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Report Demonstrating “No Operational Ties” [Dan Collins]

between Saddam and AQ nevertheless details his involvement with and support of terrorist organizations affiliated with AQ.

A Pentagon review of about 600,000 documents captured in the Iraq war attests to Saddam Hussein’s willingness to use terrorism to target Americans and work closely with jihadist organizations throughout the Middle East.

So, geez, Semanticleo . . . are you satisfied now? 

The report also undercuts the claim made by many on the left and many at the CIA that Saddam, as a national socialist, was incapable of supporting or collaborating with the Islamist al Qaeda.

********

A former Bush administration official who was a member of the counter-terrorism evaluation group that analyzed terror networks and links between terrorists and states, David Wurmser, said he felt the report began to vindicate his point of view.

“This is the beginning of the process of exposing Saddam’s involvement in Islamic terror. But it is only the beginning. Time and declassification I’m sure will reveal yet more,” he said. “Even so, this report is damning to those who doubted Saddam Hussein’s involvement with Jihadist terrorist groups. It devastates one of the central myths plaguing our government prior to 9-11, that a Jihadist group would not cooperate with a secular regime and vice versa.”

70 Replies to “Report Demonstrating “No Operational Ties” [Dan Collins]”

  1. Veeshir says:

    So, geez, Semanticleo . . . are you satisfied now?
    Wrong question, it should be
    “When you don’t hear what you don’t want to hear, do you stick your fingers in your ears and say, “Lalalallalalallala” or do you stick your fingers in your ears and say, “I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you” or do you stick your fingers in your ears and say, “I’m not listening, I’m not listening”?
    I prefer the last, it reminds of Miracle Max and makes me laugh harder than the other two.

  2. JD says:

    There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that any of the barking twatwaffles would even acknowledge the existence of this information, much less give it any credibility.

  3. Dan Collins says:

    That’s what the Pentagon leakers were counting on when they shaped the bafflefield.

  4. Dan Collins says:

    It’s the new “no controlling legal authority.”

  5. JD says:

    If it does not fit with their operational worldview of quagmire, failure, war based on lies, bush lied puppies died, tax cuts for the rich, Halliburton, etc … the information will be ignored. To address it would require a sea change in their fundamentally flawed baseline assumptions.

  6. sashal says:

    Rumsfeld had ties to Saddam and I have to K.Bacon.
    It is pathetic the excuse some guys will go to justify unnecessary BS war…

  7. Semanticleo says:

    “So, geez, Semanticleo . . . are you satisfied now?”

    The glibness seems out of place, considering the seriousness of the subject.

    No, I’m not satisfied.

    Satisfaction is a higher bar.

    But I am getting closer when we conjoin Darleen’s little piece today.

    From the article she linked….

    “A Republican alternative that largely mirrored a plan by McCain to permanently extend Bush’s tax cuts and eliminate the alternative minimum tax failed. It would have made room for the cuts by making big reductions in popular programs like Medicare, housing, community development and the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled.”

    We still haven’t figured out how to pay for Bush’s signature clusterfuck, the Iraq war.

    Yeah, the Little Guys are gonna have to cough up something as well.
    But don’t blame ALL the Dems.

    I blame Bush, the Ringleader.

  8. daleyrocks says:

    “God has got to be sick of this shit.”

    Rev. Jeremiah Wright

    I won’t hold my breath until the MSM get it correct on this.

  9. Dan Collins says:

    Yeah. Those sanctions really had him contained.

  10. N. O'Brain says:

    Comment by Semanticleo on 3/14 @ 8:35 am #

    Really, do you speak English?

  11. Pablo says:

    Rumsfeld had ties to Saddam and I have to K.Bacon.

    And FDR to Stalin. Man, America sucks.

  12. Semanticleo says:

    Then there’s this……………

    “BAGHDAD, March 13 — Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031303793.html

    N.O’B:

    Just for you; That means ‘The Surge’ has failed.

  13. JD says:

    “God has got to be sick of this shit.” – I thought he was referring to SemenKKKleo. Were it not so predictable, it would be sad.

  14. Pablo says:

    Just for you; That means ‘The Surge’ has failed.

    So, where’s the part where Petreaus says “Fuck it. We lost. Let’s pack up and go home.” Or, maybe it doesn’t mean that at all. You see what you want to see, ‘cleo.

  15. JD says:

    The surge has failed. Words spoken from on high by the lowly idjit. So, KKKleo. Did Saddam have ties to terrorism? We will do this grade school style. Just circle yes or no.

  16. sashal says:

    #9.
    Actually they(sanctions) did, like many figured years ago and some a bit later.
    For some people the threshold amount of brain
    washism is minuscule enough to let them easily believe in any crap, as long as it coincides with their mindset.
    That’s why we still have small amount of people believing in communism even after 20 years after the collapse of USSR..

  17. Dan Collins says:

    Brainwashism such as Saddam’s secular Ba’athist regime would never support the activities of Islamist terrorists directed against infidel states, do you mean?

  18. sashal says:

    #11 pablo, my friend, good thing we agree on the absolute unnecessariness of the second Iraq war, imagine all these lives wasted…for Utopian bolshevism of the neocons….

  19. Semanticleo says:

    “Fuck it. We lost. Let’s pack up and go home.”

    Our Beloved Presidunce, just 14 months ago…..he set the bar.

    “I’ve made it clear to the Prime Minister and Iraq’s other leaders that America’s commitment is not open-ended. If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people — and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people. Now is the time to act. The Prime Minister understands this. Here is what he told his people just last week: “The Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of [their] sectarian or political affiliation.”

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070110-7.html

  20. Techie says:

    No, Iraq was the peaceful home of kite-fliers. Not an aggressor nation who was repeatedly violating it’s armistice deal from the first time we had to kick their ass.

    Michael Moore told me so.

  21. Dan Collins says:

    More to the point . . . why are the press leakers floating a version of the report that obfuscates what it actually said? Is this brainwashism?

  22. A fine scotch says:

    So, Cleo, do you get tired moving those goalposts all the time? Or, do you just, like, do a lot of cardio work when you’re not posting here? Do you cross train for the endurance work or what?

    Inquiring minds want to know…

  23. alppuccino says:

    Presidunce. good one

  24. Pablo says:

    Petraeus insisted that Iraqi leaders still have an opportunity to act. “We’re going to fight like the dickens” to maintain the gains in security and “where we can to try and build on it,” he said.

    ….

    “The issue is, again,” he continued, “how to sort of prolong what has been achieved, in just a host of different neighborhoods, villages, towns and cities, so that the Iraqi structures can continue to gather strength.”

    Read the whole thing, ‘cleo.

  25. alppuccino says:

    That’s like Jeremiah Wright calling George Bush a “C student”. How hard can it be to get straight-A’s at The Jeremiah Wright Institute of Ridin’ Dirty?

  26. Spies, Brigands, and Pirates says:

    Poor Cleo. No matter how hard it tries to ignore it, the ugly fact that the surge succeeded keeps pressing in on it.

    Heh.

    Please do keep screeching about national security issues, though. Even though I’m still not voting for him, McCain is going to eat either Hillary or Obama alive on that in the general election.

  27. Pablo says:

    #11 pablo, my friend, good thing we agree on the absolute unnecessariness of the second Iraq war, imagine all these lives wasted…for Utopian bolshevism of the neocons….

    Personally, sashal, I prefer my planet with Saddam Hussein decomposing. And on balance, the lives lost are probably a wash in comparison to the alternative of continuing the prior status quo. Remember the millions of children dying because of sanctions and the mass graves filled with people who dared look like they might disagree with the regime?

  28. A fine scotch says:

    I lead a fairly sedentary lifestyle and would really like to get back into shape. I figure your workout would be a great way to get back in shape: Cardio, strength training, fast twitch muscle response, etc.

  29. Slartibartfast says:

    We still haven’t figured out how to pay for Bush’s signature clusterfuck, the Iraq war.

    Is that you, Uncle Leo?

  30. Rob Crawford says:

    for Utopian bolshevism of the neocons

    First, define “neocons”.

    Second, define “bolshevism”.

    Third, explain how you managed to connect those two.

    Fourth, explain how “Utopian” fits into this context.

    Finally, explain why I should care about your opinion.

  31. Rob Crawford says:

    Seman, why do you want the US to lose? Why are you so desperate for this, that you lie to make yourself think it’s happening?

  32. RTO Trainer says:

    Cleo, what we can’t pay for is, as one example, Social Security. We’ve paid $611bn for the Iraq campaign through FY 2008. We have budgeted $655bn for the SSA for FY2008 alone.

    At no time since 2001 has the amount spent on the war been high enough to have made the difference between a deficit or a surplus in the budget. However, without Social Security, we’d have been running surpluses since 1992 even with the war.

    (All figures based on CBO data tied to FY2000 adjusted dollars.)

  33. Rob Crawford says:

    Yeah, but RTO, Social Security is an enumerated power of the federal government. It’s right there in the Constitution…

  34. sashal says:

    Dan, my friend.
    I am your ally, when we are talking about Spitzer or Wright’s racist idiotism.
    I am your friend and ally when you would like to bash assorted lefties and other pro/proto socialists and their hypocrisy.
    I am absolutely on the opposite side when the question is about the biggest Bush’s presidency fuck up which caused so much death and destruction for no good reason . And I will never agree with any lame or confused attempt to justify it.

  35. sashal says:

    Rob, please, do not care.
    But in the future, educate yourself before you would like to start philosophical or political discussion with me

  36. JD says:

    Facts. They are impervious to the facts. The facts do not even provide a speedbump in the road to their spewing of Teh Narrative.

  37. sashal says:

    and Pablo, who is the God to make a decision which life should be wasted and which spared?
    See, what I mean…

  38. Slartibartfast says:

    what we can’t pay for is, as one example, Social Security.

    Which, quagmire. I mean, when are we going to be done with that?

  39. Techie says:

    People decide who lives and who dies all the time. Bond villain speechs aside, it doesn’t make you a “god”.

  40. RTO Trainer says:

    “who is the God to make a decision which life should be wasted and which spared?”

    The 20 year old NCO behind his M4. As it should be.

  41. Rob Crawford says:

    But in the future, educate yourself before you would like to start philosophical or political discussion with me

    Huh?

    I’m perfectly aware of what all those words mean, in reality. The sense in which you used them, however, they do not fit. I want to know how YOU define all those words. Who are “neocons”, for example? How are they “bolshevist”? In what way is wanting to remove a dictator “Utopian”?

    When, in the course of discussion, it’s clear that someone’s using terms in a, shall we say, “unique” manner, it’s best to ask them to clarify themselves.

  42. Semanticleo says:

    “We have budgeted $655bn for the SSA for FY2008 alone.”

    I take it you’re feeling the pinch of payroll tax deductions, which includes
    Meicare and SS.

    SS has been the arch demon of the RNC since inception.

    Reagan was the most successful in attempts to bankrupt through his
    VooDoo HooDoo by cutting taxes then increasing spending so that
    borrowing from the fund could deplete.

    He failed to complete the job and Bush was next at bat. That depletion required increases in payroll tax deductions that everyone, below the $200k
    cap, sees on their pay stub.

    You may be a GenXer or a Millenial who sees no share for you left for retirement.

    Thank Reagan and Bush.

  43. Spies, Brigands, and Pirates says:

    Umm… Cleo? Reagan has been out of office for 20 years, Bush I for 16.

    Try again.

    By the way, the surge is still working, and your side is still losing.

  44. michaelt says:

    I don’t know what is worse, believing that Saddam had no ties to terrorism, or believing in the lockbox.

  45. Rob Crawford says:

    Reagan was the most successful in attempts to bankrupt through his
    VooDoo HooDoo by cutting taxes then increasing spending so that
    borrowing from the fund could deplete.

    Uh, seman, the president doesn’t write the budget.

  46. LionDude says:

    Getting back to the ol’ switcharoo S’Cleo tried to pull, 10 years ago if someone were to say that in 10 years a publicly elected parliament made up of both Shiites and Sunnis, men and women, were haggling their way towards how best for their nation to proceed in a post-Saddam Hussein era, the U.S. doctrine (passed by the Clinton administration) as outlined in the Iraqi Liberation Act would have been vindicated. Faster, please? You betcha. Perhaps they learn from the best: our fast-as-cold-molasses Congress.

    Saddam a terrorist collaborator? Feh. Nothing is worth allowing Iraqi citizens the right to vote, and they don’t deserve anything better than Saddam Hussein. Building allied relations in the Middle East (Afghan and Iraq), of course, means nothing to U.S. security.

    We need change, hope, and peace. Did I get that in the correct order?

  47. SmokeVanThorn says:

    Rob – Can you please give me a heads up when you’ve studied enough to be worthy of engaging sashole? I want to have a front row seat.

  48. Defenseman Emeritus says:

    “You may be a GenXer or a Millenial who sees no share for you left for retirement.”

    It’s not the government’s job to provide for my retirement. That’s my responsibility, which I am fulfilling via this novel concept called “saving.” Anything I might get via Social Security is just extra beer and hooker money.

  49. Jim in KC says:

    You may be a GenXer or a Millenial who sees no share for you left for retirement.

    Thank Reagan and Bush.

    Or, you know, the fact that the whole thing was a Ponzi scheme to start out with…

  50. Rob Crawford says:

    Can you please give me a heads up when you’ve studied enough to be worthy of engaging sashole? I want to have a front row seat.

    I have a feeling I’ll never have studied enough.

  51. Semanticleo says:

    “Uh, seman, the president doesn’t write the budget.”

    Check the % increase in defense budget proposed by WH.

    Also brush up on meanings of “leadership” and VETO powers.

    Oh, I forgot. That’s not convenient to your POV.

  52. Goalposts says:

    Aw, I don’t know, Leo. I think I’d look better over there. Or maybe there. There perhaps?

  53. […] Dan Collins has already blogged about the new Pentagon report on Iraq and Terrorism, but the disconnect between the general media coverage of the report (all focused on the lack of a direct operational link between Saddam’s regime and al Qaeda)  and its actual contents (showing a “considerable overlap” between their activities which led to a “de facto link between the organizations) raises a larger issue. […]

  54. RTO Trainer says:

    The 2009 projected budget ($611B) is currently $13 billion less than 2008 ($624B).

  55. RTO Trainer says:

    BTW, 2009 SSA budget is currently $695B.

  56. A fine scotch says:

    See, Cleo, your post at #42 is a prime example of why I need your exercise routine. This is a post about the ties between Saddam and Al Qaeda. You have somehow taken this and its comments as a way to demonize budgeting and Ronald Reagan (who, last I checked, is still dead and has been for several years, God rest his soul) and George HW Bush (who hasn’t been in office nearing 16 years now and is the father of the current President).

    Are you offering a yoga class so I can keep up with your contortions, too?

  57. A fine scotch says:

    Will I be able to hear the voices in your head during the work out video? Or will you offer closed captioning?

  58. A fine scotch says:

    Is strawman take down included or is that a separate class?

  59. Pablo says:

    and Pablo, who is the God to make a decision which life should be wasted and which spared?
    See, what I mean…

    sashal, if you look at the body count and the rationale behind the vast majority of it, the answer to your question is Allah.

  60. B Moe says:

    …who is the God to make a decision which life should be wasted and which spared?

    That question is unanswerable, sashal, but there are plenty of men around making those decisions everyday. If you prefer waiting around for God’s intervention, you might find better discussions to get involved in.

  61. alppuccino says:

    I am your ally, when we are talking about Spitzer or Wright’s racist idiotism.

    I am absolutely on the opposite side when the question is about the biggest Bush’s presidency fuck up which caused so much death and destruction for no good reason . And I will never agree with any lame or confused attempt to justify it.

    These two lines were in the same comment by sashal. But put sashal in the same room with the man who survived a gunshot by Hussein’s thugs during a mass murder and sashal says, “Fuck you towel-head, you don’t deserve freedom. Go ride a camel.”

    A bit of a contradiction.

  62. Patrick Chester says:

    sashal broke the irony meter with:

    For some people the threshold amount of brain
    washism is minuscule enough to let them easily believe in any crap, as long as it coincides with their mindset.

  63. JD says:

    alpuccino – that was an insta-classic

  64. alppuccino says:

    Thanks dude. How’s the golf swing?

  65. SGT Ted says:

    sashal, the second Iraq campaign has free 25 million people from Saddam Hussein, who are now in the process to get over his depridations.

    I met small children in Karbala who had their tongues cut out by Saddams boys because their dad had spoken against the regime. We guarded UN teams digging up mass graves.

    As a soldier and American, I say “fuck you” to your attitude. If the majority of Americans in the Cold War thought like you do, you’d still be waiting in breadlines and buying your Levis on the black market.

    I am your friend and ally when you would like to bash assorted lefties and other pro/proto socialists and their hypocrisy.

    But, when it comes to actually doing anything to halt a mass murdering dictator who has broken a ceasefire and numerous sactions, you don’t think it’s worth it to hold a thug to account.

    I am absolutely on the opposite side when the question is about the biggest Bush’s presidency fuck up which caused so much death and destruction for no good reason . And I will never agree with any lame or confused attempt to justify it.

    I don’t have to justify it to you . It’s not my concern that you are too stupid to recognise reality. Every Iraqi that shook my hand and thanked me refutes your idiot mentality. You are so invested in your opinion that actual facts and results don’t matter. Hashem, Loie, Kazem and Fouad and millions of other Iraqis all say “fuck you” too. They consider people who talk like you to be Saddam sympathisers; why else would you oppose the successful overthrow of Saddam? Thank God you aren’t in a position to make such decisions for others lives.

    If you think W fucked up some early battles and campaigning, you need to crack a history book on the American Civil War or the early part of WW2 and compare his fuck ups with FDRs and Lincolns.

    Lots of people died in WW2 because of attitudes like yours. Look it up. See what the isolationists were saying before Pearl Harbor.

  66. JD says:

    It is grooved in. I played all winter indoors, and got a custom Scotty Cameron for Christmas. Might even break 80 this year.

    Racist

  67. Rusty says:

    “All bills raising revenue shall originate in the house…………..” And the house majority is what? cleo. you give dumb a bad name.

  68. alppuccino says:

    That’s going in a frame SGT Ted. Thanks for that.

    And JD, Scotty can’t do the stroking for you.

  69. Cowboy says:

    SGT Ted:

    Well put, sir.

  70. SDN says:

    And, of course, semen ignores the fact that revenue went up after every tax cut. The porkers in Congress just opened wider.

Comments are closed.