In case you haven't heard yet.

From Channel 4 news and from the BBC.

The floor is now open for you lot to discuss this at length, while I stand over here with a ten-foot pole; just in case.

Chaney is now pushing the Iraq AlQaeda link again... made a statment about it the other day appearantly.

I don't know of any evidece that ever said they were linked in the first place. Apart from our governments that is!

Yeah, but if Bush says it about Iraq, it must be true.



Is ANYONE suprised by this new finding?

I honestly don't know how they think they can pull this crap on the populous. I think that anyone who has ever researched beyond some Fox News sound bites knows full well that the only thing Al Qaeda and Iraq had as a common link was the Q's in their names.

I heard from CNN today that Al Qaeda had approached Iraq at one point asking to use chemical/biological weapons against the US, but that Iraq had ignored them.



~blood rose~

Sadam Husain may have been a tyrant but he wasn't stupid enough to ask the US to kick his ass directly (not that indirectly stoped them).

Apparently, during the first Gulf War, Bin Laden asked the CIA to let his Mujaheddin into Iraq to assassinate Saddam. Given Saddam was a secular despot, which goes against Bin Laden's "dream" of a Middle East governed solely by theocratic governments, it's hardly a surprise.

I'd also heard that their ideals clashed and that they were not friendly towards each other, but couldn't remember the details.

Bleh...No kidding.
Jeeze Osama Bin Laden and Saddam hated eachother. They were on opposite sides of the spectrum. Hell, Saddam was running a secular government which was a big smack in the face to Osama. Saddam is the reason Americans stationed their asses in Saudi Arabia which is what really pissed Osama off.
The idea that these two men got together to do the whole 9/11 thing is ridiculous.

I think that this idea is also ridiculous because it promotes the idea that "all Middle Easterners who oppose the US and Israel are alike" which is not true at all.

Saddam was an enemy of Al Qaeda because of his refusal to institute Sharia in his country.

We had this dangerous mentality during the Cold War when we linked Communist China to the USSR. In reality, the two countries hated eachother, and were competing for communist allies in SE Asia and Latin America. The competition turned out to be far more agressive than our slow "domino effect" theory that was the justification for our involvement in both Korea and Vietnam.



~blood rose~

In this particular situation, these two ideologically-opposed people weren't working together. I agree with that. But to state that an ideological difference means that there's NO WAY they would ever ally, or even that such an alliance would be UNLIKELY, is frankly wrong. Just a few such examples of even more insane alliances of the 20th century:

1) WWII: Nazi Germany (Aryan supremacist) and Imperial Japan (not exactly Aryan, huh?)
2) WWII: USA (ultimate capitalist power) and USSR (world Communist leader)
3) WWII: Finland (treated their Jews better than a huge amount of Europe) and Nazi Germany (dedicated to wiping out world Jewry)
4) Cold War: Communists and rich, materialistic Arab dictators
5) Cold War: Capitalists and Muslim Extremists

People often pick allies for reasons besides ideological compatibility. So don't assume that al-Qaeda would never ally with a secular power in order to strike at the USA. This particular situation wasn't such an alliance, but those alliances are very common and we should never ignore such a possibility.

SS

Damnit, now I'm seeing it all over the regular news that the administration is insisting that Iraq and Al Qaeda were linked. I first heard it on Air America and NPR.....

I really wish someone would compile a montage of all the contradictions made from people just within the administration.

Very true. I stand corrected. Of course one should try to refrain from using blanket statements in a discussion.
You're right, the possibilty is there however unlikely that it may be.

Here's an interesting link on this topic. I hope this hasn't been posted before, I haven't been around too much recently and haven't really kept track of all that's been posted.

Clickey Clickey