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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (748799)	9/8/2006 5:02:23 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Nobody has every said that Saddam did not try to portray himself as a good Muslim, supporting the "struggle" against Israel. But there was no indication Saddam was ever going to put his authority as risk by allowing religious zealots a foothold in Iraq. The clerics were on a tight leash and they knew it....barely tolerated if they stayed quiet and out of sight. There is a big difference between giving lip service and cash to families of suicide bombers and aiding and abetting or (as the intelligence committee report said "ignoring") the presence of the terrorists in his country. Didn't happen. Only the Neocons could have built up such a facade. It was not logical based on Saddam's mode of government... If the administration wants to again come up with reasons for the Iraq war, Saddam's support of, or even allowance of, terrorist cells in Iraq, won't work.

To: jlallen who wrote (748799)	9/8/2006 6:24:42 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Re: "Abu Nidal ring a bell?" Sure... an evil S.O.B., but at that point in history, also a long retired and ailing fop. "Abu Abbas? $25,000.00 bonuses to the families of homicide bombers?" More Palestinians, eh? Wonder how many are ensconced in Saudi Arabia, or Jordan, or the Gulf Monarchies, or Egypt? (And 'ya know that S.A. had to go Saddam 'one better'... they pay out $35,000 per 'martyr's' family.) All the same, that ain't the same as 9-11... at least, not to Americans. Re: "The facts are that SH harbored and promoted terorism." SURE! (Just not any that had anything to do with 9-11... UNLIKE our 'ally' Pakistan, who not only created and ran the Taliban... but who has also now given them and OBL amnesty. And not like our other 'ally' Saudi Arabia... who spawned this terrible fundamentalist version of Islam --- and pays to export it all over the place --- and who produced MOST of the 9-11 attackers. :-( We might have done a whole lot better if we'd just attacked our so-called allies instead (while Saddam was blocking Iran)....

To: jlallen who wrote (748799)	9/9/2006 7:29:59 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

...Contrary to assertions by Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials, Hussein didn't have links to al-Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorist plot, the reports said. ``Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qaeda and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime,'' one of the reports said. Hussein refused all requests from al-Qaeda to provide material or operational support, said the reports. While Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress told U.S. officials that Iraq possessed nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, that information later proved inaccurate, according to the committee reports. U.S. intelligence agencies overestimated Saddam Hussein's ability and desire to obtain weapons material while United Nations sanctions were in place, the reports said. Further, the Senate committee determined that Hussein sought weapons of mass destruction as deterrents against Israel and Iran, not for use against the U.S. Hussein and al-Qaeda Allegations that Hussein provided chemical and biological weapons training to al-Qaeda operatives also turned out to be false, the reports said. The Defense Intelligence Agency said in 2002 that it was unlikely Iraq gave Bin Laden any useful weapons assistance. The Senate reports cite inconsistencies and contradictions overlooked by intelligence agencies as they produced intelligence briefings for senior policy makers. U.S. analysts had ``little specific intelligence reporting'' about Hussein's willingness to ally himself with al-Qaeda, the reports said. The committee quoted a 2002 Central Intelligence Agency report that said ``our assessment of al-Qaeda's ties to Iraq rests on a body of fragmented, conflicting reporting from sources of varying reliability.'' On two occasions, Hussein rebuffed al-Qaeda emissaries seeking to establish a relationship with his regime, information not reported to U.S. intelligence agencies before the war, the reports said. While Bin Laden's al-Qaeda lieutenant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was in Iraq in 2002, he was traveling under cover and eluded efforts by Hussein to capture him, the reports said. Threat to Hussein Al-Qaeda operative Abu Hafs al-Mauritani went to Iraq twice -- in 1998 and 2002 -- to meet with Hussein but was rebuffed, according to the reports. Hussein said al-Mauritani should leave the country because he may ``cause a problem'' for the regime. Further, Iraqi intelligence agents infiltrated Ansar al- Islam, a radical Kurdish group hosting al-Qaeda fighters, because Hussein saw them as a threat and thought the U.S. would use their presence to suggest a link between the Iraqis and the terrorists, the reports said.... Intelligence Didn't Back Bush Iraq Stand, Reports Say (Update1) By William Roberts and James Rowley bloomberg.com