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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: geode00 who wrote (192383)	7/21/2006 4:55:11 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I've already documented Saddam's ties to various terror groups on this thread. In regard to ties between Saddam and al Qaida, specifically, see this post: Message 22530701 ... Zarqawi and other al Qaeda terrorists had connections to IRAQ before coalition forces invaded in March 2003. As the co-chairman of the September 11 Commission, Governor Thomas KEAN, stated, "there was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between IRAQ and al Qaeda." ... According to the September 11 report: <<< With the Sudanese regime acting as intermediary, Bin Laden himself met with 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... [but] the ensuing years saw additional efforts to establish connections. (p.61) In March 1998, after Bin Laden's public fatwa against the United States, two al Qaeda members reportedly went to IRAQ to meet with IRAQi intelligence. In July, an IRAQi delegation traveled to Afghanistan to meet first with the Taliban and then with Bin Laden. Sources reported that one, or perhaps both, of these meetings was apparently arranged through Bin Laden's Egyptian deputy, Zawahiri, who had ties of his own to the IRAQis. (p.66) Similar meetings between IRAQi officials and Bin Laden or his aides may have occurred in 1999 during a period of some reported strains with the Taliban. According to the reporting, IRAQi officials offered Bin Laden a safe haven in IRAQ. Bin Laden declined, apparently judging that his circumstances in Afghanistan remained more favorable than the IRAQi alternative. The reports describe friendly contacts and indicate some common themes in both sides' hatred of the United States. But to date we have seen no evidence that these or the earlier contacts ever developed into a collaborative operational relationship. Nor have we seen evidence indicating that IRAQ cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States. (p.66) >>> ....