Saddam's alleged al-QAEDA ties: Powell's UN transcript, 2/5/03

[AirAmFan]

Would you sacrifice thousands of US casualties for this tenuous a connection between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein?

Below is an excerpt from the official White House transcript of Colin Powell's UN Security Council plea for war. Notice how Powell even explicitly points out that Zarqawi (the head of al-Qaeda terrorists in the region) operates out of an area that Saddam Hussein does not control. However, Powell does NOT point out that the US controls the area from the air, that the Pentagon flies over it regularly as part of its "no fly zone" activities, or that Dubya's National Security Council has PROTECTED the camp THREE TIMES from Pentagon battle plans, more than 16 months AFTER 9/11!

(For documentation of this charge, see a March 2004 NBC report at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4431601 and a previous DU thread at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=974981 ).

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From http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030205-1.html :

"POWELL: ... it's no secret that Saddam's own intelligence service was involved in dozens of attacks or attempted assassinations in the 1990s. But what I want to bring to your attention today is the potentially much more sinister nexus between Iraq and the Al Qaida terrorist network, a nexus that combines classic terrorist organizations and modern methods of murder. Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, an associated in collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaida lieutenants.

Zarqawi, a Palestinian born in Jordan, fought in the Afghan war more than a decade ago. Returning to Afghanistan in 2000, he oversaw a terrorist training camp. One of his specialities and one of the specialties of this camp is poisons. When our coalition ousted the Taliban, the Zarqaqi network helped establish another poison and explosive training center camp. And this camp is located in northeastern Iraq.

POWELL: You see a picture of this camp. The network is teaching its operatives how to produce ricin and other poisons. Let me remind you how ricin works. Less than a pinch--image a pinch of salt--less than a pinch of ricin, eating just this amount in your food, would cause shock followed by circulatory failure. Death comes within 72 hours and there is no antidote, there is no cure. It is fatal.

Slide 39 Slide 40

Those helping to run this camp are ZARQAWI LIEUTENANTS OPERATING IN NORTHERN KURDISH AREAS OUTSIDE SADDAM HUSSEIN'S CONTROLLED IRAQ. But Baghdad has an agent in the most senior levels of the radical organization, Ansar al-Islam, that controls this corner of Iraq. In 2000 this agent offered Al Qaida safe haven in the region. After we swept Al Qaida from Afghanistan, some of its members accepted this safe haven. They remain their today.

Zarqawi's activities are not confined to this small corner of north east Iraq. He traveled to Baghdad in May 2002 for medical treatment, staying in the capital of Iraq for two months while he recuperated to fight another day. During this stay, nearly two dozen extremists converged on Baghdad and established a base of operations there. These Al Qaida affiliates, based in Baghdad, now coordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for his network, and they've now been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months. Iraqi officials deny accusations of ties with Al Qaida. These denials are simply not credible. Last year an Al Qaida associate bragged that the situation in Iraq was, quote, 'good,' that Baghdad could be transited quickly....

And now let me add one other fact. We asked a friendly security service to approach Baghdad about extraditing Zarqawi and providing information about him and his close associates. This service contacted Iraqi officials twice, and we passed details that should have made it easy to find Zarqawi. The network remains in Baghdad. Zarqawi still remains at large to come and go."

[AirAmFan]

1. .

[AirAmFan]

4. Tonight's PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer has a great segment on this issue

Margaret Warner interviews Daniel Benjamin, author of "The Age of Sacred Terror", and a hack from Weekly Standard/Fox.

[AirAmFan]

7. .

[andino]

2. Tag

For use later

[0007]

3. 'Ya gotta remind the media all the time about how sneaky these

these cretins are with the tongue. These fuckers can spin both ways at the same time and keep a straight face. If they are challenged with facts, they'll call you a liar and unpatriotic and will try to get you thrown in jail, or fired. And in the same breath will tell us it is god's plan in the name of brotherhood with the blood of Jays'us Christ.

[AirAmFan]

6. You got that right. The last quarter of Powell's UN testimony, devoted

to the "Terror Haven" pretext for toppling Saddam, doesn't even mention the man!

It's not as if Powell's slides showed Saddam high-fiving Zarqawi in front of Baghdad landmarks!

But if you listen to what Dubya and Cheney say when referring to Powell's UN presentation, and how their words are reported on Fox, you'd think that Zarqawi and Saddam were office-mates!

[bigtree]

5. .

:kick: