Mar 13 2008
al-Qaeda In Iraq Under Saddam – Eyewitness Account
An article out today destroys the liberal mythology regarding the war on terror in two areas. In the previous post I noted Iraqi security is working with us here in the US to stop attacks on America. This exposure of a real threat now in country demonstrates why Congress needs to stop playing games with FISA-NSA and let our security forces protect us to the broadest extent possible.
But the second area of leftwing fantasy this article demolishes is in regard to al-Qaeda’s presence in Iraq under Saddam Hussein:
Al-Magid:Al-Magid: Al Qaeda and other people who believed the same as Al Qaeda had been in Iraq for many years. When I say “believed†I mean people who hated America and wanted to destroy the U.S.
Saddam had this in common with Al Qaeda and this is why he provided them protection.
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Around 2003, as I have mentioned, I met Mr. Gaubatz. My family and I wanted to help the Americans and we went to a base to speak with someone who could work with us. Dave knew our family had already saved some American soldiers’ lives and we started working together. I can’t mention some things right now, but I can say we talked about Al Qaeda and the Iranians being in Iraq before 2003. Saddam used some of these groups to terrorize the Iraqi people so they would not go against him.
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I have discussed some points about Al Qaeda being in Iraq for many years before 2003. This seems to only be a surprise to Americans, but everyone in Iraq knew Al Qaeda was being protected by Saddam in Iraq. The Al Qaeda people had their own mosques in Nasiriyah and only Al Qaeda could go to the mosques. One of their mosques was near the Saddam hospital that Private Jessica Lynch was being held as a prisoner.
Americans do not understand how much they helped the Iraqis when they removed Saddam.
So al-Qaeda was an arm of Saddam’s internal forces. This kind of arrangement could be considered by some as ‘different’ from planning attacks outside Iraq. The thing people forget about Iraq is that it was not invaded because of 9-11, it was the prime risk as a nexus of resources and support for future 9-11s. After AQ demonstrated their credibility with 9-11 the risk was states which had been adverse to putting themselves at risk with some rag-tag group of fanatics would see AQ as a useful tool to attack the US for their own benefits.
Only liberals look at Iraq and define it as payback for 9-11 and do not see it as one of the top potential risks that could be woven into a series of future 9-11s, something the US government was doing (and has done) to make sure would not happen.
oops…very sorry AJ. I see now that the Frontpage interview was linked in your original post. Very sorry for the slight.
Left by 75 on March 13th, 2008
75: I did the same thing; I was having so much fun CRUSHING “Bootlicker”, that I lost sight of the fact that AJ’s original post was related to that article, and I included it again in my post!
Sorry AJ; I still CRUSHED “Bootlicker” though.
Good point Terrye!
And the FINAL nail in “Bootlicker”, the Anti-American, Pro-Jihadi Leftist Democratic Traitor Nutbag’s Coffin:
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/03/14/saddam-supported-at-least-two-al-qaeda-groups-pentagon/
A VERY good analysis, by someone who actually READ the report!
YooHoo! YooHoo! Where are you Nutbag?
The TRUTH is OUT NOW, on what the Report that you tried to spin, with your Traitorous MSM allies into your typical Anti-American/Pro-Jihadi Leftist Nutbag Democratic Traitor spin!
And ONCE AGAIN, I have exposed you as a LIAR, a FRAUD and an Anti-American/Pro-Jihadi Leftist Traitor Democratic Nutbag, and I have absolutely CRUSHED YOU!
Here is what the report REALLY says:
http://www.nysun.com/article/72906?page_no=1
selected juicy parts:
A Pentagon review of about 600,000 documents captured in the Iraq war attests to Saddam Hussein’s willingness to use terrorism to target Americans and work closely with jihadist organizations throughout the Middle East.
The Iraqi Intelligence Service in a 1993 memo to Saddam agreed on a plan to train commandos from Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group that assassinated Anwar Sadat and was founded by Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Beginning in 1999, Iraq’s intelligence service began providing “financial and moral support” for a small radical Islamist Kurdish sect the report does not name. A Kurdish Islamist group called Ansar al Islam in 2002 would try to assassinate the regional prime minister in the eastern Kurdish region, Barham Salih.
(Guess what, this was Ansar al Islam, which means that Bush was CORRECT all along, and that the Leftists who have said that Bush lied about this, and that Saddam did not work with, nor support them, owe some MAJOR apologies…..yeah….I’ll hold my breath! This was Zarqawai’s group too!)
In 2001, Saddam’s intelligence service drafted a manual titled “Lessons in Secret Organization and Jihad Work—How to Organ ize and Overthrow the Saudi Royal Family.” In the same year, his intelligence service submitted names of 10 volunteer “martyrs” for operations inside the Kingdom.
(Wow, pretty funny for a “secular” dictator who never worked with “Islamists”…..ah, yeah!!)
The report also undercuts the claim made by many on the left and many at the CIA that Saddam, as a national socialist, was incapable of supporting or collaborating with the Islamist al Qaeda. The report concludes that instead Iraq’s relationship with Osama bin Laden’s organization was similar to the relationship between the rival Colombian cocaine cartels in the 1990s. Both were rivals in some sense for market share, but also allies when it came to expanding the size of the overall market.
A long time skeptic of the connection between al Qaeda and Iraq and a former CIA senior Iraq analyst, Judith Yaphe yesterday said, “I think the report indicates that Saddam was willing to work with almost any group be it nationalist or Islamic, that was willing to work for his objectives. But in the long term he did not trust many of the Islamist groups, especially those linked to Saudi Arabia or Iran.” She added, “He really did want to get anti-American operations going. The fact that they had little success shows in part their incompetence and unwilling surrogates.”
A former Bush administration official who was a member of the counter-terrorism evaluation group that analyzed terror networks and links between terrorists and states, David Wurmser, said he felt the report began to vindicate his point of view.
“This is the beginning of the process of exposing Saddam’s involvement in Islamic terror. But it is only the beginning. Time and declassification I’m sure will reveal yet more,” he said. “Even so, this report is damning to those who doubted Saddam Hussein’s involvement with Jihadist terrorist groups. It devastates one of the central myths plaguing our government prior to 9-11, that a Jihadist group would not cooperate with a secular regime and vice versa.”
Well, Well, Well…
Where are you Nutbag?