History Forum / General / General Topics / June 2004

"Clinton first linked al Qaeda to Saddam"

By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

"The Clinton administration talked about firm evidence linking Saddam
Hussein's regime to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network years before
President Bush made the same statements."

Of course. ---- DSH

"The issue arose again this month after the National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States reported there was no
"collaborative relationship" between the old Iraqi regime and bin Laden.

Democrats have cited the staff report to accuse Mr. Bush of making
inaccurate statements about a linkage. Commission members, including a
Democrat and two Republicans, quickly came to the administration's
defense by saying there had been such contacts."

ZAAAPPPPP!!! ---- DSH

In fact, during President Clinton's eight years in office, there were
at least two official pronouncements of an alarming alliance between
Baghdad and al Qaeda. One came from William S. Cohen, Mr. Clinton's
defense secretary.  He cited an al Qaeda-Baghdad link to justify the
bombing of a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan.

Mr. Bush cited the linkage, in part, to justify invading Iraq and
ousting Saddam. He said he could not take the risk of Iraq's weapons
falling into bin Laden's hands.

The other pronouncement is contained in a Justice Department indictment
on Nov. 4, 1998, charging bin Laden with murder in the bombings of two
U.S. embassies in Africa.

The indictment disclosed a close relationship between al Qaeda and
Saddam's regime, which included specialists on chemical weapons and all
types of bombs, including truck bombs, a favorite weapon of terrorists.

The 1998 indictment said: "Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the
National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and
its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working
together against their perceived common enemies in the West,
particularly the United States.  In addition, al Qaeda reached an
understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work
against that government and that on particular projects, specifically
including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with
the government of Iraq."

Shortly after the embassy bombings, Mr. Clinton ordered air strikes on
al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and on the Shifa pharmaceutical
factory in Sudan.

To justify the Sudanese plant as a target, Clinton aides said it was
involved in the production of deadly VX nerve gas. Officials further
determined that bin Laden owned a stake in the operation and that its
manager had traveled to Baghdad to learn bomb-making techniques from
Saddam's weapons scientists.

Mr. Cohen elaborated in March in testimony before the September 11
commission.

He testified that "bin Laden had been living [at the plant], that he
had, in fact, money that he had put into this military industrial
corporation, that the owner of the plant had traveled to Baghdad to meet
with the father of the VX program."

He said that if the plant had been allowed to produce VX that was used
to kill thousands of Americans, people would have asked him, "  'You had
a manager that went to Baghdad; you had Osama bin Laden, who had funded,
at least the corporation, and you had traces of [VX precursor] and you
did what?  And you did nothing?'  Is that a responsible activity on the
part of the secretary of defense?"
----------------------------------------

ZAAPPPPP!!!!

And Gans, the ignorant, disingenuous, duplicitous, lying Left-Wing NYU
chemist is still insisting Saddam was NO THREAT to anyone OUTSIDE his
own country, that Saddam was being "contained" ---- and that Bush had NO
RIGHT OR REASON to depose Saddam and his regime.

Farblondjet, Farbissen und Farchadat.

PRATFALL!!!

KAWHOMP!!!

KERSPLAT!!!

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor

Veni, Vidi, Calcitravi Asinum.