I see many lines that tie Sadaam to Al Quada. Maybe the rest of you can't read so good.

I am going to love it IF a democrat gets in office and royally screws things up and we get hit by another terrorist attack ... but im sure you guys will come up with some way to blame bush for that as well.

Whether or not Saddam had ties to a terrorist has no bearing on the invasion. Bush lied to cover up the real reason and to appease congress and the American Public. See my post below.

A new Pentagon report on Iraq and Terrorism has the news media buzzing. An item on the New York Times blog snarks, "Oh, By the Way, There Was No Al Qaeda Link." The ABC News story that previews the full report concludes, "Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda."

How, then, to explain this sentence about Iraq and al Qaeda from the report's abstract: "At times, these organizations would work together in pursuit of shared goals but still maintain their autonomy and independence because of innate caution and mutual distrust"? And how to explain the "considerable overlap" between their activities which led not only to the appearances of ties but to a "de facto link between the organizations?" (See the entire abstract below.)

And what about this revelation from page 34? "Captured documents reveal that the regime was willing to co-opt or support organizations it knew to be part of al Qaeda -- as long as that organization's near-term goals supported Saddam's long-term vision." (The example given in the report is the Army of Muhammad in Bahrain, a group the Iraqi Intelligence Service describes as "under the wings of bin Laden.")

And there is this line from page 42: "Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri) or that generally shared al Qaeda's stated goals and objectives."

Really? Saddam Hussein "supported" a group that merged with al Qaeda in the late 1990s, run by al Qaeda's #2, and the New York Times thinks this is not a link between Iraq and al Qaeda? How does that work?

Anyone interested in the "strong evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism" -- that language comes from this report, too -- should read the entire thing for themselves, here.

Here is the abstract:

Captured Iraqi documents have uncovered evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism, including a variety of revolutionary, liberation, nationalist and Islamic terrorist organizations. While these documents do not reveal direct coordination and assistance between the Saddam regime and the al Qaeda network, they do indicate that Saddam was willing to use, albeit cautiously, operatives affiliated with al Qaeda as long as Saddam could have these terrorist-operatives monitored closely. Because Saddam's security organizations and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network operated with similar aims (at least in the short term), considerable overlap was inevitable when monitoring, contacting, financing, and training the same outside groups. This created both the appearance of and, in some way, a "de facto" link between the organizations. At times, these organizations would work together in pursuit of shared goals but still maintain their autonomy and independence because of innate caution and mutual distrust. Though the execution of Iraqi terror plots was not always successful, evidence shows that Saddam’s use of terrorist tactics and his support for terrorist groups remained strong up until the collapse of the regime.

SO CAN WE IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY NOW?... AND THEN SEND THEM TO PRISON?

here is why we invaded Iraq: It was about the propping up the U.S. petrodollar. When Nixon decoupled the dollar from the gold standard and did a deal with the Saudis and OPEC to allow oil to be traded only in U.S. dollars, which made the dollar the world reserve currency and that is its value. All nations have to buy oil with U.S. dollars, but we just print dollars to get a free lunch. This con has been going on for 30+ years but Saddam Hussein started taking Euros for oil, which caused the bottom to fall out of the artifically maintained U.S. dollars. Clinton & Bush were determined to put a stop to this, because without the dollar being the standard, the U.S. economy and military would grind grind to a halt and end the American global military power. So Iraq was invaded not because of WMDs or ties to Al-Qaida. The USA immediately forced the sale of Iraqi oil for dollars for a while. Now Iran & Venezuela are selling oil for Euros and Yen, so guess what? The backside has dropped out of the U.S. dollar again, so we need to force these rogue countries to stop doing this and start selling oil with dollars again. But guess what, this isn't going to happen again. The U.S. dollar is being dropped as the world reserve currency, the OPEC nations are diversifying their currencies away from the dollar and if China and a few other creditor nations start redeeming their massive dollar holdings, the U.S. economy is history along with our military funding. We'll have to pay for oil with Euros or Yen instead of the photocopied monopoly dollar. Now you know why Iraq was invaded and why Iran & Venzuela are next. But, its too little too late unless all you citizens are ready to start wearing military fatigues. If we don't, it will take a while, but it will be the end of the American Empire

Read the report. Found it very interesting in how it's couched. Some will read the list of so-called terrorist groups and say "Ah-haa! Gotcha! They're all terrorist groups, just like Bush and Cheney said!" Then you'll take the ball and run with it, shouting "Proof! Proof!" You'll become a sycophant, and you'll drink the Bush-Cheney Kool-aid. Sad. Very sad.

But if you read the report--the entire report--as I have done--and if you know your independently researched ancient and modern history of the Middle East then you'll know and understand that the so-called terrorist organizations listed on pgs 14-15 in no way shape, form or fashion fit into the classic catergory of "terrorist" as defined by the west. What these groups actually was were Iraqi-State controlled organs that were often directly funded by the gov't of Saddam Hussein and almost exclusively targeted Iraqi Exile opposition groups. That is they targeted exile organizations directly hostile the Hussein Gov't. Paralelles exist in every known gov't. Example: The CIA and exile Cuban Groups, which Castro determines are "terrorist' but the U.S. recognizes as "Freedom Fighters," or the RCMP, which disrupts the Quebec Separatist movement in any way they can. Or Isreal and the Mosad. The list could go on and on, but I hope you all take my point, which is Saddam Hussien had absolutely nothing to do with harboring Al Queda or cooperarting with him in any way shape, form or fashion. The dots are just not there.

This causes me some concern. I have to ask the honest question: Why did we start this war? It wasn't because Hussein was sleeping with Al Queda; Hussein was a secularist. It wasn't because Hussein was targeting western interest; he wasn't. So I have to ask again: Why are we in Iraq? After this report, the case cannot be made that it was to search for WMD. Or to promote democracy in general. If no answers can be provided, then the only answer that I can provide is that we are systemically looting the nation of thier oil wealth. And if that is so, then we are conquerors and looters, pure and simple.

Thanks for publishing this report that the administration did not want published. I encourage everyone with half a brain to read it cover to cover. Then seethe. And in November, vote the bums out. Then demand that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfield, et al, be tried under the RICO statures for profiteering and crimes against humanity.

Now that we cordially orchestrated the 'off with his head campaign' for their benefit, the Saudis are happy to pursue their original ulterior motives and keep raising the barrel prices to fund their UTOPIAN SOCIETY without any resistance. Either we cut or drastically reduce the need for oil or we become the servants of these creatures that we created. Yes, it is our fault.

I love that we hire military guys because of their expert judgement about political sensitivity.

The politicians want to fight wars, and the generals want to worry about politics.

Who cares what they call themselves! We've got them concentrated in Iraq and they are not flying planes into tall buildings with a single bound =^^^-> in my neighborhood...yet

Is this the only thing the "government" doesn't want us to see? Only 10 more months of Bush/Cheney et al.

If we were lied to about the reasons for invading IRAQ than how can we believe the official story behind the World Trade Center attacks? Look at all of our freedoms we gave up and also look at who gained from the events of that terrible day. Isn't it kind of ironic how the events of that day were used as a catalyst for invading IRAQ? I think as americans we need to call for a full investigation of this administration and all their "interests" that have profited from this so called "War on Terrorism"!

THEY ALSO DON'T WANT YOU .... to see all the millions they stole.... IMPEACH NOW!

Is there actually an organization that calls itself Al Qaeda? Can you please cite any proof of that?

Of course there is no link between "Al Qaeda" and Saddam because there never was any "Al Qaeda". The name originated in a CIA analyst's mind, and meant: "The base" as in "base directory" on hard disk found in Pakistan.

But don't such simple facts stop the ranting, please. It's so much fun to read.

It's another example of the standard method of operation and utter incompetence with this bunch of clowns in the white house

As a further testament to the utter incompetence of this administration, the act of trying to make this report more difficult to obtain has massively backfired by drawing more attention to the report, which in turn is making it readily available from any number of sources.

Hey, that's kindof like invading Iraq for energy security and almost tripling the cost of oil as a result.

The combination of ignorance and arrogance demonstrated by this administration is simply staggering.

In less than a year, nobody will remember that Bush existed. In fact, I've forgotten him already.

Ain't no link. Never was a link. Everybody knows it.

Dr H J Hiddinga,

I want to see you attempt to prove your below statement.

"Al Quaeda operatives were cloeely aligned with the Baath party in Iraq, including direct contacts with Saddam himself. And the hands of Saddam were wrapped tightly around biological, chemical, and nuclear devices. These are public facts that have been opportunistically forgotten and ignored by journalists and closed minded, intolerant, left wing cretins."

By any reasonable standard Bush will be remembered as the worst president in the history of the nation. Those that voted for him should be rememebered also, as a clear signal that 50% of American voters cannot be trusted to make an intelligent choice. Rove & Cheney know this and that is their only claim to competence.

Ok, I have to point something out here. Once, again, the government is wasting the taxpayers money when they do not need too. CDs in the mail instead of putting it online?? Just how much is the costing us?

Am I wrong? I think not.

Ani,
when you say Obama has no clue what he is talking about in foreign policies what fact do you base that on? On the fact that he had good judgement and opposed the war or on the fact that he wants to try diplomacy rather than force and arrogance?

You go, Bob! Nice info.

You all are being brainwashed against Bush (he's definitely not the greatest president but isn't a complete fool either). First, if you would actually read the full report, rather than just looking at the comments ABC made, you would realize that Saddam had many ties to numerous terrorist groups who sought the destruction of the West. Al Qaeda was not one of them but those mentioned are not to be ignored.
Second, did any of you actually think we removed Saddam from power because of Al Qaeda? How many times must this be repeated? 9/11 = TERRORISTS (AL QAEDA), NOT THE IRAQ WAR. Seriously, the US stands to make the three P's with other countries that have democracies implemented in them (3 P's: Peace, Power and Prosperity). Maybe we went into Iraq on a quest of democritization (despite how hypocritical that really is) or maybe it was for oil or perhaps to stop the minority from ruling over and harming the majority in Iraq. Whatever it was, it wasn't Al Qaeda.
Third, Obama has no clue what he is talking about when it comes to foreign policy and can't stand up to McCain (even though I don't support McCain). He may move you but this is an election where we must pick a candidate who knows the history of the countries we are dealing with, not someone who makes you emotional.

This is just the beginning.

Duh! Was there ever any question? Any American that has any intelligence at all realized that Sadam and Al Qaeda were completely separate issues well before "Operation Iraqi Oil Grab". Unfortunately, George W. Bush & Company, Inc. had a stockholder's meeting and out maneuvered The American People.