reporters during a visit to Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military's headquarters in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.
Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March, the military knew that the Ansar al-Islam group, which has ties to al-Qaeda, was operating in northeastern Iraq, Myers was cited as saying by AFP. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. is denying the terrorists sanctuary, training sites and access to weapons of mass destruction, he said. Banned weapons, which were cited by the U.S. and U.K. as a reason for the war, have yet to be found.
Myers said the war in Iraq has complemented the fight against al-Qaeda and terrorism, rather than diverting resources from it. Myers is on a tour of the Middle East and Asia. Myers was scheduled to meet later today with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss the disarmament of about 100,000 fighters from Afghan militias and their reintegration into society, AFP reported.
quote.bloomberg.com
.....Iraq told UN inspectors that Salman Pak was an anti-terror training camp for Iraqi special forces. However, two defectors from Iraqi intelligence stated that they had worked for several years at the secret Iraqi government camp, which had trained Islamic terrorists in rotations of five or six months since 1995. Training activities including simulated hijackings carried out in an airplane fuselage [said to be a Boeing 707] at the camp. The camp is divided into distinct sections. On one side of the camp young, Iraqis who were members of Fedayeen Saddam are trained in espionage, assassination techniques and sabotage. The Islamic militants trained on the other side of the camp, in an area separated by a small lake, trees and barbed wire. The militants reportedly spent time training, usually in groups of five or six, around the fuselage of the airplane. There were rarely more than 40 or 50 Islamic radicals in the camp at one time......
globalsecurity.org
.....Ex-CIA Director James Woolsey, Clinton Iraqi policy adviser Laurie Mylroie, former Iraqi nuclear chief Khidir Hamza and émigré Iraqi army colonel Sabah Khodada are among those who say that Saddam Hussein used Salman Pak to instruct terrorists in bomb making, assassination, and hijacking......
nationalreview.com |
