Thursday, May 26, 2005
Saddam and Al Qaeda
The MSM and Democrats have long asserted as a matter of faith that Saddam Hussein had no ties with Al Qaeda. They attacked as ignorant anyone who challenged this article of faith. Now Premier Allawi has released information taken from the archives of the Iraqi secret police that indicates connections between Saddam's regime and Al Qaeda. A report indicates that
The number two of the al-Qaeda network, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited Iraq under a false name in September 1999 to take part in the ninth Popular Islamic Congress, former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi has revealed to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. In an interview, Allawi made public
information discovered by the Iraqi secret service in the archives of the Saddam
Hussein regime, which sheds light on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and
the Islamic terrorist network. He also said that both al-Zawahiri and Jordanian
militant al-Zarqawi probably entered Iraq in the same period.Zawahiri was summoned by Izza Ibrahim Al-Douri – then deputy head of the council of the
leadership of the revolution - to take part in the congress, along with some 150 other Islamic figures from 50 Muslim countries," Allawi said.According to Allawi, important information has been gathered regarding the presence of
another key terrorist figure operating in Iraq - the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."The Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi entered Iraq secretly in the same period," Allawi affirmed, "and began to form a terrorist cell, even though the Iraqi services do not have precise information on his entry into the country," he said.
It will be interesting to see how much of this will be verified in the coming months. I assume that every day, more documents from the Iraqi secret service, which is said to have kept meticulous records, are being reviewed and translated. There is no doubt about Saddam's support for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, as we have noted many times; the question is one of degree. It
seems likely that the American left's hysterical insistence that Saddam had nothing to do with terrorist groups like al Qaeda will look very silly one day.
It will also be interesting to see how much of this will be reported in the New York Times and other MSM.
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# posted by Thomas A. Becket : 8:26 AM
