Saddam "provided a permissive environment for al-qaeda..."

[keithyboy]

How did Saddam do this? He only controlled 1/3 of Iraq since 1991. Where did al-qaeda go inside Iraq...i beleive their contacts were in the areas controlled by the KUrds and that al-qaeda was linked to anti-Saddam Iraqis...not linked to Saddam.

[troublemaker]

1. He let Al Qeada wear make-up in junior high school

get its navel pierced at fourteen... stay up half the night... it was trouble just waiting to happen!

[Ouabache]

2. you are right keithy

If Saddam had gone into the part of Iraq where the camp was Britain & USA would have bombed the hell out of his forces there since it was under the no-fly zone in the Northern third of Iraq. They didn't because it would have endangered the anti-Saddam Kurds. So who was 'permissive'? Good question.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. bah!

>Saddam "provided a permissive environment for al-qaeda..."

What, you mean like Florida? Saudi Arabia, perhaps? Pakistan?

[shraby]

4. al Queda was one of

Saddam's weapons of mass destruction related programs..hidden under a Mosque in the desert.

[DeadHead67]

5. Is that like . . .

. . .Conditions favorable for creation of Weapons of Mass Destruction?

[punpirate]

6. I'm guessing that they're still pounding on the...

Ansar al-Islam meme. Ansar al-Islam is a very loose group of what amounts to Islamic redneck fundamentalists who control a small part of northeastern Kurdistan, very near the Iranian border. Ansar al-Islam models itself after al-Qaeda, wishes it could be like them, and has tried to form some sort of association with them, without a lot of success, from what I've read.

The administration has consistently tried to tie this group to Saddam, and the "permissive" business probably has to do with the fact that Saddam didn't go into Kurdistan and clean them out (even though they were in the northern no-fly zone, and there were apparently very few of Saddam's troops in that area).

Ansar al-Islam wasn't much of a threat, and they certainly aren't now--the US pounded the villages they occupy with air attacks four or five days before the start of the invasion (thinking they were destroying chemical weapons production facilities--none were found).

[Djinn]

7. this is why ill informed people worry me when they vote

anyone with even basic knowledge knows that Afghanistan (who until 9/11 were courted by US admin and corporate scum) and Pakistan & certain Saudi's (still staunch allies on the "war on terr'r") were the people providing the "permissive atmosphere".

Saddam was many nasty things but stupid and willing to damage his own power base where not two of them - he was as much an enemy of Al Qaeda nutbags as the rest of us.