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"Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had extensive ties to terrorist organizations,
including Al Qaeda, according to an official report published by the
Pentagon’s Institute for Defense Analyses and released through the
Joint Forces Command.
That report, Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents, came up with some startling revelations in its 59 pages:
•
Saddam’s Iraq trained terrorists for use inside and outside Iraq and in
1999 sent 10 terrorist-training graduates to London to carry out
attacks throughout Europe. (Page 1)
• Saddam’s Iraq stockpiled munitions (including explosives, missile
launchers and silencer-equipped small arms) at its embassies in the
Middle East, Asia and parts of Europe. (Pages 3-4)
• In
September of 2001, Saddam’s Iraq sought out and compiled a list of 43
suicide-bomb volunteers in a “Martyrdom Project.” (Pages 7-8)
•
The report contains language from a captured Iraqi document which
references an attempted assassination of Danielle Mitterand, wife of
French President Francois Mitterand, by car bomb. (Page 11)
•
The report’s authors describe Saddam’s Iraq as a “long-standing
supporter of international terrorism” including several organizations
designated as international terrorist organizations by the US State
Department. (Page 13)
• Among the organizations that captured Iraqi documents indicate were supported by Saddam’s Iraq were: (Pages 13-15).
> Fatah-Revolutionary Council
(Abu Nidal Organization). (Author’s note: Abu Nidal was generally
considered the world’s most dangerous terrorist in the late 1980s.)
> Palestine Liberation Front
(led by Abu al-Abbas). (Author’s note: Abbas was the mastermind of the
Achille Lauro hijacking and the murderer of American Leon Klinghoffer.)
> Renewal and Jihad Organization,
which the Iraqi documents describe as a “Secret Islamic Palestinian
Organization” that “believes in armed jihad against the Americans and
Western interests.”
> Islamic Ulama Group, a radical Islamist group in northern Pakistan.
> The Afghani Islamic Party,
led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. (Author’s note: Hekmatyar is an Afghan
mujahideen warlord who is worked with Osama Bin Laden during the 1990s.
US intelligence agencies have lost track of Hekmatyar, but believe that
he was trying to join Al Qaeda in 2002 when he released a video message
calling for armed jihad against the United States. Reports from BBC-TV
and CNN claim that Hekmatyar helped Osama Bin Laden escape from Tora
Bora in 2002.
> Islamic Jihad Organization (Egyptian
Islamic Jihad). This is perhaps the most startling revelation in the
report. Egyptian Islamic Jihad was founded and led by Dr. Ayman
al-Zawahiri, now Al Qaeda’s co-leader. The group is most infamous for
the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Zawahiri is known
to have worked in the Al Qaeda organization since its inception, while
he was still leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad in fact. Al Qaeda was
started around 1989 and Zawahiri is said to have been a senior member
from its earliest days. He was present in Afghanistan with Bin Laden at
the time and later he was in Sudan with Bin Laden until being expelled
in 1996 and eventually returning to Afghanistan. In 1998, Zawahiri
formally merged Egyptian Islamic Jihad with Al Qaeda and has served as
co-leader of Al Qaeda ever since. Iraq’s relationship with Egyptian
Islamic Jihad was so close that captured documents indicate that Iraq
was able to request that the group hold off on operations against the
regime in Egypt in 1993.
In other words, Saddam’s Iraq had a longstanding relationship with the co-leader of Al Qaeda.
•
Captured documents show that Saddam’s Iraq was training non-Iraqis in
Iraqi training camps a decade before Operation Desert Storm, including
fighters from the following nations: Palestinian territories, Lebanon,
Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Eritrea, and Morroco. (Pages 15-16)"
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The full article was published by: Christopher Holton who is a Vice President with the Center for Security Policy
and directs the Center�s Divest Terror Initiative, which targets
investments in terrorist-sponsoring nations.
Link to full article here: The Truth About Iraq and Saddam
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"Five years after United States forces overthrew Saddam Hussein, the
Pentagon has produced a blockbuster report that has been both
misrepresented and ignored. That report shows that Saddam’s Iraq had
extensive ties to international terrorist groups, both Islamist and
secular, including organizations that were part of Al Qaeda. No ginned
up definition invented for domestic political consumption can change
the truth.
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