Vice President Cheney’s assertions notwithstanding, a 9/11 Commission report concludes:
We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States.
Meanwhile, in Spain a judge says charges against 15 in that country are likely for helping to plan 9/11.
Hmmm.
I’m not sure anyone but the really hard right-wingers believed that Saddam and Osama actually collaborated on the 9/11 plans – I certainly didn’t – but I think the more credible supposition was always that there was contact, some cooperation, and mutual use of the other’s resources (in some way).
This I still believe, in the sense that Saddam had contact with Al Qaeda and other Middle East terrorist groups before the liberation, and supported their causes.
The 9/11 commission’s conclusion doesn’t refute those findings, really…in fact they tend to support them – I can’t find the source I read this morning, but it read the 9/11 commission concluded there was contact between Osama and Iraq, but Saddam declined to provide some assistance they asked for that had to do with 9/11 planning.
But there was contact, and they didn’t act in a vacuum. And Saddam’s support of Palestinian Anti-Israeli and Anti-American terrorist groups is not in dispute, correct?
But you have to put this all in context. Al Qaeda has had similar contacts with many nations in that region, and it has had much stronger ties to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
As for Saddam’s support of generic terrorism, as far as I can tell it’s been that targeted at Isreal. I suppose we can fight Israel’s wars if we want. But shouldn’t we have an honest debate about what we are doing?