The Saddam-al Qaeda connection.

Inspired by Atrios' takedown of Jonah Goldberg over at Eschaton, we decided to look at Putz's posts about the Saddam's supposed links with al Qaeda, in light of the new Senate report released Friday, concluding no such link ever existed. The Senate report includes the following passage:

"Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qaeda and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al-Qaeda to provide material or operational support." -- Senate Report

Now let's take a look back at what the Putz has posted on this topic.

3/16/2006

Reader Tom Brosz emails: "March 20th is the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. That's a date I'd watch closely [for al Qaeda attacks]."

Nonsense. We've been repeatedly assured by antiwar folks that there's no connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda, so why would they care?

1/7/06

STEPHEN F. HAYES reports on a Saddam-terror connection that hasn't gotten much attention up to now: Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq...Many of the fighters were drawn from terrorist groups in northern Africa with close ties to al Qaeda, chief among them Algeria's GSPC and the Sudanese Islamic Army.

11/17/2005

I DIDN'T KNOW that Richard Clarke worried that Osama would "boogie to Baghdad" if we invaded Afghanistan. Interesting...I don't know how much this matters now, except as a reminder that the revisionist nobody-could-imagine-Saddam-and-Al-Qaeda-in-alliance claim isn't exactly supported by the history.

7/15/2005

CLAWING OPEN THE MEMORY HOLE:

Before Democrats had a partisan motive to claim, contrary to all the evidence, that there was no relationship between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and bin Laden's al Qaeda, their close and dangerous relationship was common knowledge.

Yeah, we heard a lot of that stuff before Bush was President, but now it's all supposed to be something he just made up.

10/9/2004

A dictator [Saddam] whose regime had had, as the 9/11 Commission has documented, frequent contacts with al Qaeda. We have no conclusive evidence that he collaborated with al Qaeda on 9/11—but also no conclusive evidence that he did not. Under those circumstances, George W. Bush acted prudently in deciding to remove this regime. He would have been imprudent not to have done so.

Indeed.

10/8/2004

PAUL BREMER CORRECTS THE RECORD:

As the bipartisan 9/11 commission reported, there were contacts between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime going back a decade.

7/19/2004

YESTERDAY, I noted new reports of an Iran/Al Qaeda connection and wondered if skeptics of the Iraq war would be calling for an invasion of Iran. Now, in response to those reports, Brad DeLong writes: "And where is our counterstrike against the Iranian government? It is now, by my count, some 1030 days overdue."

6/25/2004

ANDREW MCCARTHY IS TAKING THE NEW YORK TIMES TO TASK for hypocrisy and dishonesty on Iraq/Al Qaeda connections: "Most pathetic of all in today's article is the Times's self-serving rationale for withholding critical information while it was accusing the president of misleading the country. . . . No one is more aware than the 'newspaper of record' that if the American people become convinced Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were in cahoots, the national perception of the necessity for this war will drastically change, and the president's reelection will be a virtual lock. That's what this is about. And who knows what else the Times is not telling us?

6/17/2004

SADDAM AND AL QAEDA -- THE BRITISH VIEW:

Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein did let al-Qaida operate out of Iraq, Downing Street insisted today.

A US report yesterday said there was no conclusive evidence of a link between the former Iraqi dictator and Osama bin Laden's terrorist group.

But Downing Street said Saddam had created "a permissive environment" for terrorists and al-Qaida operatives were in the country during his time in office.

No 10 said it was not claiming a direct link but a spokeswoman said: "The prime minister has always said Saddam created a permissive environment for terrorism and we know that the people affiliated to al-Qaida operated in Iraq during the regime.

"The prime minister always made it clear that Saddam's was a rogue state which threatened the security of the region and the world."

It seems hard to argue with that.

6/16/2004

FROM THE 9/11 COMMISSION: "The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks found 'no credible evidence' of a link between Iraq and al-Qaida in attacks against the United States, contradicting President Bush's assertion that such a connection was among the reasons it was necessary to topple Saddam Hussein."

I'd be interested in seeing a comparison between this report and Stephen Hayes' book [How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein has Endangered America].

UPDATE: Steven Antler emails:

Please, Glenn, issue a call to the blogosphere to find out who were the two Bin Laden "senior associates" cited as denying the Iraq/Bin Laden connection. If the statement appearedin the middle of a long anti-Bush rant modeled after those originating from the US left, it is vital this news get out ASAP.

Let's hear it.

12/14/2003

WELL THIS IS BIG NEWS if it pans out:

Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.

11/18/2003

STEPHEN F. HAYES' story about the Saddam / Al Qaeda connection continues to be widely ignored. (And for those who keep sending me the link to the Pentagon's non-denial denial on this, I mentioned it in my first post on the subject -- where I also linked Josh Chafetz's comments on why it doesn't, in fact, undercut the Hayes story. Read this, too.)

Compare the non-attention that this story has received with the credulous reception of the Center for Public Integrity's bogus study claiming cronyism in Iraq reconstruction contracts.

But, you see, it has been decided that "Bush lied" in suggesting a Saddam / Al Qaeda connection, and mere evidence can't be allowed to get in the way of such a trope. Especially with less than a year until the election. Here's more, if you're interested.

7/14/2003

ON FRIDAY I POSTED THIS ITEM linking to a column by Judge Gilbert S. Merritt of the Sixth Circuit, who discovered evidence of an Osama/Saddam connection while in Baghdad.

Here's a followup on that item, from Stephen F. Hayes of The Weekly Standard. Hayes' piece suggests that U.S. authorities are being extremely cautious in drawing connections between Al Qaeda and Saddam. You can read more here on the subject of Saddam/Osama links -- just keep scrolling. And here is a story on the subject from the Saturday New York Post.

Meanwhile, Judge Merritt says he's been gagged by the U.S. government. What does all this mean? I'm really not sure. But I think this story deserves a lot more attention than it's gotten.

UPDATE: Here's an item listing numerous articles from 1999 indicating a connection between Saddam and Osama. It would be more impressive if it included links, but I assume the quotations are accurate.

And there's lots, lots more. Take a look here.

Putz has authored dozens of posts hyping a fictitious Saddam-al Qaeda connection, while simultaneously dismissing those who disputed such a link as being part of the naive, anti-Bush, anti-war Left.

He owes his readers an apology, and needs to correct the record, in light of the Senate report.