Slam-Dunk: The OBL-Saddam-Terrorist Connection

Long, detailed, and devastating. Must-read from the Weekly Standard, again.

Here's a bit. Miltary prosecutors listed these points as evidence that a detainee at Guantanamo is an enemy combatant:

1. From 1987 to 1989, the detainee served as an infantryman in the Iraqi Army and received training on the mortar and rocket propelled grenades.

2. A Taliban recruiter in Baghdad convinced the detainee to travel to Afghanistan to join the Taliban in 1994.

3. The detainee admitted he was a member of the Taliban.

4. The detainee pledged allegiance to the supreme leader of the Taliban to help them take over all of Afghanistan.

5. The Taliban issued the detainee a Kalishnikov rifle in November 2000.

6. The detainee worked in a Taliban ammo and arms storage arsenal in Mazar-Es-Sharif organizing weapons and ammunition.

7. The detainee willingly associated with al Qaida members.

8. The detainee was a member of al Qaida.

9. An assistant to Usama Bin Ladin paid the detainee on three separate occasions between 1995 and 1997.

10. The detainee stayed at the al Farouq camp in Darwanta, Afghanistan, where he received 1,000 Rupees to continue his travels.

11. From 1997 to 1998, the detainee acted as a trusted agent for Usama Bin Ladin, executing three separate reconnaissance missions for the al Qaeda leader in Oman, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

12. In August 1998, the detainee traveled to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of blowing up the Pakistan, United States and British embassies with chemical mortars.

13. Detainee was arrested by Pakistani authorities in Khudzar, Pakistan, in July 2002.

On OBL's payroll, part of the Iraqi army, travelling with a member of Iraqi Intelligence to conduct terrorism.

Link? Certainly our MSM didn't think so. The AP had gotten the story through a Freedom of Information Act request and so felt obligated to run... something. But they un-sexed-up the information as much as they could:

But after briefly describing the documents, the AP article downplayed its own scoop with a sentence almost as amusing as it is inane: "There is no indication the Iraqi's alleged terror-related activities were on behalf of Saddam Hussein's government, other than the brief mention of him traveling to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi intelligence."

Oh? Was that all? "No indication" of the Iraqi's involvement in terrorism, except travelling to Pakistan to commit terrorism with a member of Saddam's IIS.

Sort of like saying there was "no indication" of OJ Simpson's involvement in the Rockingham murders, except for his leaving more of his DNA around than Ron Jeremy at a Swank mixer.

The Weekly standard opines:

That sentence minimizing the importance of the findings was enough, apparently, to convince most newspaper editors around the country not to run the AP story.

And there's more, of course. Including Al Gore -- yeahp, Al Gore -- criticizing the first Bush administration in the 2000 campaign for not doing enough to combat Iraq's support of world terrorism.

posted by Ace at 02:29 PM

| Access Comments