The Senate Intelligence Committee has released a long-delayed report in which it concludes that, basically, there were no ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
As recently as two weeks ago, President Bush said at a news conference that Mr. Hussein “had relations with Zarqawi.” [What is it with US Presidents lying about having or not having relations with people? –ed.] But a C.I.A. report completed in October 2005 concluded instead that Sadddam Husseins regime did not have a relationship, harbor, or even turn a blind eye toward Mr. Zarqawi and his associates, according to the new Senate findings….
In fact, the Senate investigation concluded that Mr. Hussein regarded Al Qaeda as a threat rather as a potential ally, and that the Iraqi intelligence service “actively attempted to locate and capture al-Zarqawi without success.”
The report by the committee specifically criticized a decision by the National Security Council in 2002 to maintain a close relationship with the Iraqi National Congress, headed by the exile leader Ahmed Chalabi, even after the C.I.A. and the Defense Intelligence Agency had warned that “the I.N.C was penetrated by hostile intelligence services,” notably Iran.
Two Republicans, Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), joined all the committee’s Democrats in approving the report’s conclusions.
Saddam was paying the family of each suicide bomber a princely sum to blow up Jews. Is it not terrorism when Israeli citizens are the target?
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Whatever else can be said of these Republicans, they are friends of Israel and put their support into action.
Because if it is, it must not be wrong to have lost thousands of U.S. soldiers and killed tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians using the defense of Israel as an excuse. How many Israelis have died in the entire infitada? How much do we already spend supporting one side of a slaughter?
Many years ago a Democratic President, Harry Truman, sent American boys to save a country no one had heard of. Many of these boys were killed or wounded. South Korea is still a free country. Later, a Democratic President, Lydon Johnson did the same to save another country no one had heard of. Many of those boys were killed or wounded. Then America decided to cut and run from Vietnam. Many men, women and children fled in small lifeboats to freedom.
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Now Israel is on the line. I, a lifelong Democrat, find it incredible that now the party of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Johnson wants to leave Israel to suffer the fate of South Vietnam. Who will pick up the lifeboats this time?
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The Democratic Party is sounding the same as the “America First” movement of Charles Lindberg. It is one thing to demonize everything the Republicans do. That is just politics. It is another to undercut a free country in an effort to attain political advantage.
So I’ll just say that like an abortion debate, there is no way we will arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. If you think that Israel, with its modern armaments, requires being protected from the Palestinians they imprison at home…Well there’s nothing I’m gonna say to change your mind. If you think that Lebanon deserved the beating they got for not wanting to risk civil war with Hezbollah just yet, what can I even say…That was the closest thing Israel had to an Arab ally in the region, but they literally blew that to hell.
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In the Israeli/Palestinian conflict both sides act like badly behaved children, and it has cost many people their lives. I only fault Israel more because they have the money, weapons, and international backing to do a more civilized job.
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Lastly, let your WWII nonsense go. It sounds like a Bush talking point. This conflict is nothing like it, Lindberg has been dead for a long time, and yes I read the book.
I knew Saddam’s government’s contacts with al-Qaeda were tentative and involved no cooperation or mutual support, and I knew the two were suspicious and distrustful of each other, and saw each other as threats. I knew Zarqawi was in northern Iraq out of Saddam’s control, and that the Bush administration several times stopped our military from bombing Zarqawi’s camps because they wanted to use his presence “in Iraq” as an excuse to invade. But this report is the first I’ve head that Saddam was actually trying to catch Zarqawi.