Who Says There’s No Smoking Gun Between Saddam, al-Qaeda?

Many Democrats and liberals have been hell bent to say that President Bush lied about his alleged claims that former Iraqi President and dictator Saddam Hussein had connections with terrorist group al-Qaeda may want to take a peek at a recently released report.

“The Iraqi Perspectives Project Primary Source Materials for Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents,” was recently released and while it stated that there were no direct links (or smoking gun) between Saddam and the terror group, which claims responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, there sure does seem to be enough dots to show that the bloody dictator had Sunday Tea with a few members of al-Qaeda.

For example, it has been known for a long time, and this report mentions it, that Saddam had a long relationship with terrorist organizations and supplied them with training grounds, funds and equipment. What many Bush critics don’t want to acknowledge is that al-Qaeda and Iraq’s former dictator had common objectives and a limited working relationship.

“At times, these organizations (Saddam’s security organizations and Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network) would work together in pursuit of shared goals but still maintain their autonomy and independence because of innate caution and mutual distrust,” stated on page 559 of the report.

And then there is the liaison with Ayman al-Zawahiri, prominent leader of al-Qaeda and leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

“Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri) or that generally shared al-Qaeda’s stated goals and objectives,” stated on page 62 of the report.

So, just using those two passages alone, the report does state that there was a strong link to Saddam and al-Qaeda. Granted, no one is saying that Saddam had bin Laden over for poker night but there was a type of link there. And that is just al-Qaeda.

At the moment, there is no proof that both parties worked on the 9/11 attacks and President Bush never stated such a thing. But the fact that Saddam Hussein was a loose cannon who already had an established history of lying to the U.N. and breaking resolutions, among other things, America could not stand quietly by, waiting to be attacked again.

Going into Iraq to determine if Saddam had weapons of mass destruction was the right course of action. Taking military action so soon after U.N. weapons inspectors went in there is up for debate, as mentioned before in The Times Observer.

But the job of any American president is to protect the people and to ensure their safety. And that is what the president was doing. We may not agree with how President Bush went about it but it was something that had to be done to finally determine how much of a threat Saddam actually posed to America.

To read the complete report, please click here.

Ahmadinejad Hangs Himself In Columbia Speech

I truly believe in the old saying, “Give a man enough rope and he’ll hang himself with it.” And that’s what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did today at Columbia University.

When I first heard of Ahmadinejad’s visit to America, I was outraged, as were many Americans. However, after reading about his rants to audience members at Columbia University, he showed the world what an uninformed, hypocritical and dangerous dictator he really is.

In fact, he made so many outrageous statements it’s hard to decide where to start. How about the 9/11 attacks?

“If the root causes of 9/11 are examined properly -- why it happened, what caused it, what were the conditions that led to it, who truly was involved, who was really involved …” Ahmadinejad said, as reported by CNN.

“Who was really involved.” Interesting choice of words. Ahmadinejad, who in the past claimed that Iran has plenty of freedoms, needs to give more of these elusive freedoms to his country’s state-controlled media.

If he did, Ahmadinejad would know that two weeks ago Osama bin Laden again claimed responsibility for the 9/11 terror attacks and presented a video will made by one of the terrorists on that fateful day. And that’s not even including al-Qaeda members, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who have confessed to planning the attacks.

Then Ahmadinejad made a statement that Iran has no gays. Considering that the punishment for either consenting man or woman homosexuality is either whippings or death, it’s a safe bet no one is going to come out of the closet any time soon.

Next, Ahmadinejad came to his favorite subject, Israel. In the past, he said that the Jewish State should be wiped off the map. Today, he wouldn’t give a “yes” or “no” answer when asked if he wanted to see the destruction of Israel. Although, it doesn’t take a genius to know what he would like to see.

But instead, the Iranian President said that “people of Palestine” should be the ones to vote on Israel’s status. Besides the fact that this flies in the face of nearly 60 years of established history that Israel is a country, many Palestinians have been “voting” on the Jewish State’s status by use of suicide bombs as ballots.

So in the end, Ahmadinejad hanged himself by saying he is misunderstood but did show that he is a dangerous man that needs to be taken seriously.