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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DayTraderKidd who wrote (7689)	12/1/2006 2:53:13 PM
From: jlallen	Respond to of 15991

The reports from our own government have confirmed there was no credible link between al qaida and iraq. Incorrect (again).

To: DayTraderKidd who wrote (7689)	12/1/2006 4:08:32 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15991

The reports from our own government have confirmed there was no credible link between al qaida and iraq. Wait a minute.. who's cherry picking here? You claim reports from our own government have confirmed a certain position that validates your perspective, yet I show you actual documents from Iraq's Intelligence Service that state to the contrary. I was there. I, and others, saw the documents. And folks like Ray Robison, who was one of my co-workers saw it as well (and he's p*ssed that it's being covered up and/or ignored). I'm telling you that my experience there provided me the information that supports the contention that Saddam's personnel maintained high-level contacts with Al Qai'da, if not directly supported them with money and training. It was all VERY HUSH-HUSH since, had the US caught wind of the cooperation, it would have provided a direct casus belli for attacking Iraq as an ally of Al Qai'da. Now maybe you have some kind of love for Saddam's regime in Iraq, or maybe you hold some kind of culturally racist belief that Arabs can't understand democracy, but for me the issue was pretty clear. The UNSC demanded that Saddam comply with its binding resolutions to disarm and satisfy the UNSC that it was in compliance with those resolutions. Saddam halted all cooperation in 1998 when we discovered he had lied about the quantities of WMDs he has used in the Iran-Iraq war by 33%. His refusal to cooperate placed him in material breach of the UNSC cease-fire AT THAT TIME. It didn't require Powell or Rice making statements about their speculations related to the status of Saddam's WMD program, or support for terrorist groups. He had an obligation to satisfy the UNSC. Neither UNSCOM, nor UNMOVIC were able to validate Saddam's disarmament up to March, 2003. And that failure on the part of Saddam to provide them sufficient credible information to warrant terminating the inspections (and not investigation) was solely his responsibility. The reason we're in Iraq, from my perspective, was that we had an obligation to insure the UNSC was not turned into some kind paper tiger in the face of verbal and physical aggression by a member state. You'll also note that neither Powell, nor Rice made any comment about how Saddam's government had corrupted the UNSC via the OFF program. Because this information did not come to light until AFTER Saddam was overthrown. Btw, I watched the video. But as I stated, both clips were from 2001, not 2003. And neither of them had faced the new plethora of potential scenarios that involved WMDs getting into the hands of terrorists. All they stated was that Saddam was unable to conventionally threaten his neighboring states with invasion. But that, also, was due to the presence of US forces in the region providing a deterrence presence. Thus, both of those statements, taken in proper context, were meant alleviate the concerns of other governments in the region, not to exonerate Saddam's material breach of the UNSC ceasefire accord. And personally, it shouldn't matter to you whether we're fighting Al Qai'da affliated Jihadist groups in Afganistan, Iraq, or even Somalia .. etc.. Do you think we would have limited our battle with the Nazis solely to Germany had there been a Nazi party in Spain directly threatening to attack the US? It doesn't matter where they are.. they are all birds of a feather and we have an obligation to confront them wherever they may seek to establish themselves. And if you doubt their intentions, ask Abu Ayyub Al-Masri, who is tied very closely to Ayman Al-Zawahiri. He has stated that Al Qai'da in Iraq seeks to directly attack the White House. articles.news.aol.com Hawk