Question: Who was right?
The French?
"We have found no evidence of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda," said Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the French judge who is the dean of the region's investigators after two decades fighting Islamic and Middle Eastern terrorists. "And we are working on 50 cases involving Al Qaeda or radical Islamic cells. I think if there were such links, we would have found them. But we have found no serious connections whatsoever."
German intelligence?
Talk of an Iraq-Al Qaeda connection is "nonsense," said a high-ranking source in the German intelligence community. "Not even the Americans believe it anymore."
Or President Bush?
On Friday, Bush specifically linked Hussein to the terrorist network. "We know he's got ties with Al Qaeda," Bush said during an election rally in New Hampshire.
Answer: According to this Fox News article:
Al Qaeda fighters may be in southern Iraq, coordinating grenade and gun attacks on British forces in a town near Basra, it was reported last night.
I'll give the last word, for now, to Ralph Peters:
Meanwhile, more evidence emerges every day that this war is worth fighting. Cache after cache of Iraqi chemical-warfare gear turns up. Our troops witness one atrocity after another. And there is ever greater proof that President Bush was right all along about Iraq's support of terrorism.The recent report of an al Qaeda cell in Basra, helping regime loyalists terrorize the population, is the smallest part of it. Our special operations forces in the north are going after thousands of terrorists who previously had crossed over from Iran to set up training camps.
Above all, it becomes clearer by the day that Saddam's Fedayeen thugs have been training for years on terrorist tactics - that's what they're using against our forces. In sheer numbers, Saddam's Fedayeen appear to be the largest terrorist organization in the world, an al Qaeda on steroids, with a country to call their own.
Ahem.
But...but...but... "Osama bin Laden hates Saddam Hussein."
Posted by oscarjr at March 29, 2003 03:31 PM | TrackBack