Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda not linked, Pentagon says

[Red Ketchup]

Surprise surprise...

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/alqaeda.saddam/

Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda not linked, Pentagon says

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military's first and only study looking into ties between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda showed no connection between the two, according to a military report released by the Pentagon.

The report released by the Joint Forces Command five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq said it found no "smoking gun" after reviewing about 600,000 Iraqi documents captured in the invasion and looking at interviews of key Iraqi leadership held by the United States, Pentagon officials said.

The assessment of the al Qaeda connection and the insistence that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were two primary elements in the Bush administration's arguments in favor of going to war with Iraq.

The Pentagon's report also contradicts then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who said in September 2002 that the CIA provided "bulletproof" evidence demonstrating "that there are, in fact, al Qaeda in Iraq."

Although other groups, like the September 11 commission, have concluded that there was no link between Hussein and al Qaeda, the Pentagon was able to analyze much more information.

The documents cited in the report do reveal that Hussein supported a number of terrorists and terrorist activities inside and outside Iraq.

"The Iraqi regime was involved in regional and international terrorist operations prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom. The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq," according to the report.

Most of the terrorism was aimed at keeping Hussein and his Baath party in power, according to Pentagon officials.

"State sponsorship of terrorism became such a routine tool of state power that Iraq developed elaborate bureaucratic processes to monitor progress and accountability in the recruiting, training and resourcing of terrorists," according to the report.

The report cited such examples as training for car bombs and suicide bombings in 1999 and 2000, both of which U.S. and Iraqi forces have struggled to contain since the rise of the insurgency in summer 2003.

[Red Ketchup]

Looks like someone didn't want you to know about it...


Pentagon Report on Saddam's Iraq Censored?

March 12, 2008 1:58 PM

ABC News' Jonathan Karl Reports: The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention. This morning, the Pentagon cancelled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release and will no longer make the report available online.

The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the authors. No more. The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.

It won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online.

Asked why the report would not be posted online and could not be emailed, the spokesman for Joint Forces Command said: "We're making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we'll send it out via CD in the mail."

Another Pentagon official said initial press reports on the study made it "too politically sensitive."

ABC News obtained the comprehensive military study of Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism on Tuesday. Read the report's executive summary HERE.

The study, which was due to be released Wednesday, found no "smoking gun" or any evidence of a direct connection between Saddam's Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist organization.

The report is based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion. It is also based on thousands of hours of interrogations of former top officials in Saddam's government who are now in U.S. custody.

Others have reached the same conclusion, but no previous study has had access to so much information. Further, this is the first official acknowledgement from the U.S. military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda.

The study does, however, show that Saddam Hussein did much to support terrorism in the Middle East and used terrorism "as a routine tool of state power." Saddam's government, for example, had a program for the "development, construction, certification and training for car bombs and suicide vests in 1999 and 2000." The U.S. military is still dealing with the fall-out from this particular program.

The report says Saddam's bureaucrats carefully recorded the regime's connections to Palestinian terrorists groups and its financial support for the families of suicide bombers.

The primary target, however, of Saddam's terror activities was not the United States, and not Israel. "The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq." Saddam's primary aim was self preservation and the elimination of potential internal threats to his power.

Bush administration officials have made numerous attempts to link Saddam Hussein and the Al Qaeda terror group in their justification for waging war against Iraq.

"What I want to bring to your attention today is the potentially much more sinister nexus between Iraq and the Al Qaida terrorist network," former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations February 5, 2003.

On June 18, 2004 the Washington Post quoted President George W. Bush as saying: "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda: because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," Bush said.

"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda," The Washington Post quoted Bush as saying. "We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda."

"We know he's out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons and we know that he has a long-standing relationship with various terrorist groups, including the al-Qaeda organization," Vice President Dick Cheney said on NBC's Meet The Press March 16, 2003.

"But the cost is far less than it will be if we get hit, for example, with a weapon that Saddam Hussein might provide to al-Qaeda, the cost to the United States of what happened on 9/11 with billions and billions of dollars and 3,000 lives. And the cost will be much greater in a future attack if the terrorists have access to the kinds of capabilities that Saddam Hussein has developed," Cheney said.

''There is no question but that there have been interactions between the Iraqi government, Iraqi officials and Al Qaeda operatives. They have occurred over a span of some 8 or 10 years to our knowledge. There are currently Al Qaeda in Iraq,'' former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a interview with Infinity CBS Radio, Nov. 14, 2002.

[Ranger32]

this is all bullshit! the media is a bunch of liberal midea horsecrap, i was in iraq for two ****ing years, terrorist come into iraq and bring the fight to us, they come from syrria, jordan, turkey, and yes Iraq. And Im not going to get into opsec or snything but i promse you there are cross workings with many terrorist organizations we are fighting in Iraq, and trust me also alqueda is one of them

[LawMan018]

this is all bullshit! the media is a bunch of liberal midea horsecrap, i was in iraq for two ****ing years, terrorist come into iraq and bring the fight to us, they come from syrria, jordan, turkey, and yes Iraq. And Im not going to get into opsec or snything but i promse you there are cross workings with many terrorist organizations we are fighting in Iraq, and trust me also alqueda is one of them

I commend you for your service to our country... But the terrorist bringing the fight "to you"? I believe we were the ones who crossed an ocean to invade a country of no strategic value.. But it did have a nice supply of oil by chance, lucky us. Also, the topic of this was how Hussein had connections to Al Qaeda... When we came in we ousted Hussein, therefore it may be reasonable that Al Qaeda is in Iraq now. However, before we "invaded" Iraq there was no (according to this document) Al Qaeda activity in Iraq, nor was Hussein working with them. So if you did come across Al Qaeda in Iraq Ranger32, then isn't it safe to say it is because of us that they are there?

[Red Ketchup]

this is all bullshit! the media is a bunch of liberal midea horsecrap

This is not mediatic bullshît, it's a REPORT FROM THE PENTAGON... you know, your BOSS! Did you even bother to read the story?

It clearly stated that the PENTAGON has come to the conclusion that while Saddam was in power, he had NO TIES with alqueda.

It doesn't say anything about the terrorists that swarmed in after he was removed from power by the US, we all know happened after... warloards and terrorists swarmed in to fill the power vaccum.

Red

[BITTAPART2]

they will deny deny deny bro, even when faced with the facts from the horses mouth they will still say it is a lie. Its easier that way. Plain and simple, we brought alqueda to IRAQ, they werent there before, there was more of a presence of alqueda in the US at the time Iraq was invaded. Terrorism wasnt an issue in Iraq until we invaded

[Prada]

Nothing new in this. Also where are the WMDs?

[soulstealer]

I think the most insane part about all of this hit me when I was perusing through some articles one day... and it stated that 3% of all enemy combatants in Iraq can be linked to terrorist organizations... the rest are Iraqi citizens trying to take back their country.....

[Panzerfaust]

this is all bullshit! the media is a bunch of liberal midea horsecrap, i was in iraq for two ****ing years, terrorist come into iraq and bring the fight to us, they come from syrria, jordan, turkey, and yes Iraq. And Im not going to get into opsec or snything but i promse you there are cross workings with many terrorist organizations we are fighting in Iraq, and trust me also alqueda is one of them

Of course they are coming in from all other Muslim related countries to fight off US forces.

It has only gotten 10x worse since the Bush Administration invaded and murdered the countries dictator, all under the farce that he was holding WMD's etc....

Of course they report now there were none there but they basically say this "That's ok that there were no links to Al Queda and no WMD's isn't it, I mean it is better now that he is gone" excuse. hahaha


Props to you for being a military man, just sucks that you have no choice in the matter. You go wherever the dipshits in charge tell you to go, so don't take this personal.

[BITTAPART2]

hats off to you for serving our country, unfortunatly you had to serve an idiot who was running this country. BTW i thought the Turks were there to thwart refugees from coming into Turkey? well I guess John Walker Lindhe was american so i guess you can say Americans are coming overseas to kill americans also.

[J431S]

Blame the invasion of Iraq on Ahmed Chalabi....he is the one who feed the United States with wrong intelligence. As u can see Iraqi didn't vote him but choose Al Malaki instead.

[Prada]

Blame the invasion of Iraq on Ahmed Chalabi....he is the one who feed the United States with wrong intelligence. As u can see Iraqi didn't vote him but choose Al Malaki instead.

He had his own ulterior motives but the US should not just blindly take the word of one person. Taking that decision is not Chalabi's fault but the US "intelligence". Its for them to verify the authenticity and credibility.

[J431S]

who are u, his lawyer? ...chalabi was the credible authentic source of intelligence information to the u.s at the time. if u are not convince, from whom do u expect the u.s should have verified their info?

[BgMc31]

this is all bullshit! the media is a bunch of liberal midea horsecrap, i was in iraq for two ****ing years, terrorist come into iraq and bring the fight to us, they come from syrria, jordan, turkey, and yes Iraq. And Im not going to get into opsec or snything but i promse you there are cross workings with many terrorist organizations we are fighting in Iraq, and trust me also alqueda is one of them

Ranger, don't fall for the republican concept that any criticism of the war is an attack on you who have served. There is no one in this country (except for that far right group that protests at soldiers funerals) that doesn't honor and respect what you and your comrades have done. Believe it or not, even that cats in the hood admire your service.

Anyway, I don't really understand the purpose of this study. There are people who believe that Saddam was linked to Al Queda and there is no changing their mind. As a matter of fact, on talk show host used this report to spin the fact that Saddam was working with terrorist groups and the fact that he was willing to work with terror groups proves he "could/would have" worked with Al Queda thus justifying the invasion.

The fact remains, what do we do now. Dems want to just pull rather quickly while the Reps want to stay until victory is achieved but cannot define 'victory'.

[J431S]

Ranger, don't fall for the republican concept that any criticism of the war is an attack on you who have served. There is no one in this country (except for that far right group that protests at soldiers funerals) that doesn't honor and respect what you and your comrades have done. Believe it or not, even that cats in the hood admire your service.

Anyway, I don't really understand the purpose of this study. There are people who believe that Saddam was linked to Al Queda and there is no changing their mind. As a matter of fact, on talk show host used this report to spin the fact that Saddam was working with terrorist groups and the fact that he was willing to work with terror groups proves he "could/would have" worked with Al Queda thus justifying the invasion.

The fact remains, what do we do now. Dems want to just pull rather quickly while the Reps want to stay until victory is achieved but cannot define 'victory'.

what's troubling ...knowing what we know now... how come no one seem to bother to in bandwagon to impeach bush but kicinich?