Date: November 2004
The media and Western soi disant ‘elite’ have always been against the War in Iraq and the broader goal of regime change in the Middle East. Without democracy and human rights changes the Middle East will continue to be the fulcrum of terror, and anti-civilizational fascism. The imbalance in reporting is ridiculous – and every conspiracy theory reported as veracity. The links between Al Qaeda and Iraq run back to over a decade but you would never know it from media reporting.

The links between Iraq and terror and Al Qaeda are publicly known but not trumpeted in the Western media since they don’t conform to Liberals ideas of ‘international law’, ‘justice’ or ‘justified wars’. The links would include;

-1998 East Africa US embassy bombings where both Iraq and Al Qaeda collaborated, financially and physically, to kill hundreds
-Al Ansar - an Al Qaeda group based in Iraq, specialized in chemical weapons production is funded by A.Q.
-Funding by Hussein of Palestinian terror against Israel, abetted in part by Al Qaeda

Such analyses were summed up in 1998 by Clinton and his Security of State [Cohen]:
"Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States. In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq." [see Wash. Times AQ-Iraq]

Nothing since has repudiated these claims. In fact As Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard points out the links are clear and given Hussein’s desire to dominate the Middle East, control oil supplies and annihilate Israel his search for WMD and distribution capability would include terrorist networks and other rogue regimes. Various reports confirm that:

-Ansar al-Islam--the al Qaeda cell formed in June 2001, is joining with remnants of Saddam's regime to attack Americans and nongovernmental organizations working in Iraq, including bombing of the U.N. headquarters was the result of a joint operation between Baathists and Ansar al-Islam.

-Throughout the summer and fall of 2002, al Qaeda operatives held in Guantanamo corroborated a series of meetings in Khartoum, Sudan, home to al Qaeda during the mid-90s. U.S. officials learned more about the activities of Abu Abdullah al-Iraqi, an al Qaeda WMD specialist sent by bin Laden to seek WMD training, and possibly weapons, from the Iraqi regime.

-Other credible report that other al Qa'ida leaders sought contacts in Iraq who could help them acquire WMD capabilities.

-Intelligence specialists also heard increasingly detailed reports about meetings in Baghdad between al Qaeda leaders and Uday Hussein in April 1998, at a birthday celebration for Saddam.

-Irrefutable evidence that the Iraqi regime paid Bin Laden’s Jordanian commander, Zawahiri $300,000 in 1998, around the time his Islamic Jihad was merging with al Qaeda. [four sources spread across the national security hierarchy have confirmed the payment].

-In Feb. 1998 Bin Laden issued his fatwa calling on war against the US, citing amongst other examples, US aggression against Iraq, it appears that during this time there must have been discussions between Iraq and AQ.
[… Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, still they are helpless. Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, in excess of 1 million . . . despite all this, the Americans are once again trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation].

-During the late 1990s credible information indicates that Iraq and al Qa'ida discussed safe haven and reciprocal non-aggression. Since Operation Enduring Freedom [in Afghanistan], and solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al Qa'ida members, including some that have been in Baghdad.

-Iraq has provided training to al Qa'ida members in the areas of poisons and gases and making conventional bombs. Iraq's increasing support to extremist Palestinians, coupled with growing indications of a relationship with al Qa'ida, suggest that Baghdad's links to terrorists will increase, even absent US military actions.

-Iraqi defectors had been saying for years that Saddam's regime trained non-Iraqi Arab terrorists at a camp in Salman Pak, south of Baghdad. U.N. inspectors had confirmed the camp's existence, including the presence of a Boeing 707. Defectors say the plane was used to train hijackers. [for the article see Links AQ-Iraq]

As the 9-11 Commission report, the Duelfer Report and CIA reports maintain, the link between Ansar and Al Qaeda is transparently obvious. During the war American forces and Kurd Peshmerga’s said they had found confirmation of the connection between Al Ansar and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network, including propaganda material and passports. Training camps containing terrorist manuals were discovered near the Iranian border - which harbored AQ fighters. Both the Duelfer and Kay reports state that Iraq had many programs in train to build on past WMD potential. All parties including the UNO were being duped. What the Iraqi’s lacked was the distribution capability of WMD. They knew how to make chemical agents and were in fact expert in doing so, but they lacked the ability to distribute such weapons. However, they were actively searching for the expertise and material to acquire such capabilities. This search included terrorist networks.

In the 9-11 Commission, Kay and Duelfer reports it is clear as well that money from the 1990s Oil for Food scam, which provided Hussein some $10 billions in illegal money, at least in part, made its way into terrorist hands. This is why the terrorist insurgency is now as strong as it is.

That Iraq was a terrorist and rogue nation is not in doubt. After ignoring 17 UN resolutions it was high time to effect regime change in a post 9-11 world. Securing democracy in Iraq, cutting off financial support to terrorist networks and removing an unstable element from the Middle East makes this war a necessity in the fight against terror.