al Qaeda and Iraq

You know, I'm tired of hearing that there was no connection between the Iraq of Saddam and al Qaeda. So I've decided that with this post, I will collect in one place all articles regarding that very connection of which I am aware so that anyone searching and finding this post will have easy access to the information.

If anyone would like to add links, I'll be glad to include them.

For now, here's the evidence that I have collected and believe is quite compelling. Compelling enough that you have to either be a partisan hack or an al Qaeda sympathizer to dismiss.

First up is a piece by Stephen F. Hayes of the Weekly Standard titled "Case Closed"

OSAMA BIN LADEN and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al Qaeda training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda--perhaps even for Mohamed Atta--according to a top secret U.S. government memorandum obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD...

Next is a piece by Deroy Murdock writing for the National Review called "Saddam's Terror Ties"

...Bush and his national-security team should repeatedly devote entire speeches and publications — complete with documents, names, and visuals, including photographs of terrorists and their innocent victims — to remind Americans and the world that Baathist Iraq was a general store for terrorists, complete with cash, training, lodging, and even medical attention.

The evidence for Hussein's cooperation with and support for global terrorists is abundant and increasing...

Mansoor Ijaz wrote for the National Review "Hand in Glove: Iraq and al Qaeda"

"Osama bin Laden sealed Saddam Hussein's fate last Tuesday when, in a Messianic rendering of his latest fatwa against Americans, he admitted a "convergence of interests" with Iraq and renewed his threat to bring down traitorous Arab governments across the region. His call to set aside differences with Saddam's "socialist" movement strengthened perceptions that he views Baghdad's strongman as little more than a potentate of one al Qaeda's global villages, otherwise known as the Muslim Ummah...

In the November 3, 2003 issue of the Weekly Standard, Stephen F. Hayes writes "Osama's Best Friend"

...The Treasury Department, as it examines al Qaeda's financial network, has come across the name Abu Hajer al Iraqi on numerous occasions. Published reports claim that he shared a bank account in Hamburg, Germany, with a man thought to have provided financing to three of the September 11 hijackers. His name has also been found on documents obtained by U.S. officials investigating Islamic charities and phony businesses believed to be al Qaeda front groups.

The more authorities learn about the Iraqi al Qaeda leader, the more questions they have. Perhaps the first one they would ask, were Abu Hajer the kind of prisoner willing to talk rather than the kind of prisoner who gouges out his captors' eyes, is this: Who is Ahmad Hikmat Shakir? And the second: Why were your name and contact information found in his apartment shortly after the attacks on September 11, 2001? ...

On October 17th, 2003, The independent Iraqi weekly Al-Yawm Al-Aakher published an article about al Qaeda training camps in Iraq translated here by MEMRI

The independent Iraqi weekly Al-Yawm Al-Aakher reveals details on the training of Al-Qa'ida members operating under the orders of Saddam's Presidential Palace two months before the September 11 attacks. The following are excerpts from the article:

On December 12th 2003, Con Coughlin writing for the Telegraph said

Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.

Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service...

And finally, Stephen F Hayes wrote in July of last year:

The Al Qaeda Connection, cont. More reason to suspect that bin Laden and Saddam may have been in league.

To me the evidence is pretty clear and mounting. We can not forget the Zarqawi memo which was written in Iraq to al Qaeda leaders. Zarqawi, we must remember lived in Iraq before the war and was given medical treatment in Baghdad

You may reply that none of this is conclusive evidence that could be gain a conviction in a court of law. And perhaps you are right.

But to say there is no evidence of an al Qaeda-Iraq link is disingenuous at best.

And downright misleading at worst.