Posted October 8, 200519 yr WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An intercepted letter from Osama bin Laden's deputy to the al Qaeda leader in Iraq complains that the terrorist network is short of cash and faces defeat in Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokesman says. The United States obtained a recent letter that appears to be from Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2 figure, to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, outlining both the strategy and concerns of the terrorist network, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. In the letter, al-Zawahiri warns that some of the tactics currently employed by the insurgency, including the slaughtering of hostages and the suicide bombings of Muslim civilians, may risk alienating the "Muslim masses," Whitman said Thursday. Reading from a summary of the letter, Whitman said al-Zawahiri concedes that al Qaeda has lost many key leaders, is resigned to defeat in Afghanistan, and that its lines of communication and funding sources have been seriously disrupted. Al-Zawahiri includes a plea for financial support, indicating he is strapped for money, Whitman said. He could not say when the letter was intercepted or when authorities believe it might have been written. The lengthy communication was said to detail the strategy of Muslim extremists to push the United States out of Iraq and establish an Islamic state that could expand its form of governance to neighboring countries, Whitman said. Senior U.S. officials told CNN that the 6,000-word letter is believed to have been written within days of the July 7 terror attacks in London. Only parts of the letter have been made public, the officials said. The decision to confirm the existence of the letter came after an incomplete and partially inaccurate version was leaked to news organizations, the senior officials said. Earlier Thursday, President Bush made similar points about the terror network in what aides billed as a "major speech" on the war on terrorism, which was launched after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Bush repeated his long-standing contention that Iraq had become the central front in that conflict, and said a U.S. withdrawal from that currently unpopular conflict would leave behind a country ruled by bin Laden and al-Zarqawi. "We will not stand by as a new set of killers dedicated to the destruction of our own country seizes control of Iraq by violence," Bush said.
October 8, 200519 yr The Iraqi insurgence lost all of its credibility to the local population when they started killing and executing other Iraqis and Muslims. No sane average Muslim would condone the killing of members of their own religion. I figure that the part about Afghanistan is true, we actually did the job right in that country, by completely wiping out every last training camp and base of operations for Al Qaeda. If we had just stopped after Afghanistan, we would still have plenty of worldwide credibility, and we would look a lot better on the Arab Street. In my view, the Iraq war was the complete polar opposite of our success in Afghanistan.
October 8, 200519 yr Oh so there weren't any terrorists in Iraq? Interesting There was no actual links to any terrorists organizations in Iraq before we invaded. Now there is because its become an uncontrolable country.
October 8, 200519 yr Oh so there weren't any terrorists in Iraq? Interesting There was no actual links to any terrorists organizations in Iraq before we invaded. Now there is because its become an uncontrolable country. Correct. As bad as Saddam was, it was HIS countrey. Terrorists were not welcome
October 8, 200519 yr Sounds so intellectual of you, but the bottom line is it can't be proven. The lack of something being true has to be proven now? Thats like saying you havent disproven aliens so we should blow up Mars now to stop the alien threat.
October 8, 200519 yr Oh so there weren't any terrorists in Iraq? Interesting not before we invaded them
October 8, 200519 yr Oh so there weren't any terrorists in Iraq? Interesting the war in iraq was not related to the war on terror or to the Al Qaeda network. Hell if we are going to go after all countries that have terrorists, then we should look in our own damn backyard first.
October 8, 200519 yr Most terrorist organizations dispised Saddam, because he ran a secular state, which clashed with their extreme fundamentalist views of Islam.
October 8, 200519 yr Bush wrote the intercepted letter and made sure the military go it. :mischief Wrong. Bush wrote the intercepted letter, Cheney spellchecked it, than Condoleeza made sure the military got it. :mischief
October 8, 200519 yr Yuo guies totally lost me, are you trying to say a new terroist group not associated with Bin Laden or Saddam is attacking us in Iraq?
October 9, 200519 yr Yuo guies totally lost me, are you trying to say a new terroist group not associated with Bin Laden or Saddam is attacking us in Iraq? Most of the insurgency is related to Al Qaeda, but there are also other groups, including other foreign fighters, and ex-Baathists from Saddam's former regime.
October 9, 200519 yr I still cant believe people think Iraq has ties to 9/11. Does Colin Powell have to spell it out for you?
October 10, 200519 yr I still cant believe people think Iraq has ties to 9/11. Does Colin Powell have to spell it out for you? Agreed.
October 10, 200519 yr The Iraqi insurgence lost all of its credibility to the local population when they started killing and executing other Iraqis and Muslims. No sane average Muslim would condone the killing of members of their own religion. I figure that the part about Afghanistan is true, we actually did the job right in that country, by completely wiping out every last training camp and base of operations for Al Qaeda. If we had just stopped after Afghanistan, we would still have plenty of worldwide credibility, and we would look a lot better on the Arab Street. In my view, the Iraq war was the complete polar opposite of our success in Afghanistan. My thoughts exactly.
October 11, 200519 yr God, the idea that there was a nexus between Iraq and al-Queda drives me up the walls. The most cursory look at the Middle East and you will know that secular Iraq and Islamic extremist al-Queda are natural enemies. In fact bin Laden has even gone on to say that Sadaam is a prime example of the spreading Western corruption in governments in Muslim countries. Also, after Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait during the first Gulf War, bin-Laden begged Saudi Arabia to defend her holy cities AGAINST Sadaam's armies; the Saudis opting to go with Coalition forces instead was perceived as an enormous insult to bin Laden. I think the White House thought that the mission in Iraq was an important security liability by itself but needed something sexy attached to it for the American public to get behind it. I think if the Bush Administration had respected us and just been straight up with us and called the operation in Iraq a straight-up security situation seperate from the terrorist dillema; the American public would have been alot more receptive and supportive of it. Oddly enough the biggest threat to us now in Iraq is the Mahdi Army, a Shia militia (some say backed by Iran) not affiliated with Sadaam or al-Queda.
October 12, 200519 yr Author The biggest myth surrounding the war is that Saddam and Iraq have no connections to terrorism and it's just that, a myth that has been embellished by liberals nation wide. If you start telling a lie enough, you and everyone else tend to start believing it. As per the History Channel/CBS News multi-part series on the war in Iraq that aired in March of 2004, during the initial march to Baghdad the 1st MARDIV overran an "Ansar-al-Islam" terrorist training camp only 25 miles south of Baghdad spanning several acres. After a 9 hour firefight, the Marines killed over 700 Egyptian and Sudanese terrorists in training But alas, Saddam never had any ties to terrorism - Please . Did Saddam have ties to Al Qaeda? Mabye, mabye not. Did he have ties to terrorism? Absolutely. Why this has not been more widely reported is beyond me, but Col. Joe Dunford was on Fox News about 6 months ago talking about it.
October 12, 200519 yr As per the History Channel/CBS News multi-part series on the war in Iraq that aired in March of 2004, during the initial march to Baghdad the 1st MARDIV overran an "Ansar-al-Islam" terrorist training camp only 25 miles south of Baghdad spanning several acres. After a 9 hour firefight, the Marines killed over 700 Egyptian and Sudanese terrorists in training But alas, Saddam never had any ties to terrorism - Please . Did Saddam have ties to Al Qaeda? Mabye, mabye not. Did he have ties to terrorism? Absolutely. Ah yes, Ansar-al-Islam sounds like a good old fashion evil doer and Al Qaeda is also a good old fashion evil doer, they are both brown and Aaaaarabs so they the link has been made! Ansar al Islam existed before we invaded. Nobody ever denied it. So you officialy discovered sliced bread. But here, read some more info about the smoking gun that really isnt worth a dime: Ansar al-Islam (Arabic: انصار الاسلام, Supporters or Partisans of Islam) is a Kurdish Islamist group, promoting a radical interpretation of Islam and holy war. At the beginning of the 2003 invasion of Iraq it controlled about a dozen villages and a range of peaks in northern Iraq on the Iranian border. It has been in conflict with other groups such as the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. It was formed in December 2001 as a merger of Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam), led by Abu Abdallah al-Shafi'i (real name: Raid al-Khalaf al-Khuraisat), and a splinter group from the Islamic Movement in Kurdistan led by Mullah Krekar. Krekar is alleged to be the leader of Ansar al-Islam. He has lived in Norway, where he has refugee status, since 1991. On March 21, 2003 his arrest was ordered by ?kokrim, a Norwegian law enforcement agency, to ensure he did not leave the country while accusations that he had threatened terrorist attacks were investigated. Ansar al-Islam has been accused by the United States of providing a safe haven to al-Qaeda associates, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. According to the US, they had established a camp for the production of poisons, including ricin. The US has also claimed that Ansar al-Islam has links with Saddam Hussein, thus claiming a link between Hussein and al-Qaeda. The claims were rejected by Krekar, and a presentation by Colin Powell to the UN on February 5, 2003 was met with widespread scepticism (see United Nations actions regarding Iraq). When the US invaded, it attacked AI training camps in the north, and the organization's leaders retreated to neighboring countries. When the war in the north settled down, the militants returned to Iraq to fight against the occupying American forces. [/size] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansar_al-Islam and then... But it is American suggestions that Ansar could represent the missing link between Baghdad and al-Qaeda which have created the most interest. Mullah Krekar categorically denies this: "I never had links with Saddam Hussein's family, Saddam Hussein's government, Saddam Hussein's party, not in the past, not now, not in the future, and not inside Iraq or outside, not directly, not indirectly. "As a Kurdish man, I believe that he is our enemy, and as an Orthodox Muslim also, I believe that Saddam Hussein and his group are outside of Islam's zone." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2713749.stm And perhaps the best evidence against this silly claim, our very own ally the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan(PUK), has denied that their two mutal enemies are friends. Human Rights Watch, which recently sent an investigative team to the region controlled by Ansar, said it was "not aware of any convincing evidence supporting" the contention of a connection between the Baghdad government and Ansar. 10 In its recent report on Iraqi Kurdistan, the International Crisis Group disclosed that U.S.-allied officials in the region have disputed a Baghdad-Ansar connection. "PUK officials, who stand most to gain from an Ansar-Baghdad collusion that might trigger U.S. intervention on the PUK's behalf, have stated that there is no evidence of such a link. Barham Salih [prime minister of the regional PUK government] . . . has said so repeatedly, emphasizing that the Iraqi Arabs fighting with Jund/Ansar are quite clearly anti-regime." 11 Mullah Krekar, the founder and head of Ansar, declared in 2001 that the objective of the Islamist movement in Kurdistan is "to bring down the Iraqi regime and replace it with an Islamic regime." http://www.winwithoutwarus.org/html/new_powell.response.htm See how the presence of this group in Iraq makes total sense as everyone knew they were already there? There has been no established connection that Hussein was the one helping these guys or training them however. But if you want to operate under a very lax burden of proof, then go ahead. Heck, maybe I can convince you the moon landing never happend. Now if youre going to argue that Hussein helped terrorists, again, thats obvious. He did, after all, offer money to the families of suicide bombers. But neither you nor the President nor or any of his cronies have yet to establish a link between Hussein and the terrorists were were supposed to be fighting after 9-11. As Das said, if were going to start invading countries that had terrorist, and I mean general terrorist, involvment, then we have a lot of invading to do. .
October 12, 200519 yr Author Iraq has no ties to 9/11-Colin Powell His word>yours Reading comprehension > Yourself.
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