Ok, I'll try to make this be my final knock on Obama (at least for a while) and move on to perhaps more interesting subjects. I just can't help it. He seems so rhetoric based and unfit to actually be the leader of the free world.
I heard on the news on the radio yesterday Barack Obama saying in a speech something along the lines of ‘I have news for Senator McCain: there were no Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq before Bush invaded.’ And then everyone cheered.
Mark Eichenlaub published an article in 2006 listing a mere 32 instances where former Iraqi officials or captured al-Qaeda affiliates have revealed links between Baathist Iraq and Al Qaeda. All 32 of these instances come from news sources such as CNN, PBS, the Weekly Standard, National Review, MSNBC, Radio Free Europe and others. This article can be found here: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=56AA062B-34FA- 4E62-9780-E1186E65818F
Perhaps every single one of these news sources is wrong and/or every single one of those 32 former Iraqi officials/al Qaeda affiliates were lying.
But in reality, which is not where Obama lives, it is probably false to say there were “no Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq before Bush invaded.”
That’s ok. During this post I will agree with Barack Obama and concede that there were no ties between Al Qaeda and Saddam.
After all (and this would be the heart of the matter for Obama), Saddam was not responsible for 9/11.
Barack Obama is using weak rhetoric that non-substantively deals with why he feels we should pull out of Iraq.
I can infer at least two things from his statement:
- Barack knows that Al Qaeda terrorists are in Iraq now (he used the word “before”).
- Barack believes that fighting Al Qaeda would have been a justification to invade Iraq (he is making a statement about whether the war was justified, and by using the idea that Al Qaeda not in Iraq would make the invasion unjustified, I can deduce that if Al Qaeda terrorists had been in Iraq the war would have been justified according to Barack.)
Apparently Barack believes that invading a country which harbors terrorists is the right thing to do…but if US troops are fighting those same terrorists it is not ok to remain there to fight them.
Huh !?!?
Wait…I get it! Maybe he does mean that only invasion to fight terrorists would be ok, in which case it all makes sense now – he wants to pull out so that he then can immediately re-invade Iraq, but this time it will be justified! Now I understand. He must want to redo exactly what Bush did, but make it justified :)
Obama is dodging the real issue – whether pulling out of Iraq is correct – not whether going into Iraq was correct.
Obama knows that many Americans – perhaps most – believe that the invasion was not justified. He knows that this will win him votes. He is absolutely pandering to emotions – in this case the dislike for Bush and the war. This is not even veiled demagoguery.
The decision to continue to engage in conflict against terrorists and insurgents in Iraq should not be dependent upon whether the initial invasion was justified – it should be dependent upon the current situation.
Here is what the top Al Qaeda guys are saying about the current conflict in Iraq:
“I now address my speech to the whole of the Islamic nation: Listen and understand. The issue is big and the misfortune is momentous. The most important and serious issue today for the whole world is this Third World War, which the Crusader-Zionist coalition began against the Islamic nation. It is raging in the land of the two rivers. The world's millstone and pillar is in Baghdad, the capital of the caliphate…"
“This is a war of destiny between Infidelity and Islam."
"The whole world is watching this war and the two adversaries; the Islamic Nation, on the one hand, and the United States and its allies on the other. It is either victory and glory or misery and humiliation.”
- Text Of Bin Laden's Audio Message To Muslims In Iraq, Posted On Jihadist Websites, 12/28/04.
“So we must think for a long time about our next steps and how we want to attain it, and it is my humble opinion that the Jihad in Iraq requires several incremental goals: The first stage: Expel the Americans from Iraq. The second stage: Establish an Islamic Authority or Amirate, then develop it and support it until it achieves the level of a Caliphate – over as much territory as you can to spread its power in Iraq … The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq. The fourth stage: It may coincide with what came before: the clash with Israel, because Israel was established only to challenge any new Islamic entity.”
- from text of Ayman Al-Zawahiri letter to Al-Zarqawi, 7/9/05.
“Finally, I would like to tell you that the war [in Iraq] is for you or for us to win. If we win it, it means your defeat and disgrace forever as the wind blows in this direction with God's help.”
- Bin Laden threatens new operations, Posted On Al-Jazirah Net, 1/19/06)
In other words, Al Qaeda is in Iraq now and in order to fight Al Qaeda we should stay in Iraq now.
Therefore, what Obama must deal with if he is elected president are Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq who wish to make Iraq a haven for terrorists who wish to spread their ideology of hate and murder.
What Obama won’t have the opportunity of dealing with if he is elected president is the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 or not.
So why does he then even mention it as a talking point against McCain?
Let me go further and say that Obama misses the real issues. He doesn’t get it. Not only is he trying to deal with the past and not the present or the future in substantive and practical ways, he apparently is unaware of one of the key rationales for operation Iraqi Freedom:
Saddam’s regime provided safe haven, training and funding for thousands of terrorists who planned for and executed attacks against the US and American allies.
In other words…
1) Iraq was a state sponsor of terrorism.
2) Fighting the War on Terror will require “ending state sponsors of terrorism”
Many people seem to have missed this concept entirely.
Below are just my summaries of the lowlights from a smattering of quotes I have collected over the years that identify the Baathists’ relationship with international terrorism.
Please take some time and read these sources carefully.
I believe a non-partisan, independent thinker with a moral compass will realize just how wrong the anti-war camp is after digesting the following.
(Below are the specific quotes these summaries are taken from)…
- Saddam trained thousands of non-Iraqi Arab militants the 4 years immediately prior to the US invasion – these were specialized in exporting terrorism to the world.
- This collaboration with and support for terrorists has been long standing and was more sophisticated than the training Al Qaeda had in Afganistan.
- there was a “wave of state-sponsored terrorism that was well underway (at the time of [the US] invasion)” called “Blessed July” – the targets included London.
- Terrorists from Iraq killed people in Israel, self-ruled Kurdistan, Iran, Italy, USA, Greece, UN aid workers of various nationalities, and of course Abu Nidal’s organization (who was perhaps the most famous terrorist prior to 9/11 when Osama bin Laden became more prominent) killed hundreds of people in over 20 countries.
- Saddam corresponded with Baathists outside of Iraq to collaborate to kill Americans who are found anywhere in Arabia by using terrorists and other means.
- An anti-US terror organization collaborated with Iraq and visited Saddam to show “the readiness of his organization to execute operations against U.S. interests.”
- Every “Patters of Global Terrorism” released by the US State Department since 1993 has labeled Iraq a state sponsor of international terrorism – each year Iraq “increased” its international terrorism capabilities.
- Iraq planned for terrorists operations against US embassies sometime around 1998.
- Al-Zarqawi – formerly the director of an Al Qaeda training base in Afganistan – ran an international terrorist training camp in northern Iraq.
[For most of these points I make I can provide several more sources than the few I reproduce below. I did not want to make this the longest blog I’d ever do. If you would like more sources for a particular point, feel free to leave a comment and I will post more.]
The Smattering of Sources.
Saddam’s Iraq trained thousands of international terrorists
“The former regime of Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq…
The secret training took place primarily at three camps--in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak--and was directed by elite Iraqi military units. Interviews by U.S. government interrogators with Iraqi regime officials and military leaders corroborate the documentary evidence. Many of the fighters were drawn from terrorist groups in northern Africa with close ties to al Qaeda, chief among them Algeria's GSPC and the Sudanese Islamic Army. Some 2,000 terrorists were trained at these Iraqi camps each year from 1999 to 2002, putting the total number at or above 8,000. Intelligence officials believe that some of these terrorists returned to Iraq and are responsible for attacks against Americans and Iraqis… [note: these terrorists returned to Iraq – they were not in it before the war – hence international terrorism from Iraq]
- Stephen F. Hayes
“Documentation indicates that Iraq was training non-Iraqis at Salman Pak in terrorist techniques, including assassination and suicide bombing. In addition to Iraqis, trainees included Palestinians, Yemenis, Saudis, Lebanese, Egyptians and Sudanese.
Soon after September 11, 2001, two Iraqi defectors came forward, explaining that Iraqi intelligence had trained non-Iraqi Arab militants at its extensive compound at Salman Pak, an area south of Baghdad. Among the skills taught there was hijacking airplanes. One defector even drew a sketch of the area, showing a passenger plane parked in the southwest corner of a large compound.
When American marines took over Salman Pak in early April 2003, they indeed found the terrorist training camp, the airplane, and the foreign terrorists. An American military spokesman affirmed, "The nature of the work being done by some of those people we captured. ..gives us the impression that there is terrorist training that was conducted at Salman Pak." The marines "inferred" that the airplane "was used to practice hijacking," the Associated Press reported. Saddam's apologists claim the camp was for counterterrorism training, but that seems highly improbable…
The report of the Iraq Survey Group presents further evidence of Iraq's involvement in hostile activities. It includes the most comprehensive account of the Iraqi Intelligence Service ever published in open-source literature, depicting an organization that consisted of "over twenty compartmentalized directorates." Section M-14 included the "Tiger Group" - "primarily composed of suicide bombers. "It also supervised the "Challenge Project," a highly secretive enterprise involved with explosives, about which the Iraq Survey Group could learn little. Another section - M-21 - was formed in 1990 to create explosive devices for Iraqi intelligence. Its chemistry department developed explosive materials; its electronics department prepared timers and wiring; and its mechanical department produced igniters and designed the bombs.
This picture shows the substantial, longstanding involvement of Iraq's intelligence services in terrorist training and support operations, including collaboration with Islamic militants. Its activities were infinitely more sophisticated than anything that was taught to the mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. This underscores just how odd it is that our default explanation for terrorism has now become Al Qaeda - which did not have a chemistry department, one of countless points that distinguishes that organization from the intelligence service of a major terrorist state [like Iraq].”
- Laurie Mylroie
* * *
“Sabah Khodada [was] a former Iraqi army captain who once worked at Salman Pak. On October 14, 2001, Khodada granted an interview to PBS television program “Frontline,” stating, “This camp is specialized in exporting terrorism to the whole world.”
He added: “Training includes hijacking and kidnapping of airplanes, trains, public buses, and planting explosives in cities ... how to prepare for suicidal operations.”
He continued: “We saw people getting trained to hijack airplanes...They are even trained how to use utensils for food, like forks and knives provided in the plane.”
- Deroy Murdock
* * *
“In the Prewar Iraq documents…there is a top secret memo on how to train and use the Arab Feedaeyeens as Suicide Bombers or as the memo call them “Estishehadeyeen” which means in Arabic “Suicide Martyrs”. The Arab Feedaeyeens are definitely foreigners non Iraqi Arabs who came to Iraq from all over the Middle East and North Africa and they were greatly welcomed by Saddam regime and trained by his military and intelligence apparatus to become Suicide Bombers…This document proves that not only there were non Iraqi Arab terrorists in Iraq before the war but they were also trained by Saddam regime on how to become suicide bombers by using their own bodies, or suicide bombers using cars and motorcycles full of explosive, or even become suicide bombers using Camels carrying explosives.
These are the non Iraqi Arab terrorists that later on brought death and destruction upon the Iraqi people through many suicide bombings.”
- Joseph Shahda
Some of those international terrorists meant to harm allies of the US
“The Fedayeen Saddam also took part in the regime's terrorism operations, which they conducted inside Iraq, and at least planned for attacks in major Western cities. In a document dated May 1999, Uday Hussein ordered preparations for "special operations, assassinations, and bombings, for the centers and traitor symbols in London, Iran and the self-ruled areas (Kurdistan).
“The report reveals the former regime's plans for a wave of state-sponsored terrorism that was well underway (at the time of invasion). Codenamed "Blessed July", the attacks were to take place outside of Iraq.”
- Mark Eichenlaub
* * *
“Iraq continued to plan and sponsor international terrorism in 1999…continued to provide safe haven and support to various terrorist groups.”
- from the 1999 edition of “Patterns of Global Terrorism” by President Clinton's State Department [note that every “Patters of Global Terrorism” released by the US State Department since 1993 has labeled Iraq a state sponsor of international terrorism.]
* * *
“Abbas, a well known wanted terrorist captured by U.S. forces in April 2003, apparently cooperated with Iraq's Intelligence Service (Mukhabarat) in a joint IIS/PLF Baghdad training camp (later overrun by U.S. forces) that provided chemicals and equipment, in addition to funding and training for terrorists in bomb-making, to terrorists tasked with anti-Israel suicide missions.”
- Mark Eichenlaub
* * *
“Iraqi- sponsored terrorism has become almost commonplace in northern Iraq, where the regime has been responsible for dozens of attacks on UN and relief agency personnel and aid convoys…
“Iraqi-backed surrogates were probably responsible for two attempts to bomb the Kuwait Airways office in Beirut and another attempt to bomb the Kuwaiti Embassy, also in Lebanon. The Iraqi regime continued its war of attrition on UN and humanitarian targets in northern Iraq aimed at driving the foreign presence out of the area and depriving the Kurdish population of relief supplies. UN and relief workers were shot at; bombs or grenades were tossed at residences and vehicles; and bombs were placed on UN trucks loaded with relief supplies. In March, a Belgian official of Handicapped International was shot and killed; a local employee of the same organization was killed and six others were injured when an aid station was bombed in December…
“On 26 September, a UN truck carrying 12 tons of medical supplies was completely destroyed by a bomb attached to the fuel tank probably by Iraqi agents at an Iraqi checkpoint. The truckdriver and 12 civilians were injured by the blast. The incident illustrates Iraqi determination to reduce aid to the Kurds…
“…the PKK, which has killed hundreds of people in attacks inside Turkey and has mounted two separate terrorist campaigns against Turkish interests in Europe in 1993, has training camps in Iraq, according to press reports. Iraq supports an opposition group, the MEK, which carried out several violent attacks in Iran during the year from bases in Iraq. Baghdad also harbors members of several extremist Palestinian groups including the ANO, the Arab Liberation Front, and Abu Abbas's Palestine Liberation Front (PLF).
- Department of State Publication 10136 [a document written prior to the invasion - ABP]
* * *
“[Saddam] has supported and harbored terrorist groups, particularly radical Palestinian groups such as Abu Nidal, and he has given money to families of suicide murderers in Israel.”
- Senator John Kerry on the senate floor October 9, 2002
* * *
Some of those international terrorists meant to harm the US
“it's decided that [The Arabian Bureau-Ba’ath Party] should move to hunt the Americans who are on Arabian land, especially in Somalia, by using Arabian elements, or Asian (Muslims) or friends. Take the necessary steps.”
- Letter to “Comrade Ali al-Reeh Al-Sheik” from “The President’s Secretary” of Iraq.
* * *
“The memos and letters between Saddam Hussein's office and top IIS leadership include numerous examples of collaboration between Baghdad and anti-American Islamic terrorists…Highlights, with anomalies in grammar and punctuation intact, include the following:
"Abo Nedhal [Abu Nidal] organization." The ANO committed at least 407 murders, including grenade and gun attacks on Rome's and Vienna's international airports on December 27, 1985. These simultaneous assaults killed 19 travelers, five of them American. An ANO bomb also exploded over the Ionian Sea in a TWA jet between Israel and Athens. The September 8, 1974, blast killed all 88 aboard, including 11 Americans…
"Al-Jehad w'Al-Tajdeed." This "secret Palestinian organization," the memo says, "believes in armed struggle against US & Western interests, it also believes that Mr. President (May Allah save him) is leading the believers against the unbelievers camp.” The document adds that a representative of the group "visited the country two months ago and showed the readiness of his organization to execute operations against U.S. interests anytime."
“Egyptian imam Omar Abdel Rahman, better known as the Blind Sheik, [who] inspired the February 26, 1993, World Trade Center attack [which killed 6 and injured over 1,000 - ABP] and a 1994 conspiracy to bomb New York City landmarks, for which he was arrested and convicted. According to The 9/11 Commission Report, Rahman was spiritual leader to both the Egyptian Islamic Group and Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Ayman al-Zawahiri, a former leader of EIJ, later merged it with al Qaeda.”
“The documents include a five page roster with names, nationalities, and details on 92 people who "finished the course at M14," apparently a terrorist training regimen at an Iraqi intelligence institution. Some of these militants later conducted attacks. These foreign trainees, nearly all of whom graduated on November 24, 1990, included one Libyan, two Jordanians, two Moroccans, three Egyptians naturalized as Iraqis, three Eritreans, six Tunisians, nine Lebanese, nine Syrians, 20 Sudanese, and 35 Palestinians. This record indicates that Amer Asa'ad Melhem Mahmood and Mohammed Hasan Al-Howshary, both Palestinians, were arrested and detained at Athens Airport for two weeks while on "a mission outside the country."
- Deroy Murdock
* * *
“Abbas al-Janabai, a personal assistant to Uday Hussein for 15 years, has repeatedly
stated that there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden that included training terrorists at various camps in Iraq.”
- Mark Eichenlaub summarizing a CNN article from 2003
* * *
“Iraq continues to be a safehaven, transit point, or operational node for groups and
individuals who direct violence against the United States, Israel, and other allies.
Iraq has a long history of supporting terrorism. During the last four decades, it
has altered its targets to reflect changing priorities and goals. It continues to
harbor and sustain a number of smaller anti-Israel terrorist groups and to actively
encourage violence against Israel. Regarding the Iraq-al-Qaida relationship,
reporting from sources of varying reliability points to a number of contacts,
incidents of training, and discussions of Iraqi safehaven for Usama bin Ladin and
his organization dating from the early 1990s.”
- Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq [from the CIA]
* * *
“unnamed counterterrorism officials”…said that over 30 teams of terrorists, each team consisting of 2 to 3 men had been dispatced by Baghdad in 1991 and indicated that similar attacks may take place against U.S. interests again in 1998. (Athough, those in the intelligence community were said to be split during this time period as to whether or not Iraq had already dispatched similar teams of terrorists at this point.) The men, who were disguised as businessmen, used Iraq's diplomatic pouches to move automatic weapons, explosives and timers to embassies around for planned attacks…
- Mark Eichenlaub
Some of those international terrorists did harm the US
“Over the years, Iraq has provided safe haven to terrorists such as Abu Nidal, whose terror organization carried out more than 90 terrorist attacks in 20 countries that killed or injured nearly 900 people, including 12 Americans.”
- President George W. Bush
* * *
“The New York Times reports that Abu Nidal's Fatah Revolutionary Council murdered the following 17 Americans, at a minimum: [picture deleted]”
“President Saddam Hussein has recently told the head of the Palestinian political office, Faroq al-Kaddoumi, his decision to raise the sum granted to each family of the martyrs of the Palestinian uprising to $25,000 instead of $10,000,” Iraq's former deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, declared at a Baghdad meeting of Arab politicians and businessmen on March 11, 2002…Between Aziz's announcement and the March 20 launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 28 homicide bombers injured 1,209 people and killed 223 more, including at least eight Americans…
“Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, formerly the director of an al Qaeda training base in Afghanistan, fled to Iraq after being injured as the Taliban fell. He received medical care and convalesced for two months in Baghdad. He then opened a terrorist training camp in northern Iraq and arranged the October 2002 assassination of U.S. diplomat Lawrence Foley in Amman, Jordan.
- Deroy Murdock
