Al Qaeda Discusses Losing Iraq

Al Qaeda web sites are making a lot of noise about why they lost in Iraq. Western intelligence agencies are fascinated by the statistics being posted in several of these Arab language sites. Not the kind of stuff you read about in the Western media. According to al Qaeda, their collapse in Iraq was steep and catastrophic. Today, al Qaeda has been shattered, with most of its leadership and foot soldiers dead, captured or moved from Iraq. As a result, al Qaeda attacks have declined more than 90 percent. Worse, most of their Iraqi Sunni Arab allies have turned on them, or simply quit. This "betrayal" is handled carefully on the terrorist web sites, for it is seen as both shameful, and perhaps recoverable. Click here to read it all.

Report Details Saddam's Terrorist Ties

The truth continues to flow regarding Saddam Hussein's ties to funding and using Muslim terror to target Americans. From Report Details Saddam's Terrorist Ties via Daily Alert:

A Pentagon review of about 600,000 documents captured in the Iraq war attests to Saddam Hussein's willingness to use terrorism to target Americans and work closely with jihadist organizations throughout the Middle East. The report, released this week by the Institute for Defense Analyses, says it found no "smoking gun" linking Iraq operationally to al-Qaeda. But it does say Saddam collaborated with known al-Qaeda affiliates and a wider constellation of Islamist terror groups.

See also Saddam's Dangerous Friends

Read the Report: Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights

Ignoring – and distorting – the facts about how and why his country went to war, Al Gore repeats the slanders of the president – and therefore his country – that have become a familiar aspect of our political life. David Horowitz writes a compelling article on why we went to war in Iraq as a response to Al Gore's ridiculous and arrogant The Assault on Reason. Horowitz writes:

When he was in office and responsible for protecting us, Al Gore was absent from the war on terror. As Vice President, he was part of an administration that failed to respond to the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993; that cut and ran when al-Qaeda ambushed US Army Rangers in Mogadishu; that called for regime change in Iraq when Saddam expelled the UN weapons inspectors but then failed to remove Saddam or to get him to allow the UN inspectors back in; that failed to respond to the murder of US troops in Saudi Arabia or the attack on an American warship in Yemen; that reacted to the blowing up two US embassies in Africa by firing missiles at an aspirin factory in the Sudan and empty tents in Afghanistan; that refused to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden when it had a dozen chances to do so; and that did not put in place simple airport security measures, its own task force recommended, that would have prevented 9/11.

Read the rest of the article here.

Iran Supplied Missile that Hit UK Helicopter

The latest news note from The Sun Online, stating that Iranian forces are being choppered over the Iraqi border to bomb American and British troops and the following news story means we are at war with Iran in all but name. From Iran Supplied Missile that Hit UK Helicopter:

A British Royal Navy helicopter that crashed in flames in Basra last year, killing all five on board, was shot down by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile supplied to Iraqi militants by Iran, according to U.S. officials. Three days before the attack, State Department officials interviewed an Iraqi linked to the Mahdi Army who told them Iran had supplied the militia with the Russian surface-to-air missile. British and U.S. troops fought pitched battles with the Mahdi Army near the southern town of Amara last week as they broke up a network smuggling equipment from Iran to make armor-piercing shaped-charge bombs.

The Right Fight

From The Right Fight:

Lt. Gen. Aboud Qanbar, the Iraqi commander overseeing the security plan, told the Washington Post this week that while sectarian violence is the leading problem in the country, it cannot be understood apart from al-Qaeda‘s involvement. Observing that al-Qaeda often incites the violence that draws reprisals from sectarian Shiite militias, he said: “Terrorists of al-Qaeda and the enemies of Iraq, they want to start a crisis. The objective behind this is to incite sectarian strife.” Coming just ahead of Memorial Day, it was a fitting reminder that the sacrifices of American forces in Iraq have not been in vain. Just don’t tell Congress.

Blast Reported Near Iraq's Parliament Building, Inside Green Zone

A bomb rocked Iraq's parliament building in the heavily fortified Green Zone on Thursday, and many people were wounded, a parliament official said. The explosion took place in a cafeteria while several lawmakers were eating lunch, said Mohammed Abu Bakr, who heads the media department at the parliament.

Stay tuned for updates.

Evidence of WMDs in Iraq and Syria

Last evening or I should say overnight, Michael Shrimpton, a barrister specialising in national security and intelligence law, was interviewed by Art Bell for more than two hours on Art's radio show, and Mr. Shrimpton gave compelling evidence that not only were WMDs in Iraq prior to 2003, they were covertly shipped out of the country via railroad and other methods into Syria. Not only that, Shrimpton also cited evidence how France and Germany were complicit in the development of the WMDs for Iraq by being providers of weapon-grade yellow-cake and other nuclear materials. If you will remember, Saddam used French-made artillery and helicopters to dump gas on the Iranians and his own people.

The audio of the entire interview will be available later today and is accessible to StreamLink subscribers for just pennies.

Art Bell, who typically suspends his disbelief when it comes to aliens and ghosts, had a difficult time buying into Michael Shrimpton's solid evidence. I did not.

Many of us bloggers posted several articles back in 2003 and 2004 about the satellite imagery proof positive evidence of WMDs being transported into Syria. With the United States pronouncement several months before our actual invasion into Iraq, this timeframe proved to be an excellent window for Germany, France and Syria to enable Iraq to offload her WMDs.

Today I decided to research again the articles that were published some years ago by major media outlets, like the Washington Post, which used to link to its own U.N.: Weapons Equipment Missing in Iraq article, but it no longer exists on their site.

However, the Washington Post made sure that articles that embarass the Bush and the Blair administrations still exist. See this. Good editing of your archives, Washington Compost. You've certainly earned your nickname.

CNN posted this article alongside NewsMax posting this one. But the Washington Post published this one.

The Guardian did at one time but no longer links to Polish Troops Find Sarin Warheads in Iraq, but you can find the same article on USAToday here and on FoxNews here. Fortunately, this article Nerve gas used for first time against coalition does still exist at The Guardian, but you better hurry. Referrals from Smooth Stone might make the Arabists there scurry and cover their dirty tracks.

Art Bell claimed during the interview that he did not see one article that described the movement of WMDs out of Iraq into Syria.

I post the following links to prove otherwise:

From Associated Press, U.N.: Weapons equipment missing in Iraq, available on MSNBC

From Geo-Strategy Intelligence Brief, Duelfer: 'A lot of material left Iraq and went to Syria', available on WorldNetDaily

From FrontPageMag, Where the WMDs Went, still available there,

From NewsMax, Iraqi Documents Show Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties, originally published on CNSNews.com,

From NewsMax, Powell: Bush Right to Assume Iraq Had WMDs

From NewsMax, Warner: New Report Backs Iraq WMD Claims

Now, on July 21, 2004, UPI published "Nuclear arms reportedly found in Iraq" and it was cited on every one of these sites, but the article no longer exists on UPI's pages.

The NY Sun still has its link to Saddam's WMD Moved to Syria, An Israeli Says

FrontPageMagazine still links to the Butcher of Basra, an interview with Ali Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, a southern regional commander for Saddam's Fedayheen in the mid-to-late 1980's.

Surprisingly, the Telegraph still links to Saddam's WMD hidden in Syria, says Iraq survey chief

NewsMax links to Lab Tests Could Link Saddam's Missing WMDs to Jordan Plot

Larry Elder's interview with John Loftus, Iraqi WMDs, Now in Syria, is still alive.

WorldNetDaily still has Saddam's WMDs are in Syria

NewsMax links to Gen. Tommy Franks: Iraq Had WMD in 2003

The ScotsMan links to Saddam bankrolled Palestinian terrorists, but nobody cares when a Jew gets blown to bits, because the Jew-hating savages over at Daily KOS believe we deserve it.

MensNewsDaily still links to Syria and the WMD Shell Game

WorldNetDaily, forever loyal to its readership, links to Saddam's WMD have been found and The Heritage Foundation still has links to Syria-ous Problem.

There is no doubt that the mainstream media outlets, those raggy tabloids which deleted their links to their own published pages which document WMDs in Iraq and Syria, have fallen for
the trumped-up concoction of superstitions and deceit which is Islam, merely because the world was cursed by having its main energy source located under the feet of muslim savages.

By the way, did you know that France buys oil from Iran at $12 a barrel? Talk about dirty players.

Let's not forget the Democrat Quotes on Saddam Hussein's WMD Before the War.

In Saddam’s Gifts, which is an ABC News page that no longer exists, but which is cited on Right Voices, we learn that

An Iraqi newspaper has published an extraordinary list that contains the names
of prominent people around the world who supported Saddam Hussein’s regime and
were given oil contracts as a result.

More from Right Voices in How Much Does Appeasement Cost in Oil?:

These are the people the US was to wait for a permission slip from? They said that Bush was in it for the oil…for the special interests in Halliburton and their contracts — that Big Oil was pushing the war on Iraq.

See how easily these appeasers are able to look the other way in the face of human atrocities of the Saddam kind? When they are given gifts of money and big oil contracts - - it’s amazing how the cost of human life, at the hands of that brutal dictator and his men, can seem so paltry.

Among those names are:

Russia
The Companies of the Russian Communist Party
The Companies of the Liberal Democratic Party
The Russian Committee for Solidarity with Iraq
Head of the Russian Presidential Cabinet
The Russian Orthodox Church

France
Charles Pasqua, former minister of interior
Trafigura (Patrick Maugein), businessman
Ibex
Bernard Merimee, former French ambassador to the United Nations
Michel Grimard, founder of the French-Iraqi Export Club
France was the second-largest beneficiary, with tens of millions of barrels awarded to Patrick Maugein, a close political associate and financial backer of French President Jacques Chirac.

Syria
Firas Mostafa Tlass, son of Syria’s defense minister

Turkey
Zeynel Abidin Erdem
Lotfy Doghan

Indonesia
President Megawati Sukarnoputri

Spain
Ali Ballout, Lebanese journalist

Yugoslavia
The Socialist Party
Kostunica’s Party

Canada
Arthur Millholland, president and CEO of Oilexco

Italy
Father Benjamin, a French Catholic priest who arranged a meeting between the pope and then-Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz
Roberto Frimigoni

United States
Samir Vincent

United Kingdom
George Galloway, member of Parliament
Mujaheddin Khalq

South Africa
Tokyo Saxwale

Jordan
Shaker bin Zaid
The Jordanian Ministry of Energy
Fawaz Zureikat
Toujan Al Faisal, former member of Parliament

Lebanon
The son of President Lahoud

Egypt
Khaled Abdel Nasser
Emad Al Galda, businessman and Parliament member

Palestinian Territories
The Palestinian Liberation Organization
Abu Al Abbas

Qatar
Hamad bin Ali Al Thany

Libya
Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem

Chad
Foreign Minister of Chad

Brazil
The October 8th Movement

Myanmar (Burma)
The Minister of the Forests of Myanmar

Ukraine
The Social Democratic Party
The Communist Party
The Socialist Party
The FTD Oil Co.

How much oil does appeasement cost? How many women and children? How much fear? Interests within Russia and France top this list - - two of the top three countries strongly opposed to the loss of their lucrative oil contracts war in Iraq.

Here are photos of satellite images of WMD facilities in Syria. Also, a senior Syrian journalist reports Iraq WMD located in three Syrian sites, here.

JihadWatch still cites a now non-existant article from AFP's Syria tested chemical arms on civilians in Darfur region

NewsMax still has Ex-Official: Russia Moved Saddam's WMD which is posted in full here on TimeBomb2000.com, originally posted on http://www.intelligencesummit.org/

I think you get my point. For Art Bell, an intelligent and inquiring fellow, to claim alongside American fascists who believe the canard that 9-11 was an inside job, that there was no evidence of any articles to suggest that WMDs were hauled out of Iraq into Syria, is just not believable. The evidence exists. It just depends on what side of the Arab love fest you're on.

Liberals and their pro-Islam agenda are ready to toss the Jews - and Americans - into the cage in order to feed the Islamic beast. How long until the American people realize that? Maybe they will realize it the next time we get hit. And we will get hit again.

Britain's Humiliation - and Europe's

From Britain's Humiliation - and Europe's by Charles Krauthammer:

Iran has pulled off a tidy little success with its seizure and release of those 15 British sailors and marines: a pointed humiliation of Britain, with a bonus demonstration of Iran's intention to push back against coalition challenges to its assets in Iraq. Further, it exposed the impotence of all those transnational institutions - most prominently the EU and the UN - that pretend to maintain international order.

The quid pro quos were not terribly subtle. An Iranian "diplomat" who had been held for two months in Iraq is suddenly released. Equally suddenly, Iran is granted access to the five Iranian "consular officials" - Revolutionary Guards who had been training Shiite militias to kill Americans and others - whom the U.S. had arrested in Irbil in January.

Where then was the EU? These 15 hostages, after all, are not just British citizens but, under the laws of Europe, citizens of Europe. Yet the EU lifted not a finger on their behalf. Britain asked the EU to threaten to freeze exports, $18 billion a year of commerce. Iran would have lost its No. 1 trading partner. The EU refused. So much for European solidarity.

Ironically, the existence of transnational institutions makes it harder for collective action against bad actors. In the past, interested parties would simply get together in temporary coalitions to do what they had to do. That is much harder now because they believe such action is illegitimate without the Security Council's blessing.

The capture and release of the British hostages illustrate once again the fatuousness of the "international community" and its great institutions. You want your people back? Go to the Security Council and get a statement that refuses even to "deplore" this act of piracy. Then turn to the despised Americans. They'll deal some cards and bail you out.

Chlorine cache found in Iraq

Weapons of man's destruction? Couldn't be, because Islam is the "religion of peace". Isn't that right, Ibrahim Hooper? Via Washington Times:

U.S. troops sweeping Baghdad have found containers of nitric acid and chlorine, raising concerns that insurgents are expanding their use of chemicals in the war for power in Iraq, military officials said yesterday. The containers were found as part of a larger cache of weapons discovered as U.S. and Iraqi troops cleared house after house in the Sunni-majority Ghazaliyah neighborhood in western Baghdad.

In a new twist in the Iraqi conflict, chlorine gas set off by suicide bombers in villages west of Baghdad killed at least eight and sickened hundreds last week. It was the first time the chemical was found in the capital. Athough both nitric acid and chlorine have a variety of industrial uses, finding them alongside weapons stashes in known terrorist havens signified a change of tactic for the fighters, said a U.S. military official who asked not to be named.

"We've seen them use caustic acid with improvised explosive devices to burn the skin," said the official, adding that although the acid does not increase the lethality of a bomb, it does make
it "nastier."

In one house in nearby Amariyah raided by Iraqi troops and the U.S. Army's Striker Brigade yesterday, soldiers found mortar shells stored in a bag in the front yard, along with a meat cleaver and a bomb fashioned from a propane tank.

Inside the house, clothing, photographs and children's toys were piled high in filthy corners. Black and white banners declared the rule of the Islamic Army, a Sunni extremist group.

Chlorine Bombs Mark New Insurgent Tactics in Iraq

From Chlorine Bombs Mark New Insurgent Tactics in Iraq:

Two bombs with chlorine gas have killed up to 11 people this week in Iraq, causing toxic fumes that have made scores more sick. Lt.-Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, said U.S. forces had found chlorine cylinders in a car bomb factory near Falluja on Tuesday. Chlorine gas was used as a weapon in World War One.

The rest of the story

From Michelle Malkin:

And from Michael Yon, another gripping dispatch on what Iraqis are willing to do to save their children. Worth reading and seeing after the steady drumbeat of articles telling you that Iraqis aren't doing anything to help themselves.

For the Bush-Lied-People-Died crowd

Via FrontPage: "Bush-Lied-People-Died" is the rhetorical pot of gold at the end of the left’s argumentative rainbow. But the threshold of proof is so astronomically high--a Bush defender need only show the decision was reasonable, not necessarily correct--that none of Bush’s critics has ever come close to making the case. Put yourself in Bush’s position and consider what you know in late 2002:

a) 3000 Americans are dead in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. Also dead is the useful myth that the United States will respond to a direct attack on its soil with a terrible swift sword; the formula for waging war against the U.S. is now apparent to our enemies--just work through non-state actors and turn over a few usual-suspect corpses if the U.S. connects the dots afterwards and demands justice.

b) Saddam is in violation of United Nations Resolution #687 which ended the first Gulf War--to which the U.S. is a principal signatory and thus principal aggrieved party.

c) Saddam’s military is firing at American aircraft patrolling the No Fly Zone in Iraq and Saddam himself doling out cash rewards to the families of Palestinian terrorists who kill Israelis--and occasionally American citizens.

d) There is a sealed indictment of Osama from the Clinton Administration which reads in part, “Al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the government of Iraq.”

e) A personal warning was issued from Russian President Vladimir Putin that Saddam is planning terrorist strikes against the United States and an unconfirmed British intelligence report that Saddam recently sought to buy uranium from Niger.

f) The head of the CIA is telling you emphatically Saddam possesses WMDs, echoing the consensus of every other intelligence agency on the planet.

g) Saddam has been jerking around weapons inspectors, thwarting their inquiries and intermittently kicking them out for a decade--which makes little sense unless he’s hiding WMDs.

h) There is incontrovertible proof of Saddam’s willingness to use WMDs on foreign enemies and even on his own people.

i) There are reports of thousands of Iraqi children dying each month as a result of UN sanctions as well as evidence that the sanctions themselves are collapsing amid governmental and corporate corruption.

j) Finally, there is a copy of the Presidential Daily Briefing from August 6, 2001 sitting on your desk titled “Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.” The intelligence it contains is sketchy--far sketchier than the intelligence you now possess about Saddam’s intentions--but the title haunts you. If only you’d acted preemptively in August 2001, if only you’d taken out bin Laden. . .

In short, given the information at his disposal, George Bush’s decision to oust Saddam looks altogether reasonable--though, again, not necessarily right. To argue otherwise demonstrates both ignorance and bad faith.