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Ex-Officials Dispute Iraq Tie to al-Qaida

by C/O Diogenes Sunday, Jul. 13, 2003 at 7:40 PM

``There was no significant pattern of cooperation between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist operation,'' former State Department intelligence official Greg Thielmann said this week.

Ex-Officials Dispute Iraq Tie to al-Qaida

By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP)--As President Bush works to quiet a controversy over his discredited claim of Iraqi uranium shopping in Africa, another of his prewar assertions is coming under fire: the alleged link between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaida.

Before the war, Bush and members of his cabinet said Saddam was harboring top al-Qaida operatives and suggested Iraq could slip the terrorist network chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons. Now, two former Bush administration intelligence officials say the evidence linking Saddam to the group responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was never more than sketchy at best.

``There was no significant pattern of cooperation between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist operation,'' former State Department intelligence official Greg Thielmann said this week.

Intelligence agencies agreed on the ``lack of a meaningful connection to al-Qaida'' and said so to the White House and Congress, said Thielmann, who left State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research last September.

Another former Bush administration intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, agreed there was no clear link between Saddam and al-Qaida.

``The relationships that were plotted were episodic, not continuous,'' the former official said.

Critics attacked the Bush administration assertions from the beginning for being counter to the ideologies of Saddam and al-Qaida and short on corroborating evidence.

A United Nations terrorism committee says it has no evidence _ other than Secretary of State Colin Powell's assertions in his Feb. 5 U.N. speech--of any ties between al-Qaida and Iraq.

And U.S. officials say American forces searching in Iraq have found no significant evidence tying Saddam's regime with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

``One of the things that concerns me is the continued reference to the war in Iraq as part of the war on terrorism. There's not much evidence to support that linkage,'' said Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee and a presidential candidate.

In the weeks and months before the war, Bush and administration officials repeatedly said Saddam had ties to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups which could provide a pathway for weapons of mass destruction to find their way to terrorists. U.S. forces have not found any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Iraq so far.

``Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaida,'' Bush said in his January State of the Union speech.

``Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own,'' Bush said.

At the time, many terrorism experts criticized the claim. They noted that Saddam's secular regime was just the kind of Arab government bin Laden's Islamic extremists want to replace. Critics also pointed out the lack of hard evidence of links between Saddam and bin Laden.

The administration's case apparently was persuasive. In a poll conducted last month by Knowledge Networks, 52 percent of those questioned said they thought the United States found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam was working closely with al-Qaida--although no such evidence has been found.

``You see the polls--lots of Americans believe that there was a link between Iraq and al-Qaida despite the lack of intelligence evidence on that score,'' said Gregory Treverton, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council under President Clinton.

The administration's key evidence of a link was an operative named Abu Musab Zarqawi, who got medical care in Baghdad in May 2002 after being wounded in Afghanistan. In his Feb. 5 presentation to the United Nations, Powell called Zarqawi ``an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida lieutenants.''

Current and former intelligence officials now say Zarqawi's links to al-Qaida are more tenuous--the CIA now says Zarqawi considers himself independent of al-Qaida, for example. And while Zarqawi spent time in Iraq, it's unclear whether Saddam's regime simply allowed him to be there or actively tried to work with him.

``There was scant evidence there had been any other contacts between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden,'' Graham said in an interview Friday.

U.S. officials say a handful of suspected al-Qaida members have been captured in Iraq, but most are probably low-level operatives. The biggest catch was a man described as a midlevel terrorist operative who worked for Zarqawi, who was nabbed in April near Baghdad.

Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief, said last week it's still unclear how much support Zarqawi and his followers got from Saddam.

``That he (Saddam) was promoting al-Qaida is absurd,'' Cannistraro said. ``That there was a tolerance for a Zarqawi network in Iraq seems clear.''

High-level captives from both al-Qaida and Saddam's regime also have denied any links between the two, U.S. officials say. They say al-Qaida leaders Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubayda denied their network worked with the former Iraqi government.

Farouk Hijazi, a former Iraqi intelligence operative who U.S. officials allege met with al-Qaida operatives and perhaps bin Laden himself in the 1990s, also has denied any Iraq-al-Qaida ties, officials say.

___


Associated Press writer John J. Lumpkin contributed to this report.


AP-NY-07-12-03 1243EDT
Copyright 2003, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.


 
 

 
Find this article at:
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/coxnet/iraq/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V8988.AP-Bush-Iraq-al-Qa.html
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Let's see...

by Diogenes Sunday, Jul. 13, 2003 at 7:42 PM

...first the Niger Uranium Story proves to be bogus. Now, the Al Qaeda Link turns out to be bogus.

Gosh.

I wonder if Bush lied?
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yes...

by Sheepdog Sunday, Jul. 13, 2003 at 8:02 PM

I would think that most of the ones who had serious doubts were on this board trying to pound some sense into their ( lord who were they-
it seemed that every young enlistee was posting about how they were
going to kick some but and ' come back in a couple weeks' cause them terrorists were threatening us with nuclear etc....) bone heads.
You can bet we got some pissed off joes. I think that Bush Admirer
(sorry IMC gotta borrow him for awhile) sould provide stand up USO
lectures there. About how great our pResident is.
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I am sure that BA...

by Diogenes Monday, Jul. 14, 2003 at 12:22 PM

...is serenely oblivious of the truth.
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"Few Palestinians want their old homes now in Israel"

by The Independent UK Monday, Jul. 14, 2003 at 1:00 PM

Mob attacks researchers who found few Palestinians want their old homes now in Israel

By Eric Silver in Jerusalem
14 July 2003

A mob of about 100 Palestinian refugees stormed the office of a Ramallah polling organisation yesterday to stop it publishing a survey showing that five times as many refugees would prefer to settle permanently in a Palestinian state than return to their old homes in what is now Israel.

The protesters pelted Khalil Shikaki, the director of the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, with eggs, smashed computers and assaulted the nine staff members on duty. A female worker was treated in hospital for her injuries. "This is a message for everyone not to tamper with our rights," one of the rioters said.

Dr Shikaki, a leading West Bank political scientist, was undeterred. He said he was still putting the survey results on the centre's website and seeking the widest possible exposure. "These people," he said, "had no idea what the results were. They were sold disinformation."

The poll, conducted among 4,500 refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Jordan, was the first to ask where they would want to live if Israel recognised a right of return.

Only 10 per cent of the refugees chose Israel, even if they were allowed to live there with Palestinian citizenship; 54 per cent opted for the Palestinian state; 17 per cent for Jordan or Lebanon, and 2 per cent for other countries. Another 13 per cent rejected all these options, preferring to sit it out and wait for Israel to disappear, while 2 per cent didn't know.

The future of more than three million refugees is critical to any lasting peace. It was one of the unresolved issues that caused the July 2000 Camp David summit to break down.

• The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad warned yesterday they would end a truce announced last month if the Palestinian Authority continued to try to disarm them.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=424237

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Alleged Al Qaeda Group Says Behind Iraq Attacks

by Reuters Monday, Jul. 14, 2003 at 1:03 PM

Alleged Al Qaeda Group Says Behind Iraq Attacks

DUBAI (Reuters) - A group claiming to be linked to the al Qaeda network said in an audio tape aired on an Arab television station on Sunday that they and not the followers of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) were behind attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq (news - web sites).

"I swear by God no one from his (Saddam Hussein) followers carried out any jihad operations like he claims...they (attacks) are a result of our brothers in jihad," said the unidentified voice on the tape which was broadcast by Dubai-based Al Arabiya television.

The voice on the tape, which Arabiya aired along with a photograph of an unidentified white-bearded man wearing a turban, also warned of a new anti-U.S. attack in the days to come which would "break the back of America completely."

It was not clear if he was referring to an attack in Iraq or somewhere else.

The voice said the "Armed Islamic Movement for Al Qaeda, the Falluja Branch," a previously unheard of name, was behind the attacks and that its members were dispersed all over Iraq.

U.S. forces, who largely blame die-hard Saddam loyalists for the attacks which have killed 31 U.S. soldiers since May 1 -- have come under frequent fire in the Iraqi town of Falluja and other mainly Sunni Muslim town north and west of Baghdad Saddam's ousting in April.

Earlier this month, an audio tape said to be made by Saddam urged Iraqis to fight the U.S.-British occupation of the Arab country and warned Americans of more bloodshed to come.

Calling on U.S. forces to leave Iraq, the voice on the tape warned that "the end of America will be at the hands of Islam."

The voice prayed to God, "to grant success to our brothers who are dispersed in Iraq's governorates and in the countries of the world, (particularly) Sheikh Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and Mullah Omar."

He ended the recording by stating the date July 10, 2003.

Earlier taped messages from Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden have been seen as signs of impending attacks. Mullah Omar, who headed Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s Taliban government that harboured al Qaeda slipped away during a U.S.-led war on Afghanistan.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030713/ts_nm/iraq_qaeda_attacks_dc_2
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