Saddam’s link to Palestinian terrorism is well known. Cite. Is this the killer link between Saddam and Al Qaeda?
Off hand I’d say no. At least not from the conclusions drawn by the article. I must admit that when the article referenced the already proved bogus Niger/Uranium claim as an actual event, I went no further.
If all of the super-secret documents the Telegraph -and only the Telegraph- gets their hands on were killer links, they would long be the only newspaper of any reputation in the UK by now.
Unfortunately, most of the time, these super-secret documents turn out to be wishful thinking ignored by practically anyone else.
Too early to tell. And by itself, even if its totally authentic, its not enough to be a ‘killer link’ IMO.
-XT
On the subject of the first article. Is NewsMax a source that is generally accepted here as reputable?
On the subject of the second article. It tries hard to make a link between Abu Nidal and Atta over the objection of the FBI, CIA, the Check security agency and MI6. Its sources are papers found and freely interpreted by nameless Iraqi officials. The link between Abu Nidal and SH is then tenous at best.
Neither article cuts it for me. Color me unimpressed.
I read that Telegraph link a few days ago and posted it here, but with a *heavy caveat around it. There have been tons of these ‘smoking guns’ that turned out to be shooting blanks.
A couple of things interesting to note, however: First, is that this document comes by way of the Iraqi Governing Council, and they are saying it’s authentic. That raises the stakes a bit, because if it’s not authentic it’s a forgery (as opposed to being just mistaken intelligence). The other interesting thing is that it names names, and not just shadowy figures. That also raises the stakes, assuming the intelligence officer involved is still alive. So this document bears watching.
IF it turns out to be authentic, then yes this would be a smoking gun. A document written to Saddam saying that Mohammed Atta is well trained and ‘ready to destroy the targets we have chosen’? How much more pat can you get?
This, of course, makes the document even more suspicious. Rarely do you find documents that confirm such events this well.
Well, if Sam isn’t having any…
Well, yes, but rarely do you launch an investigation into terrorism which includes vompletely overthrowing 2 governemnts. I’m not sure how careful SH would have been with memos he though were only being seen by confidants.
The link does appear “too good to believe”, however.
Let’s wait and see. A lot of folks are gonna be jumping at every “HERE’S THE LINK!” report that comes down the pike, just as there were a lot of premature ejaculations about initial WMD “findings” in the weeks just after the Five-Minute War.
It’s going to be tough to verify something like this. Just imagine:
Not important how we found it?
Riiiiight.
And there, once again, the discredited Niger nuclear shipment.
I do wonder where those officials in the interim government are getting those bits of “info”. Probably from the same sources that gave us this war in the first place?
Until other sources, than the Telegraph, do appear, I will not think this is even interesting. The Telegraph also does have a history of getting deceived (?) in Iraq before:
I believe Dr Ahmad Chalabi is currently an Iraqi official. Such vagueness detracts from the story’s credibility when there are known liars amongst the cited group.
Any report of a link has some value as news. Intelligence agencies are the pros whe it comes to evaluating reports of links. If the CIA gets their panties in a wad over a report, then the report prob’ly holds water. Fishing around for reports w/o sufficient concern for the quality of vetting the info receives is what was used to sell the war.
FWIW, the State Dept has a list of Iraq’s terrorist ties
http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2000/2441.htm
Iraq
Iraq planned and sponsored international terrorism in 2000. Although Baghdad focused on antidissident activity overseas, the regime continued to support various terrorist groups. The regime has not attempted an anti-Western terrorist attack since its failed plot to assassinate former President Bush in 1993 in Kuwait.
Czech police continued to provide protection to the Prague office of the US Government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which produces Radio Free Iraq programs and employs expatriate journalists. The police presence was augmented in 1999, following reports that the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) might retaliate against RFE/RL for broadcasts critical of the Iraqi regime.
To intimidate or silence Iraqi opponents of the regime living overseas, the IIS reportedly opened several new stations in foreign capitals during 2000. Various opposition groups joined in warning Iraqi dissidents abroad against newly established “expatriates’ associations,” which, they asserted, are IIS front organizations. Opposition leaders in London contended that the IIS had dispatched women agents to infiltrate their ranks and was targeting dissidents for assassination. In Germany, an Iraqi opposition figure denounced the IIS for murdering his son, who had recently left Iraq to join him abroad. Dr. Ayad `Allawi, Secretary General of the Iraqi National Accord, an opposition group, stated that relatives of dissidents living abroad are often arrested and jailed to intimidate activists overseas.
In northern Iraq, Iraqi agents reportedly killed a locally well-known religious personality who declined to echo the regime line. The regional security director in As Sulaymaniyah stated that Iraqi operatives were responsible for the car-bomb explosion that injured a score of passersby. Officials of the Iraqi Communist Party asserted that an attack on a provincial party headquarters had been thwarted when party security officers shot and wounded a terrorist employed by the IIS.
Baghdad continued to denounce and delegitimize UN personnel working in Iraq, particularly UN de-mining teams, in the wake of the killing in 1999 of an expatriate UN de-mining worker in northern Iraq under circumstances suggesting regime involvement. An Iraqi who opened fire at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) office in Baghdad, killing two persons and wounding six, was permitted to hold a heavily publicized press conference at which he contended that his action had been motivated by the harshness of UN sanctions, which the regime regularly excoriates.
The Iraqi regime rebuffed a request from Riyadh for the extradition of two Saudis who had hijacked a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight to Baghdad, but did return promptly the passengers and the aircraft. Disregarding its obligations under international law, the regime granted political asylum to the hijackers and gave them ample opportunity to ventilate in the Iraqi Government-controlled and international media their criticisms of alleged abuses by the Saudi Arabian Government, echoing an Iraqi propaganda theme.
While the origins of the FAO attack and the hijacking were unclear, the Iraqi regime readily exploited these terrorist acts to further its policy objectives.
Several expatriate terrorist groups continued to maintain offices in Baghdad, including the Arab Liberation Front, the inactive 15 May Organization, the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), and the Abu Nidal organization (ANO). PLF leader Abu `Abbas appeared on state-controlled television in the fall to praise Iraq’s leadership in rallying Arab opposition to Israeli violence against Palestinians. The ANO threatened to attack Austrian interests unless several million dollars in a frozen ANO account in a Vienna bank were turned over to the group.
The Iraq-supported Iranian terrorist group, Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), regularly claimed responsibility for armed incursions into Iran that targeted police and military outposts, as well as for mortar and bomb attacks on security organization headquarters in various Iranian cities. MEK publicists reported that in March group members killed an Iranian colonel having intelligence responsibilities. An MEK claim to have wounded a general was denied by the Iranian Government. The Iraqi regime deployed MEK forces against its domestic opponents.
Only if you’re the kind of person who wears tinfoil hats to block the homosexual-inducing mind-control beams beaming out of your TV set from the secret lesbian Hollywood liberal media cabal. 
The “killer” link is being killed:
http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3741646&p1=0
Coughlin, you ignorant media slut! The job of a journalist is to verify before reporting something, what you just described is in reality what a propagandist does!
Of course, as I see how many were mislead by that tale, I don’t know what is sadder: the right wing media behavior or the behavior of the ones who believed on it, when they continue to trust those same sources.
Oh yeah, William Safire also showed once again what a tool he is!
Damn! Just another case of coitus interruptus while reading republican porn!
Aww, shoot. I was just about to turn in my Liberal Card.
Don’t put it back in your wallet just yet.
This could be the real thing: Iraq laboratories hidden: Blair
It certainly appears all smokey and gun-like.
keep looking…
I think Blair is learning the misleading tactics of Dubya.
What he is saying is based in old information, we already know that Saddam had them before, all the evidence found so far still points to the weapons being disposed at the end of gulf war 1, the possible presence of programs (it remains a good bet) still shoots down that “attack in 45 minutes” lie.