The Wall Street Journal Saw This Coming

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
A couple of months ago the WSJ on it's editorial page drew attention to the links between Saddam's Iraq and Al Qaeda.



Iraq wasn?t involved directly in the 9/11 attacks but the connections, however tenuous, are real.



Saddam and the Next 9/11

The Iraqi dictator and his son talk about the uses of biological weapons.



Friday, February 14, 2003 12:01 a.m.

Quote:

... more importantly it ignores the shared anti-American purpose that has long united both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.



Certainly bin Laden's latest taped threat shows he understands this mutual purpose. Bin Laden refers to "our mujahideen brothers" inside Iraq and stresses "the importance of martyrdom operations against the enemy, these attacks that have scared Americans and Israelis like never before." Iraq may be run by Baath Party "infidels," he adds, but "it does no harm in these circumstances that the interests of Muslims and socialists crisscross in the fighting against the Crusaders."



What our readers should understand is that the rulers in Iraq have also long admired the methods of bin Laden and other anti-American terrorists, going back before September 11, 2001. This is clear simply from reading the Iraqi press, which is of course government controlled. We sort through some of that evidence below, and nearby we reprint Iraqi magazine covers that give the most graphic indication of how much Saddam admires bin Laden's 9/11 handiwork.



As long ago as the bombing of the U.S. military offices in Riyadh in 1995, a November 14 Agence France Presse report from Baghdad quoted an official Iraq newspaper as saying, "The Tigers of the Gulf have shaken the Saudi throne and made Washington tremble." It praised the emergence of a "secret Saudi opposition movement" and predicted "dramatic events" in the country. A core bin Laden goal is of course to oust the U.S. from Saudi Arabia and topple its monarchy.



More recently, and eerily, a July 21, 2001, commentary in the Iraqi publication Al-Nasiriya praised bin Laden: "In this man's heart you'll find an insistence, a strange determination that he will reach one day the tunnels of the White House and will bomb it with everything that is in it."



The article recounts bin Laden's attacks on U.S. targets and U.S. efforts "to pressure the Taliban movement so that it would hand them bin Laden, while he continues to smile and still thinks seriously, with the seriousness of the Bedouin of the desert about the way he will try to bomb the Pentagon after he destroys the White House."



The commentary is ominously prescient, especially since it could never have appeared without official sanction. "Bin Laden is a healthy phenomenon in the Arab spirit," it continues, speaking about his goal to "drive off the Marines" from Arabia. Most eerily of all, the writer adds that those Marines "will be going away because the revolutionary bin Laden is insisting very convincingly that he will strike America on the arm that is already hurting. That the man... will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra every time he hears his songs." Is that a reference to Sinatra's "New York, New York"? Did Saddam know what would happen two months later?...



Now today we have this story:



The proof that Saddam worked with bin Laden

By Inigo Gilmore

(Filed: 27/04/2003)

Quote:

Iraqi intelligence documents discovered in Baghdad by The Telegraph have provided the first evidence of a direct link between Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terrorist network and Saddam Hussein's regime.



Papers found yesterday in the bombed headquarters of the Mukhabarat, Iraq's intelligence service, reveal that an al-Qa'eda envoy was invited clandestinely to Baghdad in March 1998.



The documents show that the purpose of the meeting was to establish a relationship between Baghdad and al-Qa'eda based on their mutual hatred of America and Saudi Arabia. The meeting apparently went so well that it was extended by a week and ended with arrangements being discussed for bin Laden to visit Baghdad...



It's often been argued that going after Saddam had nothing to do with the War on Terror. That argument was and still is nonsense.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Jesus ****ing christ.



    Aren't we supposed to wait like 5 days or something before making idoitic thread?



    Jesus ****ing christ.



    The US found a half burned manilla folder in a bombed out building. On the folder it said "Secret Al-Queda Documents Inside: Don't Give to the US!!!!"



    Jesus ****ing christ.
  • Reply 2 of 23
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    No we should hide this news for five days and hope it goes away. I for one will go stick my head in the sand. It's the only rational thing to do.
  • Reply 3 of 23
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    This is dated 1999. Is that more than 5 days? Can we read it. No no no head in the sand head in the sand.





    The Western nightmare: Saddam and Bin Laden versus the world





    Quote:

    It must have been a bitterly cold and uncomfortable journey. In the last days of December, a group of Iraqi officials crossed the Hindu Kush border from Pakistan to Afghanistan on their way to keep an appointment deep in the remote eastern mountains.





    La la la la I'M NOT READING La la la la Can't hear you.





    How childish?
  • Reply 4 of 23
    Quote:

    Originally posted by bunge



    <idiot ranting>




    Piss off.
  • Reply 5 of 23
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by zaphod_beeblebrox

    Piss off.



    In other news, the manilla folder marked "X" was actually referring to Mac OS X, NOT an X-File as previously reported.
  • Reply 6 of 23
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Scott



    How childish?




    How childish? You tell me. You know the 5 days is referring to the news report but you're more than happy to continue to lie and pretend like the 1999 date means something.



    FOXNews: In a recent interview with Donald Rumsfeld, he downplayed the reports that the manilla folder marked "X" was planted by the United States.



    Rumsfeld: "It wasn't planted by anyone. It was found on the ground. Above ground acutally. In order for it to have been planted it would have to have been buried, preferably with fertilizer and lots of water. We all know that Iraq is a desert and planting such a folder would be impossible anyway."



    FOXNews: We'll continue to break the news as fast as we can fabricate it.
  • Reply 7 of 23
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    Maybe your head is buried somewhere else?
  • Reply 8 of 23
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Scott

    Maybe your head is buried somewhere else?



    I'm sorry Scott, I'm being silly. It's just that this report is too difficult to believe. I'm one that believes that a link will eventually be found but I still thought this story was crap. I read it earlier this evening and didn't bother to post it here because it was too flimsy.



    1000 barrels of mustard gas is a find.



    One manilla folder is just that: one manilla folder.



    There's more credible evidence that Bush should be tried for war crimes than there is for a link with Al-Queda.
  • Reply 9 of 23
    Quote:

    Originally posted by bunge

    How childish? You tell me. You know the 5 days is referring to the news report but you're more than happy to continue to lie and pretend like the 1999 date means something...



    And 5 days means something? The argument over Saddam's links to terrorism is certainly more than 5 days old. The WSJ editorial I linked to is over 2 months old. And why 5 days and not 10 or 50 or better yet, never? That way we can be certain not to tempt you into another attack of Tourette's.
  • Reply 10 of 23
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by zaphod_beeblebrox

    The argument over Saddam's links to terrorism is certainly more than 5 days old.



    Circa 1994...



    FOXNews: In today's news, Paul Wolfowitz has declared that any future possible military strike against the United States could possibly might able to be sort of tied to maybe the Irais and we should just kill them all right now.
  • Reply 11 of 23
    In related news, witnesses on the scene reported seeing U.S. Special Forces cutting roots off the manilla folder. Yes- roots. It was that planted.
  • Reply 12 of 23
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ShawnPatrickJoyce

    In related news, witnesses on the scene reported seeing U.S. Special Forces cutting roots off the manilla folder. Yes- roots. It was that planted.



    Wow, this story really has you guys spooked.
  • Reply 13 of 23
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    [handsoverears]la la la Bush is wrong no matter what la la la all enemies of the US are fabricated to elect Bush to another term la la la 9-11 was bush plot la la la HRC in 2008 la la la[/handsoverears]
  • Reply 14 of 23
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by zaphod_beeblebrox

    Wow, this story really has you guys spooked.



    In further reports the White House has announced that they've translated 4 of the 17 pages found in the X-File.



    Rumsfeld "Although all 17 pages are in English, we're taking extra care to accurately and completely translate all 45 pages that we found."



    When questioned about the need for translating documents in English Rumsfeld bluntly stated "Well we're not sure what else we need to find in the pages so we're going slowly."



    When further pressed about how the original report stated 17 pages were found and subsequent reports mention 45, Rumsfeld again stated "Well we're not sure how much of what else we need to find in the pages so we have to make sure we find enough pages in the first place."



    The file cabinet with the evidence was discovered draped in a U.S. Flag and highlighted by dancing Christmas Lights that spelled out the words "Smoking Gun Here ->". Although FOXNews is unable to report at this time how the cabinet, or the lights, were not discovered during the first 47 visits to the building by Military and media personnel, we will be following the story closely.
  • Reply 15 of 23
    http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...d=540&ncid=716



    Presumably the best argument to wait for better verification on the story is the fact that these reporters are all going off of an off the cuff translation. We'll see.



    Very odd story. What I want to know is how it came to pass that reporters are able to gain access to "the bombed headquarters of the Mukhabarat, Iraq's intelligence service,". Why are journalists and translators being allowed in and why has the building not been secured to prevent this? Our intelligence can't possibly have sorted through everything on site as much of it would be in Arabic. Perhaps they made photocopies of everything for analysis in the US but I doubt that as well. The presense of the whiteout implies that if anyone from intelligence did look at this then they didn't bother scraping that whiteout off which would be extraordinarily stupid. You can't say for certain but the obvious implication of the facts is the military and intelligence people with these responsibilities have neither seen this nor secured the building if reporters are in there rumaging through documents. This isn't someone's house or some backwater building either, it's the freakin intelligence servicein Baghdad. I don't see how this can be looked at as anything but a gross failure on the part of Anglo intelligence which only deepens the sense that they are incompetent.



    Argh, bunge beat me to it- in his own way- while the fücking Tigers were getting more hits off of sorry ass Franklin.
  • Reply 16 of 23
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    you know regardless if it is proven that some tie exists or there are womd, i still think the us entered iraq on illegitimate terms... there was obviously not enough evidence to convince most of the world and that means the us went in without any satisfyingly proven facts... yeah, any evidence would go a long way towards letting them prove that there was a case but that doesnt mean they proved it at the time we entered iraq nor does it mean that entering iraq at that time was right given our declared reasons for doing so were not yet proven to the world court...



    rarely if ever is a person put to death on the basis that once that person is killed there will be plenty of evidence that they did it... ie a world wide witch hunt for 'evil' and 'terrorist' isnt worth shit if it isnt backed up with actual publicly revealed and confirmed facts regardless of the bullshit excuse 'national security takes precedent'...
  • Reply 17 of 23
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Scott

    [handsoverears]la la la Bush is wrong no matter what la la la all enemies of the US are fabricated to elect Bush to another term la la la 9-11 was bush plot la la la HRC in 2008 la la la[/handsoverears]



    1. Usually.

    2. Perhaps.

    3. Doubtfully. Always possible but not bloodly likely.

    4. Hopefully!
  • Reply 18 of 23
    fellowshipfellowship Posts: 5,038member
    bunge just can't believe such a thing.



    bunge you may have 12 years if you need. Of course I don't expect much from you except more of your anti-Bush ranting.



    I don't worship Bush but the bitterness you show towards him supports my running theory that the anti-war folks were more anti-Bush than anti-war.



    You don't have to like Bush so why not get over it.



    I don't care for some folks but I don't spend day after day hour after hour giving rants and winding myself up over them.



    Grow up.



    Fellowship
  • Reply 19 of 23
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by FellowshipChurch iBook

    bunge just can't believe such a thing.



    FOXNews: Fox news can now report that among the paperwork found in Afghaniraq are receipts from the U.S. Military for services and goods paid for by Saddam Hussein. According to the few receipts we've been able to uncover so far, there is mounting evidence that Saddam Hussein himself ordered a first class ass whipping complimentary of the U.S. Armed Forces. The destruction of all Iraqi military vehicles cost Saddam exactly 1.2 Billion USD. Also found was a receipt for the defacing of any and all artwords dipicting Saddam Hussein himself.



    Rumsfeld "We hope now the world can see that Iraq actually paid us in advance, in full I might add, for the U.S. to invade and destroy their country. As a matter of fact there are still a few jobs left to do. We signed a contract and we plan on fulfilling our end of the deal. We certainly don't plan on giving a refund."



    According to unnamed sources in the Pentagon, Saddam has also paid in advance for the destruction of Syria and Iran. Receipts for these projects will be supplied as necessary.
  • Reply 20 of 23
    Great find if it turns out to be true. And I hope it will and US use that to justify the war. If nothing is found that backs up any of the claims put forward in UN and it isn´t seen as a problem by US it gives the administration carte blance to start wars for any reason they want.



    Only problem so far: How does the papers correspond with the evidence put forward by Powell in UN? Unless they are related the "coalition" still headed into this war without any reason that had evidential back-up.



    You could compare it to a violent criminal sentenced to death because of a murder on his wife. After the grill it is discovered that he didn´t do it. Bummer. But one year later it is discovered that he DID commit a murder on someone else a couple of years before. Now do that excuse the first mistake? Of course not because you can only be sentenced based on what is known about you and not what comes up after your sentence. And sertainly not because the perception of you is that you are a bad guy generally.
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