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November 18, 2005

New Documents Link Saddam To Al Qaeda?

Steven Hayes is working on what would be, were our media not so hoplessly partisan, a major story:

Recently discovered Iraqi documents now being translated by U.S. intelligence analysts indicate that Saddam Hussein's government made extensive plans to hide Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 - and had deep ties to al Qaida before the 9/11 attacks.
The explosive evidence was discovered among "millions of pages of documents" unearthed by the Iraq Survey Group weapons search team, reports the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes.

In the magazine's Nov. 21 issue, Hayes reveals that the document cache now being examined contains "a thick stew of reports and findings from a variety of [Iraqi] intelligence agencies and military units."

Though the Pentagon has so far declined to make the bombshell papers public, Hayes managed to obtain a list of titles on the reports.

...

Still other reports suggest that Iraq's ties to al Qaida were far deeper than previously known, featuring headlines like:

• Secret Meeting with Taliban Group Member and Iraqi Government (Nov. 2000)

...

• Possible al Qaeda Terror Members in Iraq

...

• [Iraqi Intelligence Service] report on Taliban-Iraq Connections Claims

• Money Transfers from Iraq to Afghanistan

While the document titles sound stunning enough to turn the Iraq war debate on its head, Hayes cautions that it's hard to know for certain until the full text is available.

...

Hayes also notes that an additional treasure trove of evidence on Saddam Hussein's support for al Qaida may be lost forever.

"When David Kay ran the Iraq Survey Group searching for weapons of mass destruction, he instructed his team to ignore anything not directly related to the regime's WMD efforts," he reports.

"As a consequence, documents describing the regime's training and financing of terrorists were labeled 'No Intelligence Value' and often discarded, according to two sources."

Thanks to Mark.

posted by Ace at 09:26 AM

Comments

Too bad Hayes got 'em from Lucy Al Ramirez

Posted by: sentinel on November 18, 2005 09:32 AM

"The Connection" (Hayes' book) is well worth a look if anyone was thinking of checking it out. It's largely a "where there's smoke, there must be fire" kind of exercise, but makes some solid points.

I look forward to seeing this under-reported in the media.

Posted by: RDub on November 18, 2005 09:33 AM

Wha?

Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda may have had connections?

Well, that must be new information.

Posted by: Rocketeer on November 18, 2005 09:44 AM

Alas, Hayes could tell the world that water is wet and no one would listen anymore. Remember, he and his rag are just Neocon tools searching for any evidence at all to support something WE ALL KNOW isn't true.

Give it up, the meme won. Saddam was closer to Carrot Top than to Al Qaeda.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

P.S. Sigh. . .

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on November 18, 2005 09:46 AM

Remember that we finally found proof of the Wanasee Conference (final solution planning) in a drawer at the labor department seval years after the end of WWII.

There are millions of untranslated documents that may contain information like this. (Bureaucracies run on paper). The democratic "Bush lied" push has always gambled that any evidence would be found after the election.

I just hope they are wrong.

Posted by: monkeyboy on November 18, 2005 09:48 AM

I have to add that the 9-11 commission conclusively determined that Al Qaeda had never even heard of Iraq.

Posted by: ron "the second" reagan on November 18, 2005 09:49 AM

I also heard there was no way Al Qaeda and Saddam would have worked together, several reports say that Saddam has chronic onion breath, and translated Taliban cafeteria documents repeatedly indicate that Bin Laden "totally hates onions".

Posted by: Tom on November 18, 2005 10:31 AM

In order for Saddam to have been in bed with Al Qaeda, he'd have be some sort of self-serving prick. Anyone in their right mind knows he's all about the people. The guy's practically a saint.

We right wingers need to quit trying to create fact out of feces in order to justify our own self-serving beliefs.

Grenade suppository anyone?

Posted by: compos mentis on November 18, 2005 11:00 AM

Speaking of Al Qaeda: Zarqawi: Jordan Bombings 'Oops, Our bad.'

Al Qaeda in Iraq's leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi said in an Internet audiotape on Friday that the group did not intend to target Muslim wedding parties in deadly bomb attacks in Jordan last week.
"We ask God to have mercy on the Muslims, who we did not intend to target, even if they were in hotels which are centers of immorality," the voice on the tape said.

Posted by: V the K on November 18, 2005 12:13 PM

group did not intend to target Muslim wedding parties in deadly bomb attacks in Jordan last week.

Thus bolstering my contention that it was in fact a hit on the PA general. If they wanted to attack immorality, all they needed to do was go to hollywood.

Posted by: Purple Avenger on November 18, 2005 12:21 PM

Coming soon to a moonbat website near you ...

Hayes LIED! Ace sighed!

Posted by: Kirk on November 18, 2005 06:27 PM

addam Hussein's government made extensive plans to hide Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion in March 2003

riiight. I don't want to cause you any pain or embarassment ace. Really.

But Iraq didn't have any fickung weapons of mass destruction to hide before the US invasion in March 2003, you fickung raterd.

Posted by: alistair on November 18, 2005 07:32 PM

Grasp.... Grasp...

Grasp Grasp...

Nothing there but straws!

GRASP GRASP...

Damn more straws...

Come on Ace I thought you were intelligent. Everyone knows there was no connections to Al Qaeda or WMD.

I'm sorry even if there were *documents* found they were probably forged.... kinda like... *hint hint* the Niger document?

Posted by: AlanB on November 19, 2005 12:48 AM

I know, I know. It was kinda silly to use only one document to base a whole war upon. If only there was more than one piece of evidence besides a forged receipt to justify the invasion of Iraq.

Posted by: joeindc44 on November 19, 2005 12:58 AM

Like the 50+ billion barrels of oil in Iraq?

The profits this administration and their Masters, big corporations, are making from this war?

The ideological mentality of the Right?

Posted by: AlanB on November 19, 2005 11:16 AM

These dumb fucking leftist sheep will never get it through their indoctrinated brainwashed skulls that there were WMD in Iraq after the first Gulf War.

Reasoned discourse doesn't work.

Long listings of links doesn't work.

Showing them past reports of the very people who now contradict themselves by denying what they avowed earlier doesn't work.

Trimming it down to catchy slogans like their Commie masters have done doesn't work.

It has officially become a religion, and Dubya is the Satan in their New-Age pantheon. There is no logic, only faith and belief, damned be any evidence to the contrary because it is heresy and blasphemy.

Posted by: Sue Dohnim on November 19, 2005 12:00 PM

Not exactly, Sue...

Obviously, there were WMD left in Iraq after the first GW. They were all gone by 1995 at the very latest. Ritter was right.

What the wingnut straw-graspers don't get, is that the absence of WMD in 2002 is the question. And their existence in 1992 doesn't get them off the hook.

Posted by: on November 23, 2005 04:01 AM

Not exactly, Sue...

Obviously, there were WMD left in Iraq after the first GW. They were all gone by 1995 at the very latest. Ritter was right.

What the wingnut straw-graspers don't get, is that the absence of WMD in 2002 is the question. And their existence in 1992 doesn't get them off the hook.

Posted by: alistair on November 23, 2005 04:01 AM

i>They were all gone by 1995 at the very latest.

And we know this how? As Sue said, the Clinton administration in 1998 and 1999 certainly didn't believe this.

Posted by: geoff on November 23, 2005 04:08 AM

Oh no! Hamas' de facto press agent at the UN complains that she can't use her credit cards or rent a card now that she's been sanctioned as a terrorist operative
Why does this keep happening to members of the "political organization" (per Tucker Carlson) of Hamas?!?!

Tucker Carlson claims that it's weird that Ted Cruz is interested in the massacre of Christians by Nigerian Muslims, because he has "no track record of being interested in Christians," then blows off the massacre of Christians by Nigerian Muslims, saying it might or might not be a real concern
Tucker Carlson enjoys using the left-wing tactic of "Tactical Ignorance" to avoid taking positions on topics. Is Hamas really a terrorist organization? Tucker can't say. He hasn't looked into it enough, but "it seems like a political organization to me." Are Muslims slaughtering Christians in Nigeria? Again, Tucker just doesn't know. He hasn't examined the evidence yet. He knows every Palestinian Christian who said he was blocked from visiting holy sites in Bethlehem, but he just hasn't had the time to look into the mass slaughter of Christians in Nigeria that has been going on since (checks watch) 2009. He doesn't know, so he can't offer an opinion. Wouldn't be prudent, you know? Don't rush him! He'll sift through the evidence at some point in the future and render an opinion sometime around 2044.
Of course, if you need an opinion on Jewish Perfidy, he has all the facts at his fingertips and can give you a fully informed opinion pronto. Say, have you ever heard of the USS Liberty incident...?
You'd think that the main issue for Tucker Carlson, who pretends to be so deeply concerned about Palestinian Christians being bullied by Jews in Israel (supposedly), would be the massacre of 185,000 Christians in Nigeria itself. But no, his main problem is that Ted Cruz is talking about it, "who has no track record of being interested in Christians at all." And then he just shrugs as to whether this is even a real issue or not.
Whatever we do we must never "divide the right," huh?
Tucker is attacking Ted Cruz for bringing the issue up because he's acting as an apologist for Jihadism, and he can't cleanly admit that Jihadists are killing any Christians, anywhere. There is no daylight between him and CAIR at this point.
One might conclude that Tucker Carlson himself isn't interested in the plight of Christians -- except as they can be used as a cudgel to attack Jews.
Just gonna ask an Interesting Question myself -- why is it that Tucker Carlson's arguments all track with those shit out by Qatarian propaganda agents and the far left? That if Jews crush an ant underfoot it is worldwide news, but when Muslims slaughter Christians it elicits not even a vigorous shrug?

Sydney Sweeney has passed from celebrity to Meme Legend

Garth Merenghi is interviewed by the only man who can fathom his ineffable brilliance -- Garth Merenghi
From the comments:

I once glimpsed Garth in the penumbra betwixt my wake and sleep. He was in my dream, standing afar, not looking my way, nor did he acknowledge me. But I felt seen. And that's when I knew I was a traveler on the right path. I'm glad he's still with us.

Now that's some Merenghian prose.
Garth Merenghi on the writer's craft

Greetings, Traveler. If you still have not experienced Garth Merenghi -- Author, Dream-weaver, Visionary, plus Actor -- the six episodes of his Darkplace are still available on YouTube and supposedly upscaled to HD. (Viewing it now, it doesn't appeared upscaled for shit.)
I think the second episode, "Hell Hath Fury," is the best by a good margin. Try to at least watch through to that one. It's Mereghi's incisive but nuanced take on sexism.

TJM Returns with a discussion of Auteur Theory.

Podcast: The elections! NYC, Virginia, New Jersey, Texas, California, and the future prospects of the Republican party...

Update on Scott Adams:

Scott Adams had approval for this cancer drug but they hadn't scheduled him to get it. He was taking a turn for the worse. Trump had told him to call if he needed anything, so he did. Talked to Don Jr (who is in Africa) , then RFK Jr, then Dr Oz. Someone talked to Kaiser and he was scheduled. Shouldn't have needed it but he did and he says it saved his life.
Posted by: Notsothoreau

"Trump" goes trick-or-treating

Funny retro kid costumes, thanks to SMH
Good to see people honoring Lamont the Big Dummy

Four hours of retro Halloween commercials and specials
The first short is the original 1996 appearance of "Sam," the dangerous undead trick-or-treater from Trick r' Treat.

ICYMI: Australian journalist actually presses Kamala Harris when she repeatedly dodges questions about Biden's mental fitness
Kamala admits she didn't have the stamina to run for president, while continuing to insist he had the mental capacity to serve as president. He was too frail to run but perfectly strong enough to govern. Yeah sure whatever lying whore.

On Wednesday, we'll see the "Beaver Super-Moon." Which sounds hot.

Podcast: Historian and Pundit Robert Spencer joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about the Islamists in our midst: Mamdani in NYC, all across Europe, and others.

Full Episode: The Hardy Boys (and Nancy Drew) Meet Dracula
I don't remember this show, except for remembering that Nancy Drew was hot and the opening credits were foreboding and exicting

According to Grok, Latrine John-Pissoir has never failed to mention she is "black" (or "queer") during her book interviews
She may not know what the hell her book is about, but she definitely knows that "every day I wake up black and queer." Join the club, sister!

Schmoll: 53% of New Jersey likely voters say their neighbors are voting for Ciattarelli, while 47% say the cheater/grifter Mikie Sherrill
The "who do you think your neighbors are voting for" question is designed to avoid the Shy Tory problem, wherein conservative people lie to schmollsters because they don't want to go on record with a likely left-winger telling them who they're really voting for. So instead the question is who do you think your neighbors are voting for, so people can talk about who they themselves support without actually having to admit it to a left-wing rando stranger recording their answers on the phone.

Hackers take over University of Penn website, calling the school a "dogshit elitist institution full of woke retards" and threatening to release its admissions files to prove illegal racial discrimination
No lies detected so far

Live Now: Dana Loesch is interrogating Heritage President Kevin Roberts on his insistence that the gay Nazi Nick Fuentes is an absolutely essential "conservative" voice whose ideas we must take seriously and who we must absolutely not exclude based on his Naziism

TJM Complains about Wreck-It Ralph The very topical premiere of TJM's YouTube Channel.

Interesting football history: How the forward pass was created in response to the nineteen -- 19! -- people killed playing football in 1905 alone
The original rules of football did not allow forward passes. The ball was primarily advanced by running, with blockers forming lines with interlocked arms and just smashing into the similarly-interlocked defensive lines. It was basically Greek hoplite spear formations but with a semi-spherical ball. As calls to ban the sport entirely grew, some looked for ways to de-emphasize mass charges as the primary means of advancing the ball, and some specifically championed allowing a passer to throw the ball forward.