UAE ties to 9/11, not a Saddam story...

[tocqueville]

From the 9/11 Commission Hearings; William Cohen, Former Secretary of Defense:

"During the winter of 1998-99, intelligence reported that bin Laden frequently visited a camp in the desert, adjacent to a larger hunting camp in Helmand Province of Afghanistan, used by visitors from a Gulf state… Public sources have stated that these visitors were from the United Arab Emirates. At the beginning of February, bin Laden was reportedly located there, and apparently remained for more than a week."

"Intelligence… showed the nearby presence of an official aircraft of the UAE. The CIA received reports that bin Laden regularly went from his adjacent camp to the larger camp where he visited with Emiratis…"

"On February 10th, Clarke reported that a top UAE official had vehemently denied that high-level UAE officials were in Afghanistan."


From the 9/11 Commission's report:


"Early in 1999, the CIA received reporting that Bin Ladin was spending much of his time at one of several camps in the Afghan desert south of Kandahar."

"On February 8, the military began to ready itself for a possible strike. The next day, national technical intelligence confirmed the location and description of the larger camp and showed the nearby presence of an official aircraft of the United Arab Emirates… No strike was launched…"

"According to CIA and Defense officials, policymakers were concerned about the danger that a strike would kill an Emirati prince or other senior officials who might be with Bin Ladin or close by…"

"The United Arab Emirates was becoming… a persistent counterterrorism problem… UAE … one of the Taliban's only travel and financial outlets to the outside world."

read more at
http://www.madcowprod.com/11122004issue.html

and weep