Saddam's Philippines Terror Connection(Yes, Saddam financially supported terrorists)

Weekly Standard ^ | 03/18/2006 | Stephen F. Hayes

[KCRW]

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support--temporarily, it seems--after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group.

The fax comes from the vast collection of documents recovered in postwar Afghanistan and Iraq. Up to this point, those materials have been kept from the American public. Now the proverbial dam has broken. On March 16, the U.S. government posted on the web 9 documents captured in Iraq, as well as 28 al Qaeda documents that had been released in February. Earlier last week, Foreign Affairs magazine published a lengthy article based on a review of 700 Iraqi documents by analysts with the Institute for Defense Analysis and the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia. Plans for the release of many more documents have been announced. And if the contents of the recently released materials and other documents obtained by The Weekly Standard are any indication, the discussion of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq is about to get more interesting.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[xzins]

I've got link after link of confirming information from before these documents were released.

These documents are among those that have been found since the takeover of Iraq. My guess is that there is the stated reason and an unstated reason why they've been slow to release them.

For the record, they've said that translation is slow and there are millions of pages. That's true to a degree, and especially if someone insists on perfect translations.

Off the record, my bet is that they had to have some means of going over these for any information about chemical, nuclear, or biological LOCATIONS before they released them. It wouldn't help to let insurgents have access to documents detailing the location(s) of nuke, bio, or chemicals that had been hidden.

[Nancie Drew]

Thanks for your information. Are you thinking the blank pages are just that and not redactions? I haven't researched the information about the release of the documents so I just assumed there were heavy redactions.

Also, I had never considered Terry Nichols a convert to Islam, so I am not sure why they used those words. No one really ever talked about him having any kind of religion until his jail house conversion to Christianity.

Thanks again for everything.

[shield]

Very interesting ;o)

[P-40]

U.S. authorities later discovered that after the Boca Raton plant began operations in September 1989, a number of barrels of sodium cyanide were diverted from the plant. Seven barrels of the sodium cyanide – used to make hydrogen cyanide gas – were trucked from Florida to Houston, where Barbouti had a corporate headquarters for his U.S. operations. The seven barrels were then taken to Baltimore where they were shipped as the “personal effects” of a diplomat at the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, D.C. to the port of Aqaba, Jordan. From there, the cyanide was taken overland to Iraq. Other barrels of the sodium cyanide from the Boca Raton plant simply disappeared.

I remember that from years ago.....strange days indeed.

[Nancie Drew]

Your excellent analysis is going to someone who does speak Arabic. Thanks again for all your help. There are some interesting things in these notes. Maybe someone is trying to help get the word out and is steering key people to the needle in the haystack.

[fso301]

Are you thinking the blank pages are just that and not redactions?

They looked like blank pages to me. Where pages had writing on them, the writing was handwritten and could have been compressed considerably. By not including the drawings and doodling, even greater levels of compression could have been achieved.

A couple of pages showed evidence of an eraser having been used. I do wonder what might have been on those few pages and who did the erasing.

[Nancie Drew]

The new government way to redact pencil marks - erase it:)

[piasa]

interesting article bump

[Paleo Conservative]

I wonder if after the plot to bomb planes going from the UK to the US the public will pay attention?