I had a commenter here recently claim that there was no evidence of connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq prior to the current war. Perhaps these might be worth considering.

This charge is false for several reasons — and illogical for even more. Almost every responsible U.S. government body had long warned about Saddam's links to al-Qaida terrorists. In 1998, for example, when the Clinton Justice Department indicted bin Laden, the writ read: "In addition, al-Qaida reached an understanding with the Government of Iraq that al-Qaida would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al-Qaida would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq."

Then in October 2002, George Tenet, the Clinton-appointed CIA director, warned the Senate in similar terms: "We have solid reporting of senior-level contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida going back a decade." Seventy-seven senators apparently agreed — including a majority of Democrats — and cited just that connection a few days later as a cause to go to war against Saddam: " ... Whereas members of al-Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq."

The bipartisan consensus about this unholy alliance was not based on intriguing but unconfirmed rumors of meetings between Saddam's intelligence agents and al-Qaida operatives such as Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta. Nor did the senators or the president ever claim that Saddam himself planned the Sept. 11 attacks. Instead, the Justice Department, the Senate and two administrations were alarmed by terrorist groups like Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaida affiliate that established bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.

More importantly, one of the masterminds of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, Abdul Rahman Yasin, fled to Baghdad to find sanctuary with Saddam after the attack. And after the U.S.'s successful war against the Taliban, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the present murderous al-Qaida leader in Iraq, reportedly escaped from Afghanistan to gain a reprieve from Saddam.

Now we can debate how strong the connection was, how involved Iraq was in 9/11, and many other issues surrounding the war -- but to claim that the connection was non-existant and that claims of a connection were lies is to stray outside of documented fact and into the world of tin-foil-wearing conspiracy theories

Posted by: Greg at 12:13 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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1 One can only wonder who "authored " the "solid reporting" referanced wich leads to my next question why cant the anerican people see the reports..we all pay for the war so we all sould be able to see why were at war...anything else would be un american right rhymes?I mean our goverment would never LIE to us would they rhymes,,,so again why wont the Chen...err Bush admin put all the evidence for the war on the table and let the american people see our reason for going to war?

Posted by: Jojo at Fri Nov 25 22:03:26 2005 (9SIY/)

2 Ah rhymes you didnt censor my comments did you????that would be "unamerican " anyway I like to ask you do u belive in any "conspiracy "theories do you?

Posted by: Jojo at Sat Nov 26 01:00:08 2005 (9SIY/)

3 All Things Beautiful TrackBack 'The Thanksgiving Gift From Al-Qaeda':

"You want to throw leaflets and not bombs at the terrorists. You want to come to a gunfight armed with a knife. Well good luck, you can kiss goodbye to that liberty you hold so dear, and treasure as the banner on your flag of democracy."

Posted by: Alexandra at Sat Nov 26 01:15:56 2005 (9JKJs)

4 No censoirship, JoJo.

Not because it would be "unAmerican" (the First Amendment applying only to governemnt, not private, actions), but because you are so pathetic that I choose to leave your words in place to show the true nature of the anti-American Left.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Nov 26 03:12:29 2005 (JysJA)

5 I would hazard to state that the claims of a connection to al-Qaeda were as strong as the case for connecting Iraq to a vibrant and threatening WMD program - in the end such over-inflated concerns hardly now seem to be the baseis for which to have invested over 2,000 American lives, God only knows how many Iraqi lives, and over $200 billion of this country's riches which I believe many people could have found much better places to spend that sum of money.

I'd also like to think that you'd come up with something a bit more substantial then an article in the Honolulu Advertiser to make your case. When you scrape the bottom of the barrel like that to support a point you, do more to undermine your position than buttress it.

Posted by: James at Sat Nov 26 07:35:46 2005 (0XDLV)

6 James --

I picked one of the many sources for this column by Dr. Victor Davis Hansen, a well-kown and respected commentator on military history and affairs. Your comment betrays a certain ignorance and elitism rolled into a typical liberal dismissal of opposing points of view.

Let me help you out so you do not display your ignorance in the future. here is a quick biography of the author.

Victor Davis Hanson is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

He was a full-time farmer before joining California State University, Fresno, in 1984 to initiate a classics program. In 1991, he was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award, which is given yearly to the country's top undergraduate teachers of Greek and Latin.

Hanson was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California (1992–93), a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University (1991–92), a recipient of the Eric Breindel Award for opinion journalism (2002), and an Alexander Onassis Fellow (2001) and was named alumnus of the year of the University of California, Santa Cruz (2002). He was also the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland (2002–3).

He is the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, scholarly papers, and newspaper editorials on matters ranging from Greek, agrarian and military history to foreign affairs, domestic politics, and contemporary culture. He has written or edited 14 books, including Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece (1983; paperback ed. University of California Press, 199 ; The Western Way of War (Alfred Knopf, 1989; 2d paperback ed. University of California Press, 2000); Hoplites: The Ancient Greek Battle Experience (Routledge, 1991; paperback ed. 1992); The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization (Free Press, 1995; 2d paperback ed. University of California Press, 2000); Fields without Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea (Free Press, 1996; paperback ed. Touchstone, 1997); The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer (Free Press, 2000); The Wars of the Ancient Greeks (Cassell, 1999; paperback ed., 2001); The Soul of Battle (Free Press, 1999, paperback ed. Anchor/ Vintage, 2000); Carnage and Culture (Doubleday, 2001; Anchor/Vintage, 2002); An Autumn of War (Anchor/Vintage, 2002); and Mexifornia: A State of Becoming (Encounter, 2003), Ripples of Battle (2003).

His newest book, A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War (Random House), was published in October 2005. Click here to read more about the book.

Hanson coauthored, with John Heath, Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom (Free Press, 1998; paperback ed. Encounter Press, 2000) and, with Bruce Thornton and John Heath, Bonfire of the Humanities (ISI Books, 2001).

Hanson has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune, the New York Post, the Claremont Review of Books, The New Republic, National Review, American Heritage, Policy Review, Commentary, National Review, the Wilson Quarterly, the Weekly Standard, Daily Telegraph, and Washington Times and has been interviewed often on National Public Radio, the PBS Newshour, the Hugh Hewitt Show, and C-Span's BookTV. He serves on the editorial board of Arion, the Military History Quarterly, and City Journal.

In 2004, Hanson began a syndicated column for Tribune Media Services which appears in newspapers nationwide, and since 2001, he has written a weekly column for National Review Online.

Hanson was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz (B.A. 1975), the American School of Classical Studies (1978–79) and received his Ph.D. in classics from Stanford University in 1980.

He lives and works with his family on their forty-acre tree and vine farm near Selma, California, where he was born in 1953.

I think that establishes the qualifications of the author to comment on these matters -- even for an elitist like you.

Oh, and while you are at it, you might consider that the Honolulu Advertiser is not a grocery throw-away, but rather the major newspaper in the state of Ohio -- something akin to the DesMoines Register.

As for this particular piece, here it is coming from Tribune Media Services, the syndicator. I suspect it will be showing up over the next few days in various papers around the country --I happened to have picked the first.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Nov 26 08:13:19 2005 (3DAR3)

7 Opps! I made an editting error.

"major newspaper in Hawaii -- something akin to the DesMoines Register in Iowa or the Cleveland Plain Dealer in Ohio

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Nov 26 08:18:21 2005 (3DAR3)

8 Rhymes since have the New York and Los angeles times been solid quoting grounds for the neocon right???I mean that is pinko commie teratory for sure!!!!!What I m concrend with is how about the countles members of our armed forces and civlian staffers that were dismised when they raised objectionss to policy??In short thats all fine and dandy what your good doctor wrote but there not in the oval office Chen...errr Bush is , and he alone(at least on paper) is the author of this war.

Posted by: Jojo at Sat Nov 26 13:36:45 2005 (9SIY/)

9 Well, as one who is not a neo-con, I don't know their attitude towards those papers. I pointed to them because they are part of Dr. Hansen's extensive and varied list of publications.

As for the rest -- would you translate it into something that vaguely resembles standard English and repost it? I'm sick and tired of reading gibberish.

Also, I note the LAX in your server name -- are you some homeless guy sponging the free internet service at the airport? That would explain a lot about your comments.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Nov 26 13:55:42 2005 (CH4Gg)

10 Well as for my server I would have to refer you to my I.P company for that but again you dodge the issue by making a personal attack,lets say I am a homeless guy steeling free internet (wich I'm not what I am is a fulltime student and I work in the banking industry if you must know)how does that lessen the charge of a false pretext for war???How my right hack job of a freind does that account for the secrecy that your masters have advcated?I could be black ,white ,red,brown homeless or like you a closet homo with fetishes for men in sailor suits...but tell me how does that differ the facts and in this case lack of facts on the table? You quote a doctor and now I will"Nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest." -Luke 8:17

Posted by: Jojo at Sat Nov 26 14:54:32 2005 (9SIY/)

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