Report Shows Clearly Saddam's Support for Terrorism

Information is coming to light about a report called "Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents." The report can be found at the ABC News website, in addition to several other locations on the internet. Warning: it's about 45 megabytes in size and will take a while to download, even on a broadband connection.

The report was published by the Pentagon’s Institute for Defense Analyses and released through the Joint Forces Command in November 2007.

I first became aware of the report today in a Human Events piece by Christopher Holton entitled "The Truth About Saddam and Terrorism." If you're not up for reading the 94-page report, I'd recommend reading this piece for a good summary.

The report itself provides important information regarding Saddam's terrorist activities, and since we've been subjected to five years of misinformation and history revision by the Left and their media lapdogs, we should pause to consider the truth. It has the greatest bearing on why we invaded Iraq, and why eradicating terrorism in Iraq and leaving a stable country are so vital in American foreign policy.

Consider these excerpts from the report:

Captured Iraqi documents have uncovered evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism, including a variety of revolutionary, liberation, nationalist, and Islamic terrorist organizations. While these documents do not reveal direct coordination and assistance between the Saddam regime and the al Qaeda network, they do indicate that Saddam was willing to use, albeit cautiously, operatives affiliated with al Qaeda as long as Saddam could have these terrorist–operatives monitored closely.

The Iraqi regime was involved in regional and international terrorist operations prior to OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM. The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq.

On occasion, the Iraqi intelligence servIces directly targeted the regime's perceived enemies, including non-Iraqis. Non-Iraqi casualties often resulted from Iraqi sponsorship of non-governmental terrorist groups.

The regime carefully recorded its connections to Palestinian terror organizations in numerous government memos. One such example documents Iraqi financial support to families of suicide bombers in Gaza and the West Bank.

State sponsorship of terrorism became such a routine tool of state power that Iraq developed elaborate bureaucratic processes to monitor progress and accountability in the recruiting, training, and resourcing of terrorists. Examples include the regime's development, construction, certification, and training for car bombs and suicide vests in 1999 and 2000.

From the beginning of his rise to power, one of Saddam's major objectives was to shift the regional balance of power favorably towards Iraq. After the 1991 Gulf War, pursuing this objective motivated Saddam and his regime to increase their cooperation with-and attempts to manipulate-Islamic fundamentalists and related terrorist organizations. Documents indicate that the regime's use of terrorism was standard practice, although not always successful. From 1991 through 2003, the Saddam regime regarded inspiring, sponsoring, directing, and executing acts of terrorism as an element of state power.

Here is more on Saddam's sponsorship of terrorism against Israel:

Throughout the decade after OPERATION DESERT STORM, Saddam's support to Palestinian terrorist groups remained extensive. His funding of the families of suicide bombers attacking Israel is well documented in the open media, but Saddam's support did not stop there. For example, in a 2002 document, the Chief of Staff of Saddam's al Quds Army orders each brigade to build a replica of an Israeli settlement in its headquarters area so that fighters can train in a realistic environment.

Saddam also gave aid and refuge to Palestinian terrorist Abu al-Abbas, who was wanted for his part in the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro and the murder of an American citizen.

The rest of the documents in this folder detail Iraqi procedures for accepting Abu aI-Abbas and his wife as residents and providing them with Iraqi diplomatic passports so the couple could move freely within the Middle East.

The report says that despite the fact that al Qaeda had religious goals and Saddam's goals were primarily secular or personal, they nevertheless found themselves fighting a common enemy and "separate but 'parallel' vision."

When attacking Western interests, the competitive terror cartel came into play, particularly in the late 1990s. Captured documents reveal that the regime was willing to co-opt or support organizations it knew to be part of al Qaeda-as long as that organization's near-term goals supported Saddam's longterm vision.

Here are more specifics of who and how Saddam supported terrorism:

For years, Saddam maintained training camps for foreign "fighters" drawn from these diverse groups. In some cases, particularly for Palestinians, Saddam was also a strong financial supporter. Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri) or that generally shared al Qaeda's stated goals and objectives.

The report is long and detailed (94 pages) but we would all do well to read it, especially after five years of media-accelerated lies claiming Saddam had no terrorist ties and was not supporting terrorism.

The U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was necessary for a variety of reasons, including the fact that most intelligence agencies in the world--including the former Clinton administration--believed Saddam had or was working on WMDs, but also because he was flaunting 17 US-backed UN resolutions, and was firing on US and British warplanes almost daily.

And also, as this report shows us once again, Saddam Hussein was supporting terrorism. You might recall that we are in a War on Terrorism, and have been for many years, even before President Bush formally declared that war after nearly 3,000 Americans were killed on 911.

We have a job to finish in Iraq. Due to the fact that that our enemies have seen American weakness of resolve displayed in our Achilles Heel (otherwise known as the Left), terrorists are greatly encouraged that if they simply fight on long enough, the soft Americans will lose heart and go home.

We must stand firm and demonstrate to these bloodthirsty barbarians that despite our Achilles Heel, the body of America remains strong and resolute. We must demonstrate that we will not take half-measures in the face of evil.

We must demonstrate that we will stay in Iraq until the job is done. I invite liberals to get with the program, help us present a united front to the enemy, and bring on the day when we can all come home as soon as possible.