More on Saddam and 9/11

More evidence that Saddam's Iraq and bin Laden were not strangers passing in the night.

And, the "mainstream" media were aware of this fact.

Two articles follow the article I mentioned earlier from FrontPageMag.com.

First is this piece by the The Wall Street Journal.

Second is this article in The Weekly Standard. Author Stephen Hayes provides quotes from news sources such as ABC and NPR dating back to 1999 describing connections and coordination between Saddam and bin Laden and al Qaeda.

Money Quote:

Where did journalists get the idea that Saddam and bin Laden might be coordinating efforts? Among other places, from high-ranking Clinton administration officials. . . .

The Clinton administration's indictment read unequivocally:

"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."

Just What Is a Bushism?

Eugene Volokh points out there are disingenuous members of the Left with no shame.

An Article to Treasure

Thanks to Peter Robinson of National Review Online.

This is a deeply moving article of Hope and ultimately, Faith.

As it turned out, the precipitating event was the 1995 broadcast of a British documentary on Chinese orphanages. Called The Dying Rooms, it shows orphanages full of infant girls, where a crude Darwinianism dictates that the less hardy -- or the less delightful -- will be left to die of neglect. I attended a screening at the Foreign Correspondents Club here in Hong Kong. My wife refused to see it. Her response was more to the heart. "We can't change things in China," she whispered to me that night. "But maybe we could change things for one little girl." . . .

I am sure Gracie in that one day had more physical interaction than she had had in her whole tiny life. In the orphanage, which we later visited, the children lay on their backs, three to a crib, craving human warmth and attention. That first night, when we put Gracie to bed in a makeshift cot, she lifted up her head and cried like a wounded animal. She was checking to see if we were still there.

A piece that must be read in its entirety.

There is No Moral Equivalence

Garry Kasparov (yes, Garry Chess Kasparov) speaking plainly and clearly.

We need the White House talking like this more often.

The Bush Administration has been uncharacteristically confused in their handling of the Iraqi prison revelations.

The world is watching and wondering: Will America repeat its indecisive Vietnam ways, or finish business in Iraq and leave Iraqis stability and freedom as well as deliver a clear signal to rogue nations that harboring terrorists will not be tolerated.

Straight Talk Money Quote:

In this fight the enemy does not play by our rules, or by any rules at all. WMD will be in terrorist hands eventually; conventional wisdom recognizes this reality. Concessions and negotiations at best only delay catastrophe. Europe and its people are in this war whether they acknowledge it or not. Those who would appease terrorists must realize that by pretending that this battle does not exist, they will soon have blood on their hands--both real and metaphorical.

Iraq 9/11 Link

More "mainstream" media negligence.

You will not read this in any "mainstream" media:

The Czechs have long maintained that Atta, leader of the 9/11 hijackers in the United States, met with Ahmed al-Ani, an Iraqi intelligence official, posted to the Iraqi embassy in Prague. As Epstein now reports, Czech authorities have discovered that al-Ani’s appointment calendar shows a scheduled meeting on April 8, 2001 with a "Hamburg student."   

That is exactly what the Czechs had been saying since shortly after 9/11: Atta, a long-time student at Germany’s Hamburg-Harburg Technical University, met with al-Ani on April 8, 2001.  Indeed, when Atta earlier applied for a visa to visit the Czech Republic, he identified himself as a “Hamburg student.” The discovery of the notation in al-Ani’s appointment calendar about a meeting with a “Hamburg student” provides critical corroboration of the Czech claim. 

Epstein also explains how Atta could have traveled to Prague at that time without the Czechs having a record of such a trip. Spanish intelligence has found evidence that two Algerians provided Atta a false passport.

Here is why this will not be found in The New York Times:

Opinion polls show that most Americans still believe Iraq had substantial ties to al Qaeda and even that it was involved in 9/11. Yet among the “elite,” there is tremendous opposition to this notion.  A simple explanation exists for this dichotomy.  The public is not personally vested in this issue, but the elite certainly are.

America’s leading lights, including those in government responsible for dealing with terrorism and with Iraq, made a mammoth blunder. They failed to recognize that starting with the first assault on New York’s World Trade Center, Iraq was working with Islamic militants to attack the United States. This failure left the country vulnerable on September 11, 2001.  Many of those who made this professional error cannot bring themselves to acknowledge it; perhaps, they cannot even recognize it.  They mock whomever presents information tying Iraq to the 9/11 attacks; discredit that information; and assert there is “no evidence.”

The evidence is only growing, not diminishing.

Only My Munichs

Matt Welch over at Reason Online enjoys a romp through the arrogance of the Left.

It can be difficult to stomach the hypocrisy of Soros:

"I believe we were justified in intervening in Kosovo without U.N. authorization, and we would have done better if we had relied on NATO and not the United Nations in Bosnia," Soros writes. "But unilateral action that goes against international public opinion cannot be justified, and it can endanger our national security by turning the world against us." Unfortunately, Soros does not explain how we might quantify this "international public opinion," or come up with a Plan B when the world is acting particularly daft. If European public opinion had won the day in March 1999, Soros’ Kosovo war never would have been fought.

A good read.

More on WMD. . . .

This just gets better.

Our so-called "mainstream" media is simply negligent on this critical topic.

They won't wake up again until more people die back home here in America.

Shameless, Yes.

Excusable, No.

The "mainstream" media will likely become less and less "mainstream" as their audience dwindles.

More and more are getting their information from the internet, be it news sites or now, more commonly, blogs.

Citizen Smash is the blog to track these Sarin adventures.

UPDATE: More on Sarin from Blackfive. OK, so there is more than one site talking about this in interesting detail.

Oil for Food Fury

Canada Free Press has excellent dirt on the UN fiasco.

Check this out:

The [Saddam's Iraq] oil-for-food tap has never been turned off. The [New York] Post says there are "several hundred million" from the program sitting in three banks in Jordan. Someone is drawing the money from these accounts, but "no one knows whom."

It Can't be WMD!

Love this paragraph from the irascible Christopher Hitchens:

So a Sarin-infected device is exploded in Iraq, and across the border in Jordan the authorities say that nerve and gas weapons have been discovered for use against them by the followers of Zarqawi, who was in Baghdad well before the invasion. Where, one idly inquires, did these toys come from? No, it couldn't be. …

Not an Iran-Iraq War Dud?

Blaster's Blog has timely information on those pesky Weaspons of Mass Destruction (Hat Tip: InstaPundit).

Turns out they may not be as old as the Left would want us to believe:

It has to be a post Iran-Iraq War, post Desert Storm product.

This story is getting better and better.

Think, Then Talk

Donald Sensing puts into words what I could only think in exasperation and adds facts that could make most despondent.

Many may have come across this gem from the National Council of Churches telling us:

that US policy in Iraq has become so destructive [that] the United Nations should take over.

The list of UN Peacekeeping abuses is a shameful reminder of how poorly our "free" press is doing their job.

Yes they are biased. But I agree with many on the Right (and Left) who say they are also simply lazy.

Intellectual laziness also applies to the National Council of Churches -- in spaids.

(Oh by the way, please note where Donald Sensing works.)

Lest We Forget. . . .

Today is Armed Forces Day.

From The Federalist:

"The heritage of freedom must be guarded as carefully in peace as it was in war. Faith, not suspicion, must be the key to our relationships. Sacrifice, not selfishness, must be the eternal price of liberty. Vigilance, not appeasement, is the byword of living freedoms." --General Omar N. Bradley, Armed Forced Day, 1950.

Saturday, 15 May, is Armed Forces Day -- that day first set aside in 1949 by President Harry Truman to recognize the unification of the Armed Forces under the Department of Defense and to acknowledge the extraordinary dedication of Americans in uniform standing ready in harm's way at home and around the world.

In the words of President Dwight Eisenhower, "It is fitting and proper that we devote one day each year to paying special tribute to those whose constancy and courage constitute one of the bulwarks guarding the freedom of this nation and the peace of the free world."

Godspeed to all of those who protect us daily.

Greatful acknowledgement to those who have protected our country and freedoms we enjoy daily.

Self-Flagellation

Victor Davis Hanson at his best over at National Review Online.

His historical perspective is so valuable during this time of struggle for our national soul. As they say, read the whole thing.

Two money quotes:

What would we think now if George Marshall had been forced out on news that 3,000 miles away George S. Patton's men had shot some Italian prisoners, or Gen. Hodges's soldiers summarily executed German commandoes out of uniform, or drivers of the Red Ball express had raped French women? Should Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell have been relieved from his command for the February 12-13, 1991, nocturnal bombing of the Al Firdos compound in Baghdad, in which hundreds of women and children of Baathist loyalists were tragically incinerated and pictures of their corpses broadcast around the world, prompting the United States to cease all further pre-planned and approved attacks on the elite in Saddam's bunkers throughout Baghdad? Of course not.

. . .

If it were not so tragic it would be ironic to see what the present prescient critics are going to say — much less do — when they confront the hideous reality that Iran and perhaps Syria will have acquired nuclear weapons and with them the ability, without a neighboring nuclear India staring them down, to blackmail most of the Middle East and the oil-hungry world at large.

We can agree to disagree with the admonition George Washington set forth in his Farewell Address to remain wary of foreign entanglements. Arguments can be made that we live in a different age; the seas off our Atlantic and Pacific coasts no longer offer the protections enjoyed a century ago.

However, can anyone make a rational argument to leave Iraq now as we are on the verge of Victory?

A moral argument?

Contrition

Watching C-SPAN is dangerous to your health.

Watching the _very_ Senior Senator from West Virginia preach (and he who says there is some mysterious Wall between Church and State).

Here is a sober look at the differences between "us" and "them."

Money Quote:

Put your hand on your neck and imagine a large knife sawing though it. (Stop and think for a minute...you can almost feel it, can't you?) Well, that's just one of your possible fates if we decline to fight this war. Our enemies will fight us to the death regardless of whether we choose to return the favor. Wishing a war away does not make it so. We should have learned that lesson on September 11th.