HEADLINE: SADDAM SAW AL-QAEDA AS THREAT

[Bluebear]

WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein regarded al-Qaida as a threat rather than a possible ally, a Senate report says, contradicting assertions President Bush has used to build support for the war in Iraq. The report also newly faults intelligence gathering in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion.

Released Friday, the report discloses for the first time an October 2005 CIA assessment that prior to the war Saddam's government "did not have a relationship, harbor or turn a blind eye toward" al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or his associates.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060908/ap_on_go_co/iraq_report;_ylt=ApqWi_Upr2lxpn0gG6_lfQWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

[RedEarth]

1. ......

[Frazzled Educator]

42. My thoughts exactly.

Saddam saw OBL as a threat? Even after OBL called Saddam an infidel? Nahh. . .must be liberal bias in the news.

[democrat_patriot]

2. Rank it high!

[merh]

3. K&R

:kick:

thanks for posting it, Bluebear! :hi:

[Rockstone]

4. Given that his nation was the bastion of the secular arab world

it only stands to reason that Al Queda was seen as another set of fundies who were the same type of threat as all the other fundies he had to keep in check.

[jaysunb]

5. The Republicans are right !

This is OLD OLD news....at least for those with working brains . :evilfrown:

[JimDandy]

46. Yes. VERY old.

Glad it's back in the news right before the election, but the repubs must have an reason for releasing this right now -- they always have an agenda.

[jaysunb]

47. yup

they ALWAYS have a plan....:evilfrown:

[kenfrequed]

55. They were liars

Even if I didn't know about this within two weeks of 9-11 (via a 60 minutes news report I think) it really was common-friggin-sense. The repukes lied like the lying liars they always have been.

As far as "The Plan" lets not give them so much credit or we end up jumping at every noise and seeing Karl Rove behind every bump in the road. This breeds caution. Instead we must seize oppurtunities and go on the offensive. Over-caution and back-biting lost us both in 2000 and in 2004.

[TankLV]

52. Yes - it's OLD NEWS if you're trying to deflect BLAME & avoid

ACCOUNTABILITY & PUNISHMENT!

Otherwise, if it's full of LIES, like the crap 911 ABC "film" - which matarial PREDATES this OLD NEWS, that apparently okie dokie to these WAR CRMINALS...

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Wow, the truth is busting out all over the place

all of a sudden.

It's about time.

[niceypoo]

35. Bad news for Bush is coming faster than they can spin it...

...and old spin is finally being debunked for good!

[Rex]

7. Bush had no build up support for war, he told the UN to fuck off

and lied to Congress every which way from Sunday. But no........he did't get a blowjob, so won't be impeached. :eyes:

[bvar22]

8. No shit Sherlock. You just finding this out now?

ANYONE with ANY curiosity or sense already KNEW this.

ANYONE who paid the slightest bit of attention during the 1st Gulf War ALREADY KNEW THIS!

ANYONE who remembers the Iran/Iraq War ALREADY KNEW THIS!

Anyone with the slightest bit of curiosity who bothered to check a History book, or used Google, ALREADY KNEW THIS!

Why did this take 4 years and a FUCKING Senate Investigation to become a public announcement?


We are we well and truly fucked!
:(

"Every one has a plan...Until you hit them in the mouth." --Mike Tyson

[girl gone mad]

9. Duh.

Many, many people were saying this back in 2002. They were shunned by the MSM, congress and the administration.

[Jacobin]

10. That is very OLD news, but only now being reported

Typical.

Bin Laden was pissed because he wanted the Saudis to let him use his mujahadeen fighters go to Iraq and overthrow Saddam.

[StClone]

11. Nontruthiness

Yeah this little item was well-established here on DU while it was flattened most everywhere else under the zeal for revenge on Iraq bolstered by state-funded Bushista propaganda.

[iamahaingttta]

12. We all knew that, but...

...nobody listens to us. There's no profiteering to be done listening to us.

[blondeatlast]

13. Kicked, recommended, and ranked 5 stars.

Yeah, WE knew this already, but let's get the word out to the non-political wonks, DU.

[malaise]

14. Great news

It's unraveling and quickly

[Straight Shooter]

15. Pass the smelling salts to the rank and file GOP.

This must come as an absolute shock to them.

:sarcasm:

[neuvocat]

16. This is a big step towards putting Bushie in jail.

[malaise]

17. Tweety about to discuss

after commercials.

[neuvocat]

18. Can you keep us cube rats informed?

He'll probably try to spin it to make it look like Bush won't be tried but I'm interested in hearing about it anyway.

[blondeatlast]

27. Thank you for getting the importance of this.

Many who've replied in this thread can't grasp the importance.

[leftchick]

19. Don't Forget to Rate This UP on Yahoo!

currently 2005 votes! Damn!

K&R!!!!

[Solly Mack]

20. people said it before the invasion too

[buddhamama]

21. yep.

this news is not new.

[Solly Mack]

26. and those who still think Saddam was behind 911 will continue to think so

not even this report will penetrate their denial

[leftchick]

23. amazing that it takes that long

4 years and how many hundreds of thousands of dead people to hit the M$M! :grr:

[Solly Mack]

24. They waited on purpose, of course

Waited until we were already bogged down in Iraqnam...and then promote the talking points - "we can't leave" "it will be worse if we left" "stay the course" blah blah blah

All the dead died for Bush's lies...for his greed...for his chance at glory

[Canuckistanian]

22. "mistakes of prewar intelligence have long been known"?

Gee, that's not the impression I got from administation officials over the years.

Pat Roberts must be off his meds again.

[blondeatlast]

25. The US SENATE says BUSH LIED. Apologies for the caps, but

a lot of you are missing the importance of that entirely.

While many of you are rolling your eyes and patting yourselves on the back about how you already knew this, try to grasp the importance of this.

This is major, and it's in the Friday night news dump. It's up to us to make sure it gets out.

[renate]

28. yeah... WE know this is old news, but now it's official

No longer can the people who say this be accused of being :tinfoilhat:

[ms liberty]

29. K&R for the Friday News Dump! n/t

[Disturbed]

30. But The Glorious Leader said Saddam and Osama had

a "relationship". When pressed for an explanation Busholini said, "Well, ya know a relationship." That was his succinct explanation. Darth Cheney still insists that al Q and Saddam were collaborating against America. He will continue to say this until he is no longer able to speak.

The Busholini and his Junta qualify to be tried as War Criminals, according to the former Nuremberg Prosecutor.

[Martin Eden]

31. Will this report gain political traction?

Can the Democrats make it stick?

WILL the Democrats keep pushing this until it sinks into the public mind?

[blondeatlast]

32. Note it was announced in the Friday news dump.

WE need to keep it front and forward, especially with the 9/11 anniversay next week.

Keep kicking and recommending this story and rate it up at the source.

It's up to us.

[savemefromdumbya]

33. we knew that but the public didn't - they believed Bush & Cheney

[bluerum]

39. They knew it as well as we did - they let it go and gave the criminal

bushite gang a pass because they were FUCKIN SCARED!! Or had a hard on to see Saddam in jail. Or wanted to see "justice done" on somebody even if it wasn't the guy who blew up the WTC Saddam was a convenient scapegoat and these stuip mutherficken people will have to live the crimes that they have enabled by voting the bushite criminals into office.

[muntrv]

34. No shit!! Osama called Saddham an infidel on his videotapes!!

[moondust]

36. Saddam might have been an ally on two fronts:

1) The "war" against the "Islamofascists."

2) Keeping Iran in check.

Too late now.

:rofl:

[civildisoBDence]

37. The writing is on the wall--

DUHbya is toast.

News and commentary, left to right

[bluerum]

38. This is really old stuff that the MSM has kept stuffed in the closet

since the bushites first started beating the drums about Iraq.

Iraq had nothing to do with Al-Quiada. It was oil and the testosterone rush (mostly from Kinda Sleazy) that drove the bushites into Iraq. Now they have a fucked up mess there. Now Al-Quaida is there (in Iraq) filling the leadership vacuum left by a weak central Iraqi government.

Not only do the bushites have a totally fucked up mess in Iraq, but Afghanistan, the country that they should have dealt with before they went off to play army in Iraq is coming back to bite them in the ass.

I really think that the bushites have no intention of ever destroying Al-Quaida. They are too useful. They are the boogyman in the closet that they use to scare people into voting for them.

[DallasNE]

40. So There Is "Nothing New"?

In one sense there is not all that much that is truly new. The new stuff is still classified. What this does do though is confirm nearly every earlier news leak. Nobody can claim now that those are just rumors. That is indeed big news.

Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said the mistakes of prewar intelligence have long been known and "the additional views of the committee's Democrats are little more than a rehashing of the same unfounded allegations they've used for over three years."

Of course Roberts is full of shit. Nothing new there. How Roberts can label the former allegations as "unfounded" boggle the mind. It is right there in the writing. For instance, CIA Director Tenent succumbed to pressure in not refuting President Bush when he claimed that there was a clear link between Saddam and al Qaeda. It was a lie and both Tenent and Bush knew it at the time.

[aquart]

41. Yeah. We knew.

Yet we watched the government and news completely revamp and ignore all the previous history.

[mistertrickster]

43. Agreed, aquart . . . wonder when the conservatives are going to APOLOGIZE

for being 100 percent wrong and calling us "traitors" and "un-American" and "Bin Laden lovers"?

Oops, I almost forgot: IOKIYAR!

[NastyDiaper]

44. Fking Duh.

[madrchsod]

45. jesus christ...most people here knew that

in 2003.this very point was a topic of a lot of posts and if we could figure this out,well....

[twaddler01]

48. This should really come to us as no surprise,

but the the fact that the report was issued showing this is significant. Interesting! :thumbsup:

[merh]

49. back to the top

:kick:

[TankLV]

50. Accountability. I wan accountability - and PUNISHMENT.

"I am particularly concerned it appears that information may have been classified to shield individuals from accountability."

And we all know who is likely to be PUNISHED for their CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE at the least - and it ain't Democrats or Clinton...

[ruggerson]

51. This is what we all should be talking about

and generating media buzz

The ABC thing is a distraction.

This is the real news.

[progressoid]

53. Too bad shit-for-brains RWers can comprehend this.

[newspeak]

54. so, one must question

if SH was against Al Qua eda and zealot fundamentalists, why get rid of him? If SH kept Iran in check, why get rid of him? Why close the biggest AFB in SA, which OBL wanted? Why attack Iraq, knowing it could be used as a recruitment tool for Al Qua eda? Why get our troops in a quagmire, like sitting ducks, knowing that you're destabilizing the region and it could lead to a possible civil war? Why???:mad:

[jmowreader]

56. There is an EXTREMELY simple reason this is coming out

Negative coattails.

All good politics junkies know about coattails--a popular leader pulls other members of his party into office on his "coattails."

Negative coattails is where a highly UNpopular leader pulls other members of his party OUT of office on his coattails.

America's tired of this war. They're tired of "we must stay the course" when "the course" is an American body countthat goes up faster than the "dollars" screen on a gas pump.

They're tired of Bush running around saying things are going "great" in Iraq when anyone can see there's a civil war going on.

They're tired of waking up, going out to get the paper, and thinking as they pull it from the bag, "is Marge's son who's in the 10th Mountain going to be on the front page?" Under the headline "Marge's son killed in Iraq," of course.

They're tired of the unbelievable expense for a war that was supposed to pay for itself.

They're tired of being told we're in this war until we've "achieved victory" when NO ONE can tell you what "victory" will look like.

And they're tired of the saber-rattling over Iran.

George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in history, and the only positive thing he's done in five and a half years is rehabilitated Richard Nixon's legacy. The American people want him gone. Stories like this are the Republicans' way of saying, "give us another two years. We'll get rid of the SOB and all his syncophants for you."