Al Qaeda, Iraq and Saddam Hussein

Military News and current conflicts. Middle East, Syria, Ukraine, etc.
User avatar
RF
Senior Member
Posts: 7759
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2006 1:15 pm
Location: Wolverhampton, ENGLAND

Al Qaeda, Iraq and Saddam Hussein

Post by RF »

There has been much hype about the connections, or more specifically the non connections, between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. In particular there is the line that Saddam had no involvement with the attack on the World Trade Center, so that that did not provide a justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Most commentators, including members of this forum, have stated that there were never any connections between the Ba'athist regime and Al Qaeda.

The current public enquiry in Britain into the invasion of Iraq in 2003 has heard evidence from the British Foreign Office that they kept specific tabs on three identified instances of Al Qaeda operatives being in Iraq and Baghdad prior to the attack on the World Trade Center, involving meetings with the Ba'athist regime if not Saddam himself. The Foreign Office staff were unable to identify the substance of what went on between the two parties, but offered their opinion to the enquiry that there was no substantive co-operation. Note that this is their opinion. They don't actually know what collaboration did take place.
But this piece of almost entirely unreported news shows that there were contacts and that the argument that there was no connection at all is wrong.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.