9/11 staff: No al Qaeda cooperation with Iraq

[MIKE BURN]

Quote:

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9/11 staff: No al Qaeda cooperation with Iraq



Wednesday, June 16, 2004 Posted: 9:49 AM EDT (1349 GMT)



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The panel investigating the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks found that there was "no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States," according to a staff report issued on Wednesday.



The report says Osama bin Laden "explored possible cooperation with Iraq during his time in Sudan, despite his opposition to (Saddam) Hussein's secular regime. Bin Laden had in fact at one time sponsored anti-Saddam Islamists in Iraqi Kurdistan.



"The Sudanese, to protect their own ties with Iraq, reportedly persuaded bin Laden to cease this support and arranged for contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda."



A senior Iraqi intelligence officer reportedly made three visits to Sudan, finally meeting bin Laden in 1994.



Bin Laden is said to have requested space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded.



"There have been reports that contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda also occurred after bin Laden had returned to Afghanistan, but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship," the report said.



"Two senior bin Laden associates associates have adamantly denied" any relationship, the report said.



The report also found that there was no "convincing evidence that any government financially supported al Qaeda before 9/11" other than the limited support provided by the Taliban when bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan.



It found that Saudi Arabia was a rich fund-raising ground for al Qaeda, but that it had found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior officials within the Saudi government funded al Qaeda.



The commission, which is scheduled to release its final report on the attacks at the end of July, is holding its last hearings Wednesday and Thursday.



Among those testifying at Wednesday's hearing will be a number of CIA officials, who will not be identified in order to protect their anonymity should they be sent on overseas assignments in the future.



Commission chairman Thomas Kean told CNN that the panel would focus on learning more about bin Laden's terrorist network.



"We want to know why these people hate us so much. We're going to follow some of these conspirators from one step to the other as they plan the attack. Then we're going to turn to the response. What did our leaders do? What decisions did they have to make? How did they get planes in the air? How did they do all those things? Mistakes were made on both sides," Kean said.



The panel is expected to discuss reports that al Qaeda had planned to launch the attacks in May or June of 2001, but postponed them because Mohammed Atta and his group were not ready.



"It tells you they're very cautious and careful and an enemy we cannot underestimate. They're entrepreneurial and we've just got to be ready for whatever they have in mind," Kean said.



The panel will also look at the U.S. response to the attacks, which struck the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks.



Last month, the commission met in New York, where it heard testimony about the emergency response to the attacks.



The panel has also questioned President Bush and Vice President Cheney, former President Bill Clinton, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

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Ring, ring.... my ears still *ring* from Rumsfeld's "Ole Europe... chicken.. yadda-yadda... you know, and now Rumsfeld knows in written form from his American-Heartlanders, that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.



He's been told by Chirac and Schröder that Europe will not go to war or support a war, while Europe knewed that Hussein and Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.



In contrary. I was called "@#%$-Chicken" and even worse things just for telling that the logic says: Hussein was the biggest ENEMY of Bin Laden in the Middle-East and the dude who slayed down the religious, shiitic extremists.



History can be fun sometimes. Only many people died for being misled into a unjustified war, which created also a total mess in this region and brought back the POWER to the muslim extremists.



I don't know, but I also think the U.S. government is preparing the public for a return of Hussein He will be the only one capable of ordering this country, how sarcastic this may sound to any of you.



What a complete JOKE this war was/is.

[DreamTone7]

Reporting opinion as fact is nothing new...so one might wonder if it is indeed reporting at all. Could it be something else?

[RonOnGuitar]

Quote:

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Hussein was the biggest ENEMY of Bin Laden

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Not correct, Mike. In fact, Saddam even offered Bin Laden asylum (hiding from the law) in Iraq. The 911 investigative panel said the liberal media distorted their report - for example, the story you posted is fiction/opinion, not fact.



9-11 Commission on Thursday

"The Republican Chairman and Democratic Vice Chairman of the 9-11 Commission on Thursday rejected the media’s widespread reporting that the commission’s report issued the day before had directly contradicted Bush administration statements about connections between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq."



And from that same source -



Reporter Who Documented bin Laden-Saddam Ties Now at CBS



Update: A June 17 CyberAlert item about how in 1999 then-ABC News reporter Sheila MacVicar recited ties between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, noted that “a short time” after that story aired she “jumped to CNN, and I believe she has recently departed from CNN.” Indeed, MacVicar is now a London-based correspondent for CBS News, and on

Thursday’s CBS Evening News she filed the story on the plight of kidnaped American Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia.



MacVicar reported, on the January 14, 1999 edition of the ABC prime time newsmagazine Crime and Justice:

“Saddam Hussein has a long history of harboring terrorists. Carlos the Jackal, Abu Nidal, Abu Abbas, the most notorious terrorists of their era, all found shelter and support at one time in Baghdad. Intelligence sources say bin Laden's long relationship with the Iraqis began as he helped Sudan's fundamentalist government in their efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

“Three weeks after the bombing [by the U.S. in Sudan], on August 31, bin Laden reaches out to his friends in Iraq and Sudan. [over video of Iraqi man cheek to cheek with Sudanese men] Iraq's Vice President arrives in Khartoum to show his support for the Sudanese after the U.S. attack. ABC News has learned that during these meetings, senior Sudanese officials, acting on behalf of bin Laden, ask if Saddam Hussein would grant him asylum.

“Iraq was, indeed, interested. ABC News has learned that in December, an Iraqi intelligence chief, named Farouk Hijazi, now Iraq's ambassador to Turkey, made a secret trip to Afghanistan to meet with bin Laden. Three intelligence agencies tell ABC News they cannot be certain what was discussed, but almost certainly, they say, bin Laden has been told he would be welcome in Baghdad.”

(Realplayer video of this report at site)



President Clinton was also aware of the Osama-Saddam weapons development and had the US Department of Justice issue an idictment (legal charges) because of it.



Bin Laden, Atef Indicted in U.S. Federal Court for African Bombings - 04 Nov 1998



"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," the indictment said.



Even from the biggest Bush-bashing newspaper in the US there was this:

The New York Times

November 5, 1998, Thursday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 2; Foreign Desk

LENGTH: 1093 words

HEADLINE: SAUDI IS INDICTED IN BOMB ATTACKS ON U.S. EMBASSIES

BYLINE: By BENJAMIN WEISER

BODY: A Federal grand jury in Manhattan returned a 238-count indictment yesterday charging the Saudi exile Osama bin Laden in the bombings of two United States Embassies in Africa in August and with conspiring to commit other acts of

terrorism against Americans abroad.

Government officials immediately announced that they were offering two rewards of $5 million each for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Mr. bin Laden and another man charged yesterday, Muhammad Atef, who was described as

Mr. bin Laden's chief military commander.

Mr. bin Laden is believed to be living in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist movement that rules that country.

Mr. Atef's whereabouts are unknown. It is uncertain whether Mr. bin Laden will ever stand trial in the United States. But if he does, prosecutors said, he could face life in prison or the

death penalty if he is convicted. Prosecutors also unsealed an earlier indictment, issued in June, that included similar but less detailed charges against Mr. bin Laden.

That indictment was returned before the embassy bombings and resulted from a two-year grand jury investigation of his activities in Somalia and Saudi Arabia, as well as reports that he had connections to a circle of Islamic militants in

Brooklyn.

The new indictment, which supersedes the June action, accuses Mr. bin Laden of leading a vast terrorist conspiracy from 1989 to the present, in which he is said to have been working in concert with governments, including those of Sudan, Iraq and Iran, and terrorist groups to build weapons and attack American military installations. Excerpts, page A8.

But the indictment gives few details of Mr. bin Laden's alleged involvement in the embassy attacks. The indictment does not, for example, specify whether prosecutors have evidence that Mr. bin Laden gave direct orders to those who

carried out the attacks.

Nothing in the document indicates why the original indictment was kept secret for months. But the secret charges were returned about the time that American officials were plotting a possible military attack into Afghanistan to arrest

Mr. bin Laden.

Mary Jo White, the United States Attorney in Manhattan, said, "It's very common to have sealed indictments when you're trying to apprehend those who are indicted."

Both indictments offer new information about Mr. bin Laden's operations, including one deal he is said to have struck with Iraq to cooperate in the development of weapons in return for Mr. bin Laden's agreeing not to work against that country.

No details were given about whether the alleged deal with Iraq led to the development of actual weapons for Mr. bin Laden's group, which is called Al Qaeda.

The Government said yesterday that Mr. bin Laden's group had made use of private relief groups "as conduits for transmitting funds" for Al Qaeda. The groups were not identified.

Prosecutors also said Mr. bin Laden's group had conducted internal investigations of its members and their associates, trying to detect who might be acting as informants, and had killed those who had been suspected of collaborating with enemies of the organization.

The Government indicated earlier that its knowledge of Mr. bin Laden's activities stemmed in part from the cooperation of one such informant, who it said yesterday had worked for Mr. bin Laden, transporting weapons to terrorists,

helping to buy land for his training camps and assisting in running his finances.

The June indictment against Mr. bin Laden suggested that the Government had a considerable amount of knowledge of his dealings in the months before the attacks on the embassies, one in Tanzania and one in Kenya.

But the new charges are an indication of how quickly the Government has worked to solve the embassy attacks, which occurred just three months ago.

Ms. White said that Mr. bin Laden was charged with "plotting and carrying out the most heinous acts of international terrorism and murder."

Citing the more than 250 people killed in the embassy attacks and the more than 1,000 wounded, she added, "In a greater sense, all of the citizens of the world are also victims whenever and wherever the cruel and cowardly acts of

international terrorism strike."

The investigation of Mr. bin Laden is continuing, said Ms. White and Lewis D. Schiliro, assistant director of the F.B.I. in New York, whose agents have fanned out around the world to investigate the embassy attacks.

"Our investigative strategy is clear," Mr. Schiliro said.

"We will identify, locate and prosecute all those responsible, right up the line, from those who constructed and delivered the bombs to those who paid for them and ordered it done."

In charging Mr. Atef, the Government reported new details about what it called his role as Mr. bin Laden's military commander, referring to his "principal responsibility for the training of Al Qaeda members."

Mr. Atef was a member of a committee under Mr. bin Laden that approved all terrorist actions by Al Qaeda, the indictment said, and he also played a major role in coordinating attacks on United States and United Nations troops in Somalia in October 1993. In those attacks, 18 American soldiers and hundreds of Somalis were killed.

Americans were shocked by the images of the body of one of the Americans being dragged through the streets, and the violence provoked a furor over the United States role in Somalia as part of the United Nations effort to pacify the

country and supply food and medicine to the Somalis.

At the time, the battle was seen as one with Somali warlords. But yesterday's charges made clear that the Government now contends that Mr. bin Laden had a critical role in instigating the fighting.

In late 1992 and 1993, when Mr. bin Laden's group was based in Sudan, Mr. Atef went to Somalia to determine "how best to cause violence to the United States and United Nations military forces stationed there," and reported back to Mr.

bin Laden at his headquarters in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, the indictment said.

Prosecutors said that in the spring of 1993, Mr. Atef and other members of Al Qaeda, including Haroun Fazil and Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, both of whom have been charged in the embassy attacks, traveled to Somalia and trained Somalis opposed to the United Nation's intervention. On Oct. 3 and 4, 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, Somali soldiers trained by Al Qaeda took part in the attacks on the soldiers, according to the June 10 indictment that was unsealed yesterday.