.
The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes consulted 11 federal officials before concluding that documents U.S. troops captured in Iraq prove that "the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion."
Hayes reports, "Secret training took place primarily at three camps - in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak - and was directed by elite Iraqi military units." Al-Qaida-affiliated fanatics, such as Algeria's GSPC and the Sudanese Islamic Army, were among the 8,000 or so murderers instructed between 1999 and 2002.
Handwritten notes, computer discs and other "exploitable items" confirm Saddam's philanthropy of terror, Hayes says. But America has translated only some 2.5 percent of this huge cache. Federal officials barely discuss what they have learned. Even unclassified papers remain unavailable. Absurd.
Having studied some of these artifacts, one intelligence expert says: "As much as we overestimated WMD (weapons of mass destruction), it appears we underestimated (Saddam's) support for transregional terrorists."
1
Why is Hayes the only guy working this beat? You'd think that with the treasure trove of documents found in Iraq, someone would want to go through 'em just to see what the heck was going on.
It appears that there's been a collective cluster%$@^ to make sure that no one knows anything...
And that could be intentional because the documents might be extremely damaging to our 'allies' and diplomatic efforts - especially if it came to light that certain individuals and countries were on the Saddam dole, that Saddam was a nexus of the terrorism business, etc.
Or it could be nothing of the kind. Or somewhere in the middle. We have no way of knowing.
Posted by: lawhawk at January 13, 2006 02:33 PM (eppTH)
2
A little logic here, people:
If this were in fact true, the Bush administration - which touted alleged terrorist ties as the #2 (sometimes even #1) reason for invading Iraq - would be shouting this from the rooftops; they'd call a surprise interrupt-all-regular-programming press conference, if that's what it took. But have they? No. So this story is yet another phony. QED.
It's public knowledge that there were terrorist training camps in Irag, but they were in the Kurdish region, which Saddam DID NOT CONTROL; Hayes is simply switching city names to try and create another false meme
in a transparent attempt to shore up the neocon's thoroughly-discredited claims.
SR
Posted by: SergeiRostov at January 13, 2006 02:33 PM (7gIjC)
3
Weekly standard:Speaking of Ansar al Islam, the al Qaeda-linked terrorist group that operated in northern Iraq, the former high-ranking military intelligence officer says: "There is no question about the fact that AI had reach into Baghdad. There was an intelligence connection between that group and the regime, a financial connection between that group and the regime, and there was an equipment connection. It may have been the case that the IIS [Iraqi Intelligence Service] support for AI was meant to operate against the [anti-Saddam] Kurds. But there is no question IIS was supporting AI."
There are some areas of Iraqi Kurdistan that are not really in control of Bahgdad or the Kurds. A no mans land if you will. (Eastern area Kurd power is greater in the far northwest of Iraq) Zarqawi is not with the Kurds now. All they have in common really are that they are Sunni. Plus there are reports that old pegleg got his new leg in Bahgdad and was in Bahgdad when he first arrived in Iraq.
Posted by: Howie at January 13, 2006 02:49 PM (D3+20)
4
Unlike SergeiRostov says, Salman Pak was a known terrorist training camp before the invasion and it is not far from Baghdad (hardly Kurdish territory). Some of the "trainees" were still there and engaged arriving American troops. I saw a report on it from the embedded reporter at the time and know one of the participants (who told me about it when he came back). Time or Newsweek even had a sat photo of Salman Pak before the war.
Posted by: Don Miguel at January 13, 2006 03:15 PM (+KixN)
5
Sergei, in case you haven't noticed, Bush is about actions, not words. If you want words, tune in to the dhimmicraps, they've got nothing but.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximusi at January 15, 2006 01:51 AM (0yYS2)
6
Not only all that, but Salman Pak was originally a plant for producing chemicals for warfare and "bad viruses" throughout the 80's and until '91. And guess who built part of it and gave the Iraqis the necessary support, air filters, refrigeration, etc. for maintaining it ....
The Germans.
It wasn't until after the Gulf War that it was transformed into a training camp (around '95) And perhaps Sergei would like to explain to us how Saddam didn't know anything about terror training as at the SE entrance to Salman Pak he had an opulent villa built to stay in while he visited.
Posted by: Oyster at January 15, 2006 05:58 AM (YudAC)
7
also I failed to note that the Kurds are of two factiosn and fight each other as well. So each side would seek and be sought out by Saddam for support. I'm sure he would have chosed one over the other.
Posted by: Howie at January 15, 2006 10:07 AM (D3+20)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
