The al-Qa'ida Connection                                                          Back

The 9/11 Commission stated that there was no proof of an Iraqi/al-Qa'ida connection. See pgs. 228/229 of the report

The one most important reason that they (The Bush administration) had for making the connection, was that Muhammad Atta had a meeting in Prague, Czech Republic with an Iraqi operative named Ahmed al-Ani. The administration has stood by this account even though the F. B. I. stated, that at the time of the meeting he was in Florida and making calls on his cell phone.

That there were al-Qa'ida training camps in northern Iraq. Let me remind you that Northern Iraq was a no fly zone and that Saddam Hussein had as much control of that area of the country as we did.

Do you really think that Saddam Hussein would allow another group, which could have been a threat to his power, remain in his country. Remember they (The al-Qa'ida) Wanted Islamic governments throughout the world and may have tried to displace him. as paranoid as he was would he have taken that chance?

Usama Bin Ladin was a member & supporter of the Mujahidin. A radical Muslim fundamentalist he hated Saddam Hussein, who ran a secular government. Remember Iraq had started a war with the fundamentalist government in Iran & invaded another Muslim country Kuwait.

We, the U.S., backed the Mujahidin in it's war with the with the government of Afghanistan & the Soviet Union.

We supplied & trained the rebels in their fight to overthrow the government in the belief that a soviet ally in that region of the world was a destabilizing force. What we didn't consider was the long term effect of the people we were putting into power.

They were the radical Muslim force that placed the Taliban in power & the first thing we did when they took control of the government was to close our embassy & run. You saw the result of that failed policy. We can't do that again. We have to finish what we started in both Iraq & Afghanistan.

Soon after the Afghan/Soviet war Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the Golf War started. (Another war that had the full support of the world.) At that time Osama bin Laden offered the services of his Mujahidin fighters to the Saudi Royal Family, to protect their eastern border from Iraq. The family turned him down in favor of the U. S. and we now had U.S. Troops in the holy cities of Makkah & Madinah and he turned on us. Again he showed his contempt for Saddam Hussein.

10/4/04 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appeared Monday to back off earlier statements suggesting Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had links to al Qaeda.

When asked about any connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, Rumsfeld said, "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."  wasn't that one of the reasons we went to war?

Follow the links in the CNN stories to see just what Dick Chaney & George Bush said about the connections. I will say that Bush, Chaney, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz had reason to hate Saddam Hussein but that's not reason enough to not only lie to the American people, as they did on many occasions leading up to the war, but worse yet send American boys to die for their revenge.