How Quickly They Forget
A Senate report on prewar intelligence in Iraq says that there is no evidence Saddam Hussein had a relationship with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al Qaeda. Predictably, Democrats are saying that this undercuts the President's justification for going to war.
They are deadly wrong. Some intelligence experts might dispute the Senate's conclusions on Iraq, unless, of course, the Senate merely means that they didn't have evidence of Saddam and al-Zarqawi having tea. Regardless, President Bush sent us to war because Saddam had well-documented ties to many terrorist groups, making Baghdad host to a "Who's Who" of Islamic terrorists. Abu Abbas, mastermind of Achille Lauro hijacking that saw an elderly, wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer murdered and thrown over the side, was a long-time guest of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and was captured near Baghdad as a direct result of our 2003 invasion. Abu Nidal, Palestinian terrorist mastermind led the Abu Nidal Organization, was another long-time terrorist-in-residence that died in Baghdad in 2002. The ANO was based in Iraq since 1998, and recieved training, logistical assistance, and financial aid from Iraq. They were shutdown by the invasion of Iraq after killing more than 900 people since 1974, and have not been heard from since. Abdul Rahman Yasin, the bomb builder in the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, was given money and housing by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. I have a simple question for Senate Democrats: How many more terrorist groups targeting and killing Americans would Saddam have had to support before you found an invasion worthwhile? And please, pardon me, if I don't expect an answer. Democrats haven't had an answer for terrorism in five years, and I do'nt expect they'll suddenly come up with one now.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:00 PM
Comments
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Some intelligence experts might dispute the Senate's conclusions on Iraq...
James Ray Robison is NOT an intelligence expert; rather, he was a filing clerk with the ISG.
According to Robison, "It was a common occurrence to speak with other employees at the facility who had reviewed materials that we considered material to the question of whether the Saddam Regime had WMDs and links to terrorism. Many times when we reviewed the information with intelligence professionals on site, we were rebuked as not being intelligence specialists..."
James Ray Robison is NOT an intelligence expert; rather, he was a filing clerk with the ISG.
According to Robison, "It was a common occurrence to speak with other employees at the facility who had reviewed materials that we considered material to the question of whether the Saddam Regime had WMDs and links to terrorism. Many times when we reviewed the information with intelligence professionals on site, we were rebuked as not being intelligence specialists..."
Posted by: SMB at September 08, 2006 04:37 PM (7rmIH)
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Personally I'd have rather spent hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of soldiers' live going after the perpetrators of 9/11. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Posted by: Sylverster Moriarty at September 08, 2006 07:38 PM (ReDqV)
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Personally I'd have rather spent hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of soldiers' live going after the perpetrators of 9/11.
Yea, a handful of high profile perps are always good for photo-ops. Makes the public feel like "something" is being done.
Yea, a handful of high profile perps are always good for photo-ops. Makes the public feel like "something" is being done.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at September 08, 2006 08:58 PM (WxRQS)
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Maybe you haven't read a newspaper in 5 years Syl, but we are going after them too.
Posted by: jay at September 09, 2006 03:57 AM (PMugO)
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Is that the best reply you guys can come up with? A group attacks the US, and instead of going after them they're "a handful of high profile perps" who would only be good for photo ops, and "we are going after them too". Bin Laden's isn't running too fast. You guys are pathetic. You're more interested in the GOP and your leader than you are in the US.
Brigadier General Mark Scheid, chief of the Logistics War Plans Division just admitted that Rumsfeld threatened to fire anyone who discussed post-war planning because it would turn the public off to the idea of the war. Tell me how great that is, sycophants.
Brigadier General Mark Scheid, chief of the Logistics War Plans Division just admitted that Rumsfeld threatened to fire anyone who discussed post-war planning because it would turn the public off to the idea of the war. Tell me how great that is, sycophants.
Posted by: Sylvester Moriarty at September 09, 2006 10:29 AM (ReDqV)
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and instead of going after them...
Dismantling most of the pre-9/11 AQ heirarchy don't count for anything I guess. Silly me. I guess all those guys in gitmo and the secret prisons are made out of paper mache.
Dismantling most of the pre-9/11 AQ heirarchy don't count for anything I guess. Silly me. I guess all those guys in gitmo and the secret prisons are made out of paper mache.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at September 09, 2006 12:30 PM (WxRQS)
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Geez....another moonbat. Uhhh...Syl....Now who were all those guys just transferred to Gitmo? And what organization were most of them part of? Ever heard of current events? Stop spending so much time at Kos with the rest of the kiddies.
Posted by: Specter at September 09, 2006 12:54 PM (ybfXM)
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Hey, I gotta admit, attacking Saddam after 911 makes sense...now I just can't figure out why the British didn't attack Canada in 1779...
Posted by: Fred at September 09, 2006 01:11 PM (dbo1X)
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Purple Helmeted Warrior & Rectum -- the Senate just reported that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Bush himself acknowledged recently that there were no WMD's in Iraq, so shut up about that too. Tell me, what are we doing in Iraq? I don't expect you to pull your heads out from where you lodged them, but it's fun and easy to taunt you.
How many of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, I forget? Did we get Bin Laden or not? Go on, tell me he doesn't matter any more. Losers.
How many of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, I forget? Did we get Bin Laden or not? Go on, tell me he doesn't matter any more. Losers.
Posted by: Sylvester Moriarty at September 09, 2006 08:27 PM (ReDqV)
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No one ever said that there was a direct connection between Saddam and 9/11 - except for you doofus moonbats, Sylvester. Bush did not say it; Cheney did not say it; Rumsfeld did not say it; U.S. Intelligence did not say it; and foreign Intelligence did not say it.
You are a flaming idiot.
You are a flaming idiot.
Posted by: Retired Spy at September 09, 2006 09:06 PM (Xw2ki)
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Bush himself acknowledged recently that there were no WMD's in Iraq, so shut up about that too.
He's mistaken. Any google search will turn up the evidence and pics to the contrary.
Why he's not pounded you fools with this evidence has been a real mystery to me. Perhaps he knows its impossible to penetrate your skulls?
He's mistaken. Any google search will turn up the evidence and pics to the contrary.
Why he's not pounded you fools with this evidence has been a real mystery to me. Perhaps he knows its impossible to penetrate your skulls?
Posted by: Purple Avenger at September 09, 2006 09:24 PM (WxRQS)
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He does not need to use the evidence right now, Dr. Purple. Right now it would be too embarrassing to countries like France, Germany and Russia - and China. We need them for the time being. Be patient lad; be patient. It will all come out in due time.
Posted by: Retired Spy at September 09, 2006 10:03 PM (Xw2ki)
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Retarded Sprite -- are you ignorant or a liar? Who was responsible for 9/11? Right, Al Qaeda. Here's a couple of GWB quotes:
"And I also mentioned the fact that there is a connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein."
"This is a man who has got connections with Al Qaida."
This goes on and on and on. Google for them yourself. Again, liar or ignoramus? Which is it?
But even if you were right about this, go and re-read my original post -- why didn't we go after the perpetrators of 9/11 instead of invading a country that was not a threat or responsible for attacking us? What a simpleton.
Purple Helmet Warrior, aka "Retarded Sprite's Lad" -- Bush is mistaken about the WMD? That is the weakest thing I've heard in a long time. I guess he doesn't have access to the insider news like you do.
"And I also mentioned the fact that there is a connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein."
"This is a man who has got connections with Al Qaida."
This goes on and on and on. Google for them yourself. Again, liar or ignoramus? Which is it?
But even if you were right about this, go and re-read my original post -- why didn't we go after the perpetrators of 9/11 instead of invading a country that was not a threat or responsible for attacking us? What a simpleton.
Purple Helmet Warrior, aka "Retarded Sprite's Lad" -- Bush is mistaken about the WMD? That is the weakest thing I've heard in a long time. I guess he doesn't have access to the insider news like you do.
Posted by: Sly Moriarty at September 10, 2006 12:59 AM (ReDqV)
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"Right now it would be too embarrassing to countries like France, Germany and Russia - and China. We need them for the time being."
Oh, that's good. It's all part of a clever plan. Bush craftily lies and pretends there weren't actually any WMD, to be nice to France, Germany, Russia and China, because they are nice to us, and they are helping us so much right now. Their respect for us is at an all-time high.
You live in a cartoon world, lad.
Oh, that's good. It's all part of a clever plan. Bush craftily lies and pretends there weren't actually any WMD, to be nice to France, Germany, Russia and China, because they are nice to us, and they are helping us so much right now. Their respect for us is at an all-time high.
You live in a cartoon world, lad.
Posted by: Sly Moriarty at September 10, 2006 01:03 AM (ReDqV)
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"We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases.... Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists," President Bush told a Cincinnati audience on October 7, 2002. "Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, 'the smoking gun' that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."
Posted by: Fred at September 10, 2006 06:42 AM (xX+1y)
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You people (Sly and Fred) are really stupid and/or retarded. Where, pray tell, eunuch lefties, did any of your so-called quotes show a correlation between Saddam and 9/11? Where did Bush actually claim such a correlation?
Project Harmony has loads of translations and diagrams and photographs right from the Saddam's files that illustrate connections with al Qaeda and a variety of other terrorist groups. Don't forget those Algerians. Ask Ray Robison.
I suppose all those government translators are pawns of the Bush-Hitler-Cheney-Halliburton conspiracy, right? They have written those millions of pages themselves and forged signatures of Saddam and his officials, right?
Anyone here that can come up with a more loony conspiracy theory than that?
How about your sources? Michael Moron? The Nation? The Democratic Underground? The KOS Kidz? Lotsa credibility there ....
Project Harmony has loads of translations and diagrams and photographs right from the Saddam's files that illustrate connections with al Qaeda and a variety of other terrorist groups. Don't forget those Algerians. Ask Ray Robison.
I suppose all those government translators are pawns of the Bush-Hitler-Cheney-Halliburton conspiracy, right? They have written those millions of pages themselves and forged signatures of Saddam and his officials, right?
Anyone here that can come up with a more loony conspiracy theory than that?
How about your sources? Michael Moron? The Nation? The Democratic Underground? The KOS Kidz? Lotsa credibility there ....
Posted by: Retired Spy at September 10, 2006 07:21 AM (Xw2ki)
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I guess Michael Scheuer is a liar too? He was actually there in Afghanistan when your pal, Billy BJ Clinton and his administration dropped the ball completely on Osama Bin Laden.
The U.S. Government DID go after OBL in 2001, and they continue to seek out Intelligence to corner him and capture or kill him. You fools do not have any insight into what is actually being done. You just hide behind your keyboards and throw bombs that always turn out to be duds.
What is YOUR solution to dealing with terrorists or capturing OBL? Tell us some specifics. How do you find a needle in a haystack? How do you get those harboring him to give him up? Millions of dollars in ransom money has not worked, but you bozos seem to think you have all the answers.
Show us what you are made of. Go get him yourselves. Or are you really all the puff and fluff you appear to be?
I'm just an old man right now. I am too old to serve, but I already served this country for 36 years. What have you limp-wristed weasels done? You obviously do not have the courage to do much of anything but to hide behind a computer monitor and keyboard. Lotsa courage there! Pussies!
The U.S. Government DID go after OBL in 2001, and they continue to seek out Intelligence to corner him and capture or kill him. You fools do not have any insight into what is actually being done. You just hide behind your keyboards and throw bombs that always turn out to be duds.
What is YOUR solution to dealing with terrorists or capturing OBL? Tell us some specifics. How do you find a needle in a haystack? How do you get those harboring him to give him up? Millions of dollars in ransom money has not worked, but you bozos seem to think you have all the answers.
Show us what you are made of. Go get him yourselves. Or are you really all the puff and fluff you appear to be?
I'm just an old man right now. I am too old to serve, but I already served this country for 36 years. What have you limp-wristed weasels done? You obviously do not have the courage to do much of anything but to hide behind a computer monitor and keyboard. Lotsa courage there! Pussies!
Posted by: Retired Spy at September 10, 2006 08:18 AM (Xw2ki)
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Saddam didn’t kill the 3,000 on 9-11; he killed 2 million instead.
Posted by: George at September 10, 2006 11:52 AM (7bTL7)
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Actually Retired Spy, I've done two tours in the middle east, one less than a month after 911, and another during the first phase of the Iraq Invasion. I lost my next door neighbor, in the ambush on the 507th. Maintenance Company. I’m not some granola eating hippy. The case was made, and the connection was implied, over and over again, by the Administration, politicians, and rightwing pundits.
Posted by: Fred at September 10, 2006 12:13 PM (dbo1X)
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The Saddam-9/11 Link Confirmed
By Laurie Mylroie
FrontPageMagazine.com
"We will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who've had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." – Dick Cheney (referring to the invasion of Iraq on Meet the Press)
In a bombshell finding virtually ignored by the American media, a U.S. district court judge in Manhattan ruled Wednesday [May 7, 2003] that Salman Pak, Saddam Hussein's airplane hijacking school located on the outskirts of Baghdad, played a material role in the devastating Sept. 11 attacks on America.
...according to courtroom testimony by three of the camp's instructors, the facility was a virtual hijacking classroom where al-Qaeda recruits practiced overcoming U.S. flight crews using only small knives - a terrorist technique never employed before 9/11
"Saddam Hussein and people like him were very much involved in 9/11," Rep. Robin Hayes (R) North Carolina
..and now we know, none of it true.
By Laurie Mylroie
FrontPageMagazine.com
"We will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who've had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." – Dick Cheney (referring to the invasion of Iraq on Meet the Press)
In a bombshell finding virtually ignored by the American media, a U.S. district court judge in Manhattan ruled Wednesday [May 7, 2003] that Salman Pak, Saddam Hussein's airplane hijacking school located on the outskirts of Baghdad, played a material role in the devastating Sept. 11 attacks on America.
...according to courtroom testimony by three of the camp's instructors, the facility was a virtual hijacking classroom where al-Qaeda recruits practiced overcoming U.S. flight crews using only small knives - a terrorist technique never employed before 9/11
"Saddam Hussein and people like him were very much involved in 9/11," Rep. Robin Hayes (R) North Carolina
..and now we know, none of it true.
Posted by: Fred at September 10, 2006 12:14 PM (dbo1X)
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Retired Spy -- aren't you mad at GWB for missing OBL in Tora Bora? Instead of pursuing OBL he rushed off into Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11 as you seem to admit.
GWB thought he was *finished* in 2003! How can you believe that he's got things under control? Now the question is not so much, will Iraq be a democracy? as, how much influence will Iran have?
Look, Bush said there were no WMD. Iraq was a mistake. We have made it part of the war on terror, but it wasn't before we started killing people there.
Really, how much worse a job could these guys do?
Yet you are still foaming at the mouth about Clinton. History will be much kinder to Clinton, you're just going to have to get over it. Bush has the reverse Midas touch -- everything he touches turns to shinola. Aren't the Repubs supposed to be the party of personal responsibility? GWB never achieved anything, never took responsibility for anything, yet lots of GOPers think he's infallible. I guess some people want a king.
GWB thought he was *finished* in 2003! How can you believe that he's got things under control? Now the question is not so much, will Iraq be a democracy? as, how much influence will Iran have?
Look, Bush said there were no WMD. Iraq was a mistake. We have made it part of the war on terror, but it wasn't before we started killing people there.
Really, how much worse a job could these guys do?
Yet you are still foaming at the mouth about Clinton. History will be much kinder to Clinton, you're just going to have to get over it. Bush has the reverse Midas touch -- everything he touches turns to shinola. Aren't the Repubs supposed to be the party of personal responsibility? GWB never achieved anything, never took responsibility for anything, yet lots of GOPers think he's infallible. I guess some people want a king.
Posted by: Sly Moriarty at September 10, 2006 02:50 PM (ReDqV)
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Heh, Heh, Heh ... You guys are really funny as sh*t. Dumb as dirt but funny, nonetheless.
I think you might wish to read up on those training schools in Iraq. Start with the Harmony findings.
Bush did not say there were no WMD. He said we did not FIND any WMD - yet. He did not say that Iraq was a mistake. You are the one saying that. Was WWII a mistake too. The U.S. Government and military and the administration in the White House made some serious blunders then too. We had to make adjustments along the way. That is true in all combat operations.
Why is Clinton crying and whining so much? Is he afraid that the American public will see how badly he and his administration dropped the ball? Let's not forget that Michael Scheuer was actually THERE. Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer and Clinton and his lawyers weren't there when the operation went south.
Tora Bora was a screw up because we did not hae sufficient forces deployed on the ground in that area at the time. The Afghans were not up to the task before them.
So what is your solution NOW? Spit it out guys! How do you bozos suggest the world conduct the war on terror?
I think you might wish to read up on those training schools in Iraq. Start with the Harmony findings.
Bush did not say there were no WMD. He said we did not FIND any WMD - yet. He did not say that Iraq was a mistake. You are the one saying that. Was WWII a mistake too. The U.S. Government and military and the administration in the White House made some serious blunders then too. We had to make adjustments along the way. That is true in all combat operations.
Why is Clinton crying and whining so much? Is he afraid that the American public will see how badly he and his administration dropped the ball? Let's not forget that Michael Scheuer was actually THERE. Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer and Clinton and his lawyers weren't there when the operation went south.
Tora Bora was a screw up because we did not hae sufficient forces deployed on the ground in that area at the time. The Afghans were not up to the task before them.
So what is your solution NOW? Spit it out guys! How do you bozos suggest the world conduct the war on terror?
Posted by: Retired Spy at September 10, 2006 03:49 PM (Xw2ki)
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why didn't we go after the perpetrators of 9/11
Seems to me there's a bunch of deposed Taliban who might have a different view on this claim.
Seems to me there's a bunch of deposed Taliban who might have a different view on this claim.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at September 10, 2006 05:46 PM (WxRQS)
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. . . a former C.I.A. station chief and a former military intelligence analyst said that the camp near Salman Pak had been built not for terrorism training but for counter-terrorism training. In the mid-eighties, Islamic terrorists were routinely hijacking aircraft. In 1986, an Iraqi airliner was seized by pro-Iranian extremists and crashed, after a hand grenade was triggered, killing at least sixty-five people. (At the time, Iran and Iraq were at war, and America favored Iraq.) Iraq then sought assistance from the West, and got what it wanted from Britain’s MI6. The C.I.A. offered similar training in counter-terrorism throughout the Middle East. “We were helping our allies everywhere we had a liaison,” the former station chief told me. Inspectors recalled seeing the body of an airplane—which appeared to be used for counter-terrorism training—when they visited a biological-weapons facility near Salman Pak in 1991, ten years before September 11th.
Posted by: Fred at September 10, 2006 06:24 PM (xX+1y)
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Still waiting for a cogent set of alternative courses of action right NOW, Sly and Fred ....
Just bitching and pissing and moaning and pointing your fingers is not a solution.
What are you really made of? Puff and fluff? It appears that way. Are you really strategists and deep thinkers, or are you just chronic complainers?
Ooooops! Almost time to watch the docudrama that Billy BJ Clinton has been wetting himself over this past week .....
Hope y'all enjoy it. The REAL enemy is not George W. Bush, eunuchs. It's radical Islam.
Just bitching and pissing and moaning and pointing your fingers is not a solution.
What are you really made of? Puff and fluff? It appears that way. Are you really strategists and deep thinkers, or are you just chronic complainers?
Ooooops! Almost time to watch the docudrama that Billy BJ Clinton has been wetting himself over this past week .....
Hope y'all enjoy it. The REAL enemy is not George W. Bush, eunuchs. It's radical Islam.
Posted by: Retired Spy at September 10, 2006 06:51 PM (Xw2ki)
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Hey Fred - no Wikipedia fabrications for me -
"Former Iraqi military officers have described a highly secret terrorist training facility at Salman Pak, where both Iraqis and non-Iraqi Arabs receive training on hijacking planes and trains, planting explosives in cities, sabotage, and assassinations.
Iraq told UN inspectors that Salman Pak was an anti-terror training camp for Iraqi special forces. However, two defectors from Iraqi intelligence stated that they had worked for several years at the secret Iraqi government camp, which had trained Islamic terrorists in rotations of five or six months since 1995.
Training activities including simulated hijackings carried out in an airplane fuselage [said to be a Boeing 707] at the camp. The camp is divided into distinct sections. On one side of the camp young, Iraqis who were members of Fedayeen Saddam are trained in espionage, assassination techniques and sabotage. The Islamic militants trained on the other side of the camp, in an area separated by a small lake, trees and barbed wire. The militants reportedly spent time training, usually in groups of five or six, around the fuselage of the airplane. There were rarely more than 40 or 50 Islamic radicals in the camp at one time."
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/salman_pak.htm
"Former Iraqi military officers have described a highly secret terrorist training facility at Salman Pak, where both Iraqis and non-Iraqi Arabs receive training on hijacking planes and trains, planting explosives in cities, sabotage, and assassinations.
Iraq told UN inspectors that Salman Pak was an anti-terror training camp for Iraqi special forces. However, two defectors from Iraqi intelligence stated that they had worked for several years at the secret Iraqi government camp, which had trained Islamic terrorists in rotations of five or six months since 1995.
Training activities including simulated hijackings carried out in an airplane fuselage [said to be a Boeing 707] at the camp. The camp is divided into distinct sections. On one side of the camp young, Iraqis who were members of Fedayeen Saddam are trained in espionage, assassination techniques and sabotage. The Islamic militants trained on the other side of the camp, in an area separated by a small lake, trees and barbed wire. The militants reportedly spent time training, usually in groups of five or six, around the fuselage of the airplane. There were rarely more than 40 or 50 Islamic radicals in the camp at one time."
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/salman_pak.htm
Posted by: Actual at September 10, 2006 07:13 PM (dXN/a)
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The War in Iraq is Bush's secret way to let Iran rule the middle east.
It's working to a T.
He acts like a dunce, but he knows his shit.
It's working to a T.
He acts like a dunce, but he knows his shit.
Posted by: Robert at September 13, 2006 05:27 PM (VTtVl)
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