McClatchy: "Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam and al Qaida"

[leftchick]

:banghead:


http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/29959.html

WASHINGTON — An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives found no documents indicating a "direct operational link" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaida before the invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report.

He and others spoke to McClatchy on condition of anonymity because the study isn't due to be shared with Congress and released before Wednesday.

President Bush and his aides used Saddam's alleged relationship with al Qaida, along with Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction, as arguments for invading Iraq after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

[C_U_L8R]

1. gee, ya think???

how much did this genius piece of research cost us ??????

[krkaufman]

9. Exactly. We knew that before the invasion.

Of course, the cash was expended because they were *HOPING* to find some stray document on which to retroactively prove a link. Pitiful.

No biggie, though; we've got plenty o' money.

[MadMaddie]

2. So is War Crimes yet? How much more evidence do we need

to prosecute the Criminals in the WH. They have bankrupted America, destroyed our military and thousands of lives lost.

[spanone]

3. k&r

[spanone]

4. double kick

[xchrom]

5. no link to al qaida -- no weapons of mass destruction --

9 billion of us dollars cash gone -- corruption between iraqi officials and us contractors -- abu ghraib --

and john mccain wants to choose ''not to lose this war''.

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Over 2.8 million Iraqis slaughtered or displaced, infrastructure destroyed, etc, FOR WHAT?

.
.
.

For the USA to proliferate war and terrorism where none existed.

Taxpayers in the USA taken to the tune of over 3 TRILLION dollars,

deaths of almost 4,000 young soldiers,

and tens of thousands of wounded;

Loss of respect and trust around the globe;

And don't even take care of it's own.

Some "Empire"

[leftchick]

8. "some empire" is right

god forgive amerika

[GOPisEvil]

7. GOPisEvil: No shit

I knew this in 2002. What the hell took McClatchey so long?