Saddam/Al-Queda Meme Struggles Onward

A senior Iraqi intelligence officer reportedly made three visits to Sudan, finally meeting Bin Laden in 1994. Bin Laden is said to have requested space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded. There have been reports that contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda also occurred after Bin Laden returned to Afghanistan, but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship. Two senior Bin Laden associates have adamantly denied that any ties existed between Al Qaeda and Iraq.

Coverage over at Talking Points Memo


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5 responses to “Saddam/Al-Queda Meme Struggles Onward”

  1. Tim Z. Avatar

    It’s important for the administration to have voters make some subliminable connection between 9/11 and Iraq even if Bush claims that he never actually said that Saddam and Osama were in cahoots.
    14 months after we entered Baghdad, no weapons of mass destruction have been found. So that reason for the war doesn’t hold water. And since Iraqis have been tortured by Americans at Abu Ghraib, it no longer sounds convincing that we went into Iraq to spread human rights. So a 9/11 link, even a remote and imperfect one, is the only way Bush-Cheney can justify the invasion.

    A current senior official in the US intelligence community has written a book to be published in a few weeks called, “Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror”. Among other things, the Christian Science Monitor reports this bombshell :
    This senior intelligence official, who writes as ‘Anonymous,’ also says that Osama bin Laden may attack the US before the November election to ensure the re-election of President George Bush.”
    Anonymous, who published an analysis of Al Qaeda last year, called Through Our Enemies’ Eyes, thinks it quite possible that another devastating strike against the US could come during the election campaign, not with the intention of changing the administration, as was the case in the Madrid bombing, but of keeping the same one in place. “I’m very sure they can’t have a better administration for them than the one they have now,” he said. “One way to keep the Republicans in power is to mount an attack that would rally the country around the president.”

  2. andrew, l. Avatar
    andrew, l.

    Terrorist movements, no matter how atrocious, cannot prevail against democracies. The adoption of terrorism by a political or religious movement is an admission of failure and weakness. The only effective response (albeit a long, painful and difficult one) is effective vigilence combined with a reinforced commitment to democracy, justice and the rights of the individual (all individuals).

    Regarding western war aims in Iraq, it was obviously about securing an alternative oil supply since it is clear that the Saudi monarchy is dying and will soon go the way of the former Shah of Iran. In exchange for taking Iraqi oil the west wants to give them a western-style liberal democracy, which is presumably how George Bush and Tony Blair will attempt to justify the action over the longer term. The attempt to mask their war aims by making a link between the Saddam regime and al-Qaeda was a political gamble that seems to have failed.

  3. Derrick Samson Avatar
    Derrick Samson

    What difference does it make to me, an evil conservative, whether there’s a connection between Saddam and Osama? None. Both declared the US an enemy, ‘Sama thru a direct attack and Saddam by threatening world stability and refusing to cooperate with international law. Did the US need a picture of Tojo shaking hands with Hitler before springing into action? The Middle East in its present incarnation is a defective civilization. The murderous cult that is Islam will be stopped.

  4. andrew, l. Avatar
    andrew, l.

    “Did the US need a picture of Tojo shaking hands with Hitler before springing into action?”

    The US didn’t “spring into action”. The Japanese unilaterally attacked America at Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941. Germany declared war on America 11th December 1941. Roosevelt’s policy proved, in the long run, to be the correct course.

  5. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    western-style liberal democracy

    Don’t you think we’d rather install a puppet dictator a la Pinochet? We jaw about human rights but I think really the administration (any administration) would rather have control than democracy. I think it’s a smokescreen.

    Iraq was never an imminent threat, it was never an immediate threat – there was no reason that we had to attack immediately and not let diplomacy follow it’s course – and not just go it alone like a bunch of asshole cowboys. I think everyone can agree that whether or not the war was justified – the planning was for shit. Or I’ll say the planning for the war was fine but the planning for the post-war transition/occupation/reconstruction was a clusterfuck.

    The murderous cult that is Islam will be stopped.

    Christ – here we go again.