If this story checks out, we have a smoking gun.

[Cybrludite]

I don't know how reliable a source the Herald Sun is, but it appears that one of Saddam's personal bodyguards has defected. And he's brought information on where things were hidden.

[Ensign Arrgh]

For now, I would wait, it could turn out to be the same kind of thing which happened in the gulf war with the Kuwait ambassador's daughter...

[Sho-sa Kurita]

I was watching the Senate Foreign Relations Committe hearing with Secretary Armitage and Ambassador Negroponte the other day (yes, I'm a nerd) and they were speaking of Powell having an "Adlai Stephenson" moment at his U.N. briefing later this week.

For those of you not in the know, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kruschev was denying the existence of the missiles in Cuba, and Stephenson pulled out satellite photos right there and trumped him. I have a feeling Powell will have more than a couple photos.

I think very few people doubt he has "bad things." Most of the disagreement I hear is more about timetables and appropriate actions. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

-- Daniel

[Capt.Hunter]

Well, it'd better be that good. An interview with one of Britain's top army commanders recently said he hadn't met a single one of his generals who believed in the war option.

Also, British journalists talking to CIA officials reportedly found that even they were "unconvinced" of a link between Al-Qaeda and Iraq.

[Sho-sa Kurita]

Al-Qaeda and Iraq is a separate issue from Iraq and disarmament. Actaully Al-Qaeda and Saddam are natural enemies because he is a secular leader and their cause is led primarily by radical Islamic clerics.

-- Daniel

[Eric R.]

OK enough with this Hussien and Al-queda are natural enemy's crap and can't work together, I can sight plenty of examples from the past of two opposites cooperating for the moment but to just mention a few.

Hitler/Stalin 1939-41
Hitler/Japan 1940-45
Syria/US 1990-91
Isreal/Iran 1980-82
US/USSR 1941-45
US/Petty Third World Dictators 1900-2001


Strategic needs of the moment dictate who is your ally, not your ideals or public statements!

[Capt.Hunter]

True, but Osama working with Saddam would be akin to him wanting to help out the USA (as in now, not back when he was CIA). He considers Saddam barely better than "the Great Satan" itself. Back in 1991, he was chomping at the bit to go into Iraq and assassinate our favourite mustachioed dictator. It was only the fact that the US attacked that meant he wasn't allowed to do it.

A lot of people around here claimed that there could never be a peace with fundamentalist nations because they consider us evil, immoral and totally corrupt, as well as worthless in the eyes of whatever God they believe in. They consider Saddam the same way. It's just, in his case, they happen to be right.

[Sho-sa Kurita]

I sort of got away from the point I meant to make. There are two separate issues related to Iraq.

Is it possible Al-Qaeda and Iraq could have a (most likely temporary) alliance. Yes. Enemy of my enemy, and all that. Is Al-Qaeda the only terrorist group Saddam could be working with? No. AQ doesn't have to be working with Iraq for Iraq to be working with terrorists (not to mention Saddam's regime itself).

But aside from all that, terrorism doesn't even need to be part of the equation. Disarmament. Saddam having WMD or even of fair-to-middling destruction. I believe that's where Powell's main thrust will be pointing.

-- Daniel

[Kevin]

There are more terrorist groups then Al-Qaeda. Iraq has supported other terrorist groups. And since Al Qaeda is a sort of confederation of various terrorist groups connections are possible at the lower level. I would say after the rout from Afganistan Al-Qaeda might be alittle desperate. Also who are these groups that are supposed to commit terrorist acts upon us if we do attack Iraq. Whether a terrorist is Al-Qaeda or not they are a terrorist.

[Capt.Hunter]

I'm of the opinion that the Al-Qaeda thing is a smokescreen. There may be a tenuous link. Certainly, Al-Qaeda wouldn't actually have to be actively working with Saddam to possibly get their hands on WMDs - they could steal them. However, making the connection is an easy way of swaying popular opinion against Saddam.

[First of Two]

http://msnbc.com/news/868277.asp?0bl=-0

When U.S.-led forces began their air attacks against Baghdad, one of Iraq’s intelligence agencies attempted unsuccessfully to carry out terrorist bombings against U.S. embassies and other facilities, including targets in Manila, Bangkok and Jakarta, according to U.S. intelligence assessments. According to these assessments, Hussein sent pairs of agents to many countries where they were to pick up explosives or weapons that had already been sent abroad.

Two terrorists in the Philippines blew themselves up trying to plant a bomb outside the U.S. cultural center in 1991. Another bomb was found before it could be detonated outside the breakfast room of the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Jakarta.

Richard Butler, the former U.N. weapons inspector, was Australia’s ambassador to Thailand at the time of the Persian Gulf War. “Saddam sent a terrorist hit group to Bangkok,” he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last July. “The existence of that group was identified by intelligence authorities, and their plan was to make an attack upon the embassies of the United States, Australia and Israel in Bangkok.” He said the Australian embassy was targeted because Australia was part of the coalition that fought to force Iraq out of Kuwait.

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan threatened last week to send “thousands of suicide attackers” against U.S. targets outside Iraq. “We have no long-range missiles or bomber squadrons, but we will deploy thousands of suicide attackers,” Ramadan told the German weekly, Der Spiegel. “These are our new weapons, and they will be used not only in Iraq.”