Nov 18 2005
Able Danger and Iraq
Mac Ranger has heard something that tells him Able Danger is going to explode into the open, applying generous helpings of egg to the faces of the democrats, media and 9-11 Commission.
The hint Mac Ranger lays out is Able Danger connected the 9-11 terrorists to Iraq somehow. This is not surprising actually. The purging of the Able Danger data may have been due to China connections to people embarrassing to Clinton, but the post 9-11 cover up of Able Danger I felt had more to do with something else Able Danger might have uncovered. My suspicions were there connections to people, states or organizations that the US did not want out in the public because they were terrorists we were watching, allies we trusted or international organizations we needed to use.
But I would not be surprised at an Iraqi connection at all. As Mac points out there is plenty of Iraqi connections to the WTC 1 bombings. And because Clinton dealt with this as a legal matter, as opposed to an attack, the intelligence from the case never made it to the intelligence community, thus leaving us exposed.
But we were one of the first bloggers to post on reporting that Atta was connected to Al Qaeda because of an association to the Blind Sheik of WTC 1 fame. There is also all the reporting Ed Morrissey has done on Germany’s capture of Iraqi agents in Germany around the time Atta was possibly meeting with Iraqi agents in Prague (explaining why there would be a need to go to Prague for a meeting).
One of the sources for the Atta timeline in the 9-11 report is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who just happens to be Ramzi Yousef’s Uncle. Atta and 9-11 are already tied to WTC 1 – no question. Yousef had a false Iraqi passport when he entered the US. Mac Ranger points to a 1995 Laurie Mylroie essay for a real detailed linkage. It is an eerie read since it was written half a decade prior to 9-11.
Another possible connection is here. Rhaman and Zawahari, Al Qaeda’s number two, are both Egyptian and ran the Egyptian Islamic Jihad Group. It is the Iraqi Islamic Jihad group now fighting against us in Iraq. And it was the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who sided with Hussein when we went into Iraq. And Hussein paid the families of suicide bombers from Islamic Jihad.
And Zarqawi, the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq today, had ties to the same Egyptian Islamic Jihad while he was being given sanctuary in Iraq. Hussein let his pals visit him
Zarqawi fled Afghanistan during the U.S.-led war to oust the Taliban. He passed through Iran and then received medical treatment in Baghdad in mid-2002, U.S. officials have said.
During this time, several of his associates, affiliated with Egyptian Islamic Jihad, joined him in the city. The Egyptian Islamic Jihad is considered merged with al Qaeda.
So if Able Danger connected Atta to Al Qaeda through the Sheik Rahman and the 1993 WTC bombing, an Iraqi connection is not hard to fathom.
Covering it up is hard to understand – but not a connection
Extra food for thought.
On February 3, 1998, Ayman al Zawahiri, bin Laden’s Egyptian deputy, came to Baghdad for meetings with Iraqi leaders. The visit came as Islamic radicals gathered once again in the Iraqi capital for another installation of Hussein’s Popular Islamic Conferences. Iraqi vice president Taha Yasin Ramadan welcomed them on February 9 with the language of jihad: “The Islamic nation’s ulema, advocates and preachers, are called upon to carry out a jihad that God wants them to carry out through honest words in order to expose the U.S. and Zionist regimes to the world peoples, to explain facts, and to say what is right and to call for it. This is their religious duty. The Muslim ulema are called upon before Almighty God to act among the Muslim ranks to confront the infidel U.S. moves and to raise their voices against the U.S.-Zionist evil.”
Evan Bayh, a Democrat from Indiana who sits on the Intelligence Committee, told THE WEEKLY STANDARD, “the relationship seemed to have its roots in mutual exploitation. Saddam Hussein used terrorism for his own ends, and Osama bin Laden used a nation-state for the things that only a nation-state can provide.”
And Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut Democrat and presidential candidate, discussed the connections in an appearance last week on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews.” Said Lieberman: “I want to be real clear about the connection with terrorists. I’ve seen a lot of evidence on this. There are extensive contacts between Saddam Hussein’s government and al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. I never could reach the conclusion that [Saddam] was part of September 11. Don’t get me wrong about that. But there was so much smoke there that it made me worry. And you know, some people say with a great facility, al Qaeda and Saddam could never get together. He is secular and they’re theological. But there’s something that tied them together. It’s their hatred of us.”
Mohammed Farah Aidid and his advisors left Mogadishu for an Islamic Conference in Khartoum, Sudan. Publicly he and others denounced the US. In private, he met with Bin Laden, Ayman Al Zawahiri, Iranian intelligence, Iraqi intelligence, and other surrogate terrorist groups’ representatives. The followup attacks to the World Trade Center bombing were initiated at this meeting, planned for July 4th, and, later, narrowly averted by the FBI. This June conference in Khartoum also created the first joint or parallel Iraqi-Sudan-Iranian operational plans to turn Somalia (specifically) into another Vietnam for the United States.
Now they are using Iraq like they wanted to in Somolia.
AJ, you might have seen this but I found it very, VERY interesting.
I was watching Brit Hume’s show last night where Brian Wilson was sitting in for Brit. The panel had the usual, Fred Barnes, Mort Kondracke and Charles Krauthammer (sp?). They were discussing the Woodward testimony and the fact that Wilson wanted Woodward investigated.
Mort Kondracke (with whom I find myself disagreeing a lot) said
“someone needs to investigate Joe Wilson”.
I just about dropped my diet Coke into my lap. Wow! Someone finally said ON NATIONAL TV what we all have been thinking for a long time.
Is there an investigation in the air? Are we about to hear Joe Wilson singing the blues? Do you think someone is finally going to start digging into this creeps background, business and his “French” connections?
We could only be so lucky.
On the topic of Able Danger, I read that the radical Colorado professor Ward Churchill attended a Cynthia McKinney meeting about Able Danger in Washington D.C.
The fake Indian Ward Churchill is being investigated for plagiarism and other academic improprieties.
I wonder why is he so interested in Able Danger. Conference host Cynthia McKinney thinks Able Danger will prove that “Bush knew” about 9-11 and even had some complicity in it, while Churchill seems to suggest that Iraq [not Bush] was behind 9-11. When he wrote his article called “Some People Push Back,” he gave the impression that 9-11 was payback for our policies toward Iraq.
Now there is a blogger that may be Ward Churchill writing under a pseudonym. The language is very crude, and the topic is Ward Churchill and his critics. The style and suject matter sounds very much like Churchill.
The blogger, who calls himself “Morelock,” claims that Ward Churchill was even discussed on Air Force One. http://tryworks.blogspot.com/ [November 16, 2005]
The blogger writes:
[O]n Air Force One…According to Bob Beauprez, he, Bush and McCain had a long, concerned conversation about Churchill.
Very possibly this is a lie, I don’t know. You wouldn’t want to trust this site. Did anyone read a reputable report that Ward Churchill was discussed on Air Force One?