"Saddam and Terrorism" report now online

Fri, 03/21/2008 - 4:36pm

KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images

The Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy recently made available "Saddam and Terrorism," a Pentagon-requested report conducted by the Institute for Defense Analyses. The five-volume report analyzes captured Iraqi documents for connections between Saddam and terrorist organizations. The document was declassified earlier this month, but was made available only in CD form.

 

According to FAS:

The five-volume report affirmed that there was "no 'smoking gun' (i.e., direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda." But it also said there was "strong evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism."

In light of the report's mixed findings, Warren Strobel of McClatchy Newspapers writes:

The new study appears destined to be used by both critics and supporters of Bush's decision to invade Iraq to advance their own familiar arguments.

Three of the report's five volumes consist of hundreds of pages of the translated Iraqi documents. For those of you not up to the challenge, FAS has pulled out the highlights, which include this peculiar gem:

One of them, a fifty-page Iraqi "intelligence" analysis, disparages the austerely conservative Wahhabi school of Islam by claiming that its eighteenth century founder, Ibn 'Abd al Wahhab, had ancestors who were Jews. In what must be the only laugh-out-loud line in the generally dismal five-volume report, the Iraqi analysis states that Ibn 'Abd al Wahhab's grandfather's true name was not "Sulayman" but "Shulman."

"Tawran confirms that Sulayman, the grandfather of the sheikh, is (Shulman); he is Jew from the merchants of the city of Burstah in Turkey, he had left it and settled in Damascus, grew his beard, and wore the Muslim turban, but was thrown out for being voodoo."

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Saddam and terrorism

by Mark Eichenlaub on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 11:40pm

The media really missed the ball on this report (http://regimeofterror.com/archives/2008/03/media_swings_and_misses_on_ida_1/)
with Strobel of McClatchy being the first one to get it wrong and not just getting it wrong but getting it wrong in the way that McClatchy usually gets it wrong. By addressing the issues from the left.

The report does say that they didn't find "operational" links between al Qaeda and Saddam but said he trained, funded and assisted Egyptian Islamic Jihad (who attacked our embassies during 90's multiple times and claimed credit for the 98 embassy attack and was blamed for the Cole attack).

For these people to squabble over the difference between Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda when they really don't know the difference makes them look really foolish to people who know better. Zawihiri's group (EIJ was involved in the formation of al Qaeda and formed 2/3 of its leadership) was in contact with Saddam's regime throughout the 90's and dozens of members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad went to Baghdad in 2002 with Zarqawi (George Tenet's new book). That is one of over a dozen groups that the regime supported.

They also supported Saudi Islamic groups, Kuwait Islamic groups, Phillipine Islamic groups, Afghani/Pakistani Islamic terror groups, Sudanese Islamic groups and on and on. They supported them by arming, funding, training and sometimes arming these groups.

Saddam also had widescale programs for the production of IED's, suicide vests, car bombs and a recruitment and training program for thousands of Iraqi and non Iraqi suicide bombers.

The regime also detailed plans of attacks on American military bases and embassies in countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe and talked of attacking U.S. naval ships in local waters (sound familiar?).

People can oppose this war all they want (as people like Strobel do) and can do so for good reason but I humbly ask any member of the mainstream press reading this to knock off the inexcusably lazy, biased reporting on this issue and just tell the public about the monster who wished harm against this country. We know the extreme costs in blood and treasure this war has cost us, let us at least know what we got. Don't worry, it won't effect your chances to get your candidate in the White House.

By the way, I've written on

by Mark Eichenlaub on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 11:41pm

By the way, I've written on this topic at http://regimeofterror.com for almost two years and read about and written about the topic in general for five. Done a lot of deep background research and on and off the record interviews so I am willing to debate the specifics of this topic to any member of the press willing. Thus far, all offers have been met with silence.