So much for the "Saddam wasn't tied to terroism" screech from liberals.

This report destroys the last argument against the preemptive war in Iraq.

But don't expect them to agnkowledge it. Our media has so far completely ignored it.

Will they be sending any apologies to Bush for five long years of lies? Don't hold your breath.

These are just some highlights. Details in the link or download the full report:

"Iraqi Perspectives Project: Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/889pvpxc.asp?pg=2
Saddam's Dangerous Friends
What a Pentagon review of 600,000 Iraqi documents tells us.

Throughout the early and mid-1990s, Saddam Hussein actively supported an influential terrorist group headed by the man who is now al Qaeda's second-in-command, according to an exhaustive study issued last week by the Pentagon. "Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri) or that generally shared al Qaeda's stated goals and objectives."

"Captured documents reveal that the regime was willing to co-opt or support organizations it knew to be part of al Qaeda--as long as that organization's near-term goals supported Saddam's long-term vision."

In 1993, as Osama bin Laden's fighters battled Americans in Somalia, Saddam Hussein personally ordered the formation of an Iraqi terrorist group to join the battle there.

For more than two decades, the Iraqi regime trained non-Iraqi jihadists in training camps throughout Iraq.

According to a 1993 internal Iraqi intelligence memo, the regime was supporting a secret Islamic Palestinian organization dedicated to "armed jihad against the Americans and Western interests."

In the 1990s, Iraq's military intelligence directorate trained and equipped "Sudanese fighters."

In 1998, the Iraqi regime offered "financial and moral support" to a new group of jihadists in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.

In 2002, the year before the war began, the Iraqi regime hosted in Iraq a series of 13 conferences for non-Iraqi jihadist groups.

That same year, a branch of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) issued hundreds of Iraqi passports for known terrorists.

Between the year 2000 and 2002 explosive materials were transported to embassies outside Iraq for special work, upon the approval of the Director of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. The responsibility for these materials is in the hands of heads of stations. Some of these materials were transported in the political mail carriers [Diplomatic Pouch]. Some of these materials were transported by car in booby-trapped briefcases.

Another captured Iraqi document from early 1993 "reports on contact with a large number of terrorist groups in the region, including those that maintained an office or liaison in Iraq."

More recently, captured "annual reports" of the IIS reveal support for terrorist organizations in the months leading up the U.S. invasion in March 2003. According to the Pentagon study, "the IIS hosted thirteen conferences in 2002 for a number of Palestinian and other organizations, including delegations from the Islamic Jihad Movement and the Director General for the Popular Movement for the Liberation of al-Ahwaz."

Again, at precisely the same time Zawahiri was "joining with bin Laden," the spring of 1993, he was being funded by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. As Zawahiri's jihadists trained in al Qaeda camps in Sudan, his representative to Iraq was planning "commando operations" against the Egyptian government with the IIS.

A separate memo reveals that the Army of Muhammad has requested assistance from Iraq. The study authors summarize the response by writing, "the local IIS station has been told to deal with them in accordance with priorities previously established. The IIS agent goes on to inform the Director that 'this organization is an offshoot of bin Laden, but that their objectives are similar but with different names that can be a way of camouflaging the organization.

In another instance, the new Pentagon study makes reference to captured documents detailing the Iraqi relationship with Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda affiliate in the Philippines founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law.

I don't really think of the nationreview as a unbiased source either....can you cross reference this with any other sources?

Excuse me, but these conclusions are based upon captured Iraqi documents.

Why don't you read the report and decide for yourself. Afraid of what you will find?

I responded to your post with a link to the report from the Council on Foreign Relations and it was flagged for spam.

I have no idea why. The report is easily found on the internet. Download it and read it for yourself.

Are you suggesting our Government made up the 600,000 pages of documents? What a hoot!!

Even with the facts staring you right in the face you still believe the lies. Truly pathetic.


No conspiracy needed. You can read the report yourself. We both know why you won't.

liberals simply refuse to admit they have been fooled for five long years.

Even accepting Saddam's indirect support of terrorist activities, does this justify America's invasion and occupation of Iraq? Saddam's guilt does not change the fact that this was a reckless war that aggravated the world community and motivated future terrorists.

I don't think anyone's gonna be surprised that Hussein funded terrorist orginizations... but you'd be convieniently ignorant to roll over the fact that we've done it in the past and continue to do it now...

The report cautions it's readers to understand that Suddam Hussein and Al Quida never actually ventured on anything together:

"Because Saddam's security organizations and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network operated with similar aims (at least in the short term), considerable overlap was inevitable when monitoring, contacting, financing, and training the same outside groups. This created both the appearance of and, in some way, a 'de facto' link between the organizations. At times, these organizations would work together in pursuit of shared goals but still maintain their autonomy and independence because of innate caution and mutual distrust."

The same could be said about Saudi Arabian and Pakistani terrorist orginizations. No doubt all these groups shared very similar goals... yet detail is only paid to the similarities between Hussein and Al Quida? How convienient. I guess the similar goals between Musharraf (a US "ally") and whatever group succeeded in killing Bhutto are not good enough to make a stink about?

Either way, as the article goes on it becomes more concerned with the relationship of different terrorist orginizations and has very little on Iraq's direct dealing with Al Quida, which as the report already states, were virtually independent of each other.

Also, what I find strange about this whole thing is that if the Bush Administration was right this whole time... why aren't they shouting it from the roof tops? I refuse to believe that Bush would let his entire legacy (Iraq, basically) pass by because of laziness.