# Are You SURE There's No Iraq- al Qaida Connection? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 20, 2003, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-theres-no-iraq-al-qaida-connection/183071 "2003-06-20T02:58:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-theres-no-iraq-al-qaida-connection/183071/21 "2003-06-21T01:03:25Z")
**Simon** , check out that paragon of knee-pad journalism, Mr. Woodwards _Bush at War_. He quotes just that, and it was never denied. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-theres-no-iraq-al-qaida-connection/183071/22 "2003-06-21T07:43:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mangeorge \* > But this difference in ideology is so wide that Bin Laden appearantly sees Saddam and Bush in the same light - as infidels. Yup. IIRC, during the first Persian Gulf War, Bin Laden even went to the Saudi Arabian government and offered to help them by siccing _al Qaeda_ against Saddam. The Saudis said “thanks, gut no thanks” because they didn’t want to associate with the nutjob. Which is why I find the “Saddam and bin Laden were working together” theories to be laughably ludicrous. > [@](#): > > I don’t think he sees degrees of islam, does he? Not really. In this regard, Bin Laden has more in common with Jerry Falwell than he does with Saddam Hussein. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-theres-no-iraq-al-qaida-connection/183071/23 "2003-06-21T13:56:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > **Yup. IIRC, during the first Persian Gulf War, Bin Laden even went to the Saudi Arabian government and offered to help them by siccing _al Qaeda_ against Saddam. The Saudis said “thanks, gut no thanks” because they didn’t want to associate with the nutjob. Which is why I find the “Saddam and bin Laden were working together” theories to be laughably ludicrous.** I remember reading this somewhere too. I can’t remember where to look up the cite though. What do you remember about the source of this info? ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-theres-no-iraq-al-qaida-connection/183071/24 "2003-06-21T22:18:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Apos \* > \*\*One administration after another refuses to have any substantive intelligence oversight or fact finding. Truly stupid to let politics drive intelligence. > > [Recent FAIR report notes that on June 15, 2003, we got this odd bit of news on Meet the Press, which was never picked up:](http://www.msnbc.com/news/927000.asp) > > And of course, the [cbs report on Sept 4. 2002](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/04/september11/main520830.shtml) that noted: \*\* I added the links all by myself. The 1st one’s from msnbc and the secon is from cbsnews ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-theres-no-iraq-al-qaida-connection/183071/25 "2003-06-22T16:11:17Z")
Has anyone heard anything that would tie aQ into the[Salman Pak site](http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/facility/salman_pak.htm)? ---
**Author:** ![Tee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@Tee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tee)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2003, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-theres-no-iraq-al-qaida-connection/183071/26 "2003-06-22T17:07:53Z")
I haven’t seen a link made between al-Q itself and Salman Pak. Iraq acknowledged its presence and said it was an anti-terror training camp. Ex-Iraqi intelligence guys (defectors) say Islamic terrorists trained there in rotating groups. I’ve never seen anyone or any group named specifically though. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-theres-no-iraq-al-qaida-connection/183071/27 "2003-06-23T05:22:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SimonX \* > I remember reading this somewhere too. I can’t remember where to look up the cite though. What do you remember about the source of this info? I don’t know if there’s a single source for this factoid; it seems to be generally accepted by folks as something that happened and is widely known. A quick Google search for “bin Laden”, “Saudi Arabia”, “aid”, and “Kuwait” turns up numerous pages that repeat the same claim, such as [this one.](http://www.politicsol.com/terrorism/osama_bin_laden_who_is.html) ---
**Author:** ![Eolbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@Eolbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eolbo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-theres-no-iraq-al-qaida-connection/183071/28 "2003-06-23T06:53:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SimonX \* > \*\*Has anyone heard anything that would tie aQ into the[Salman Pak site](http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/facility/salman_pak.htm)? \*\* Re Salman Pak: From Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker piece: "In separate interviews with me, however, a former C.I.A. station chief and a former military intelligence analyst said that the camp near Salman Pak had been built not for terrorism training but for counter-terrorism training. In the mid-eighties, Islamic terrorists were routinely hijacking aircraft. In 1986, an Iraqi airliner was seized by pro-Iranian extremists and crashed, after a hand grenade was triggered, killing at least sixty-five people. (At the time, Iran and Iraq were at war, and America favored Iraq.) Iraq then sought assistance from the West, and got what it wanted from Britain’s MI6. The C.I.A. offered similar training in counter-terrorism throughout the Middle East. “We were helping our allies everywhere we had a liaison,” the former station chief told me. Inspectors recalled seeing the body of an airplane—which appeared to be used for counter-terrorism training—when they visited a biological-weapons facility near Salman Pak in 1991, ten years before September 11th. It is, of course, possible for such a camp to be converted from one purpose to another. The former C.I.A. official noted, however, that terrorists would not practice on airplanes in the open. “That’s Hollywood rinky-dink stuff,” the former agent said. “They train in basements. You don’t need a real airplane to practice hijacking. The 9/11 terrorists went to gyms. But to take one back you have to practice on the real thing.” “Salman Pak was overrun by American troops on April 6th. Apparently, neither the camp nor the former biological facility has yielded evidence to substantiate the claims made before the war.” Copy of article is found here: [http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0506-06.htm](http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0506-06.htm) ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-theres-no-iraq-al-qaida-connection/183071/29 "2003-06-23T11:13:25Z")
thanX **rjung**. thanX **eolbo** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-theres-no-iraq-al-qaida-connection/183071.md?page=1)