Posted on 06/13/2006 1:09:42 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan
A newly released document from Iraq demonstrates a relationship between former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and terrorist groups – including the Islamic-based Taliban, which harbored al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
The document, posted by the Pentagon's Foreign Military Studies Office, indicates that in 1999 the Taliban invited Iraqi officials to Afghanistan, Fox News reports.
While some intelligence analysts have insisted Saddam's secular regime would not have collaborated with radical Muslim groups, the document says "Islamic relations with Iraq" were encouraged by the Taliban to arbitrate a meeting with the Northern Alliance rebels in Afghanistan and Russia.
The document also mentions two men with ties to Pakistani religious schools, jihad training camps, the Taliban and al-Qaida.
An Iraqi intelligence agent kept a notebook, posted on the Fox News Channel website, that details meetings between al-Qaida and Taliban supporter Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Taha Yassin Ramadan, the former vice president of Iraq, along with other Iraqi officials.
Ramadan was Saddam's right-hand-man, in charge of ensuring orders were carried out by Iraqi officials. A 2002 BBC article stated, "Washington showed considerable interest in him well before the Iraq war."
In the story, opposition forces also claimed Ramadan hosted al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, in Baghdad in 1998.
The notebook also recorded Maulana Fazlur Rahman as being at the discussion. Rahman has been described as a Pakistani cleric with ties to the Taliban who is a contender for the position of prime minister.
As WorldNetDaily reported, among many documents posted by the Pentagon in March was a letter from a member of Saddam's intelligence apparatus indicating al-Qaida and the Taliban had a relationship with the regime prior to the 9-11 attacks.
The letter by a member of Saddam's Al Mukabarat to a superior, dated Sept. 15, 2001, reports a pre-9/11 conversation between an Iraqi intelligence source and a Taliban Afghani consul.
>Earlier this month, a newly translated document captured from the Saddam regime revealed Iraq's hiding of chemical-weapons materials and the location of their burial.
In 2003, a 16-page top secret government memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee said bin Laden and Saddam had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, as well as financial and logistical support, and may have included the bombing of the USS Cole and the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The memo, dated Oct. 27, 2003, was sent from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith to Senators Pat Roberts and Jay Rockefeller, the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee," reported the Weekly Standard. It was written in response to a request from the committee as part of its investigation into prewar intelligence claims made by the administration.
According to the Weekly Standard, the memo reports Saddam's willingness to help bin Laden plot against Americans began in 1990, shortly before the first Gulf War, and continued until the eve of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. It says bin Laden sent ''emissaries to Jordan in 1990 to meet with Iraqi government officials.'' At some unspecified point in 1991, according to a CIA analysis, ''Iraq sought Sudan's assistance to establish links to al-Qaida.''
Thank you for the ping.
Passed along the article to all on my e-mail list as well.
Thanks for the pings!
"Holy Crap!!! How is this not headline news?!!?"
Newspapers are published and staffed by Democrats who won't publish any fact that might justify the Iraq war.
"Pretty soon, the MSM will be forced to cover it."
Just like they covered the news that the people accused of spying for the Soviet Union were found, through Soviet records, to be actual spies.
You are welcome, and thanks for passing the articles along.
The more you know....
Sadly, I think you are probably right. Thanks for the PING.
I remain hopeful that there will be so much info they will HAVE to cover it--as it is their duty to do so.
But I'm not holding my breath or anything.
They jumped all over that, didn't they. /s
BTW, there was NO alternative media then. There is now, and we have FORCED them to cover many things they would prefer not to.
I don't; I've sent him hard mail. But I really do think he doesn't understand the importance of this and am stunned he's missed that talking about how Saddam worked with the Taliban and Al Qaeda would increase support for the war.
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