There Never Were Any Connections, Winston
In a thread from earlier this week, I noted that a celebrated (on the left) survey judged that Fox viewers were "more ill-informed" than PBS viewers because they believed there had been a connection between Hussein and Al Quaeda.
The major media had declared, y'see, that there never was a connection. Never had been one. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.
My question has always been "how do they get off saying that believing Hussein was connected to terrorists, not just Bin Laden, is 'misinformed' when the jury is still very much out?"
Why, indeed? The jury seems to be coming in on the side of those benighted Fox News viewers:
Just days after Operation Desert Fox concluded one of Saddam's most loyal and trusted intelligence operatives, Faruq Hijazi, was dispatched to Afghanistan. He met with senior leaders from the Taliban and then with bin Laden and his cohorts on December 21.
While we cannot be sure what transpired at this meeting, we can be sure that it was not some benign event. In fact, within days of the meeting bin Laden loudly declared his opposition to the U.S.-led missile strikes on Iraq and called on all Muslims to strike U.S. and British targets, including civilians, around the world. According to press accounts at the time, bin Laden explained, "The British and the American people loudly declared their support for their leaders' decision to attack Iraq." He added that the citizens' support for their governments made it "the duty of Muslims to confront, fight, and kill" them.
Naturally, the Europeans knew better - right?
The first alarm was rung by Milan's Corriere Della Sera on December 28. In the bluntest manner, the newspaper reported, "Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Ladin have sealed a pact." Saddam's regime and bin Laden's global terrorist network had united against the common enemy, the U.S. and her allies. In preparation for the coming terrorist war, Saddam had even offered bin Laden safehaven.
Just days later, on January 1, 1999, the Paris-based, pan-Arab magazine Al-Watan Al-Arabi expanded on the details of the new terrorist alliance. High-level representatives from both organizations had been meeting for months. At one such meeting in the summer of 1998 "bin Ladin tried to feel the Iraqi official's pulse about the possibility of being received in Baghdad." But, according to this account, the Iraqi envoys were not authorized to grant his request.
But the left! The
left has always known the truth, right?
Even London's left-of-center Guardian, which opposed the current iteration of the Iraq war and ran numerous articles dismissing the possibility of a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda in the last few years, ran two pieces discussing the axis of Saddam and bin Laden on February 6, 1999. One of the accounts, for example, began "Saddam Hussein's regime has opened talks with Osama bin Laden, bringing closer the threat of a terrorist attack using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, according to U.S. intelligence sources and Iraqi opposition officials."
Read the whole thing.
Posted by Mitch at
July 20, 2005 05:43 AM
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"In March 1998, after Bin Ladin's public fatwa against the United States, two al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraqi intelligence. In July, an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan to meet first with the Taliban and then with Bin Ladin. Sources reported that one, or perhaps both, of these meetings was apparently arranged through Bin Ladin's Eqyptian deputy, Zawahari, who had ties of his own to the Iraqis..
"Similar meetings between Iraqi officials and Bin Laden or his aides may have occurred in 1999 during a period of some reported strains with the Taliban. According to the reporting, Iraqi officials offered Bin Ladin a safe haven in Iraq."
Page 66 of the 9/11 Commission Report, http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf
Posted by: Gideon at July 20, 2005 07:47 AMMitch,
You've installed the disemvoweling widgit!
Good on ya' mate!
LF
Posted by: LearnedFoot at July 20, 2005 08:37 AMI am indeed chuckin' shot. I have bags of lead birdshot lying around, and I have to toss them up a stairway and into the back of the pickup.
Chuckin' shot indeed.
Hey, Dan - I welcome all criticism on my site. All of it, even the overwrought stuff. I value all of it.
You, however, through your rudeness and incivility, have become the first - and probably only - person I'll ever disemvowel. *You are just not worth the time and bandwidth*. Your recycled Kossack talking points are old, facile, trite and not worth the time it takes to read - but your pointless, mindless, juvenile hostility is the kicker. I reiterate my sentiments from the other night. You're a facile, febrile, obsessive little liar, and you're not welcome here.
Can you take a hint? Go drool on someone else's nickel for a while. Maybe run over to Kos or Atrios and hang out with your fellow droogs.
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Yep. A brief flash of inspiration. It rocks.
Highly recommended - although as I said, this is the first time in 3.5 years I've even *wanted* something like this, and hopefully the last.
Posted by: mitch at July 20, 2005 09:29 AMHey this is kinda fun. Let me try.
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Posted by: the elder at July 20, 2005 10:12 AMD'oh! Posted too soon and missed a couple.
Posted by: the elder at July 20, 2005 10:13 AMNo, Dan. I don't pst your ntrs because you're an abrasive, arrogant little jagoff who insults rather than discusses. I gave you plenty of chances to be less of a dick. That's all I asked. You couldn't do it.
In none of your posts did you ever make a point that would have required my dog to have broken a sweat.
And I'm the one who decides. It's *my blog*. And you're not part of it anymore.
At least, not with any vowels.
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Posted by: Meeyatch at July 20, 2005 11:01 AMDan,
Are you actually involved in a conversation with someone? Use your own email for that, thanks.
It's an abuse. Food for thought.
And maybe now you know why I never put my email address on comments...
Posted by: Mitch at July 21, 2005 09:35 AMHuh.
Well, Dan, I guess getting cute doesn't work. I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way.
Posted by: mitch at July 22, 2005 06:51 AMSure is dull around here without dan
Posted by: babs at July 24, 2005 04:46 PMi saw dan the other day. he was at the bus station, trying to get a 10 year old boy to suck him off for $5 and some pop.
someone yelled at him and he ran away, dropping his dentures in the process.
Posted by: vogon at July 24, 2005 06:03 PMInteresing comment vogon.
Based on what Mitch said to dan -
(you're an abrasive, arrogant little jagoff who insults rather than discusses. I gave you plenty of chances to be less of a dick. That's all I asked. You couldn't do it. )
It will be interesting to see if Mitch is consistent
The few things dan said are mild by comparison.
Posted by: babs at July 24, 2005 07:39 PMBy NOT commenting onsite about a particular contributor, you may lend some credibility to it. Otherwise, doing as you do - posting childish retorts - you give the offender another chance to offend! What happened to your original plan to keep this a site designed for discussion?
Posted by: Teena at August 3, 2005 10:08 AMSome of us enjoy your blogs, even when we don't agree with them, and don't want this site to become another outlet for morons. Please keep your site civil and intelligent.
Now a comment about your July 20 article, Mitch.
Posted by: Teena at August 3, 2005 10:19 AMAlthough we may assume only average Americans did not know we would attack Iraq soon, perhaps Saddam Hussein did. Let's see, how many years did our military drop clues (bombs) on their country? If our country were bombed repeatedly for years, would we try to round up help from others to stave off the enemy, or would we look for help from the most dangerous people possible - say, maybe the Al Qaeda type of terrorist? But only the caucasian variety, of course! I hear there are some in the CIA.
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