Presidential Debate

[kandrathe]

Emphasis is mine.

I have to dispute just one thing in this statement. Any idea that there was going to be cooperation between Zarqawi, Bin Laden or any other fundamentalist movement and Saddam Hussein is complete fantasy. The alleged links between the two have been discredited many times in print and recently have been refuted in the media as well -- by some of the people who pushed the whole theory in the first place, no less. Additionly, a Saddam-Al Qaida partnership was wildly implausible to begin with. Saddam, monster that he was, was nevertheless an obstacle to the express goals of Al-Qaida -- the foremost of which is the overthrow of secular governments in the Middle East. The Butcher of Bagdad was unlikely to provide advanced killing tools to his enemies.

My opinion: Removing Saddam was one of the undisputedly good things that has come from this invasion. The other is the removal of international sanctions on Iraq. Unfortunately, both of these benefits will be a cold comfort to the US if the country ends up paying the price for the Administration's sloppy execution of the post-war occupation.[right][snapback]57272[/snapback][/right]

For a homicidal megalomaniac like Saddam, logical has nothing to do with his actions. You might suppose that a secular Iraqi regime would not make alliances with fundamentalist extremists, or even sworn enemies, but you are likely to be wrong. Even if you review the documents just released by Charles Duelfer, you will find that Iraq went to extreme lengths and made deals with anyone to shed the yoke of sanctions. One of the most shocking to me was the revelation that Iraq even dealt with Iran to smuggle oil to UAE.

Smugglers, using small oil transporters similar to
the one in the picture in Figure 19, bribed RG naval
units on a regular basis in order to gain free passage
through Iranian waters. To avoid Maritime Interdiction
Force (MIF) patrols, these vessels would sail
to the southern end of the Gulf and dart across the
narrow straights from Iranian waters to UAE territory.
In the majority of these cases, the vessels would
then transfer their cargos of gas oil or fuel oil onto
larger tankers; it would then be transported to market.
This money making scheme benefited the smugglers,
Iraqis, Iranians, and oil recipients alike. From Annex F
Iraqi Oil Smuggling

Then you add in certain eyewitness testimonies and you can see why I would have doubts. Like that of Giovanni di Stefano,

He has said that he met Osama bin Laden in Baghdad in 1998. "He had a handshake like a woman. He had a soft voice. He spoke like a priest.

How can you decide a person on a few minutes conversation? I didn't know what I was stumbling on.

He was a nothing and a nobody then. It was well before the bombings there. And, had I known what I know now, I should have, as Arkan said, probably killed him." BBCNews - World's most controversial lawyer? Giovanni di Stefano

And, then tangible physical evidence like WashingtonTimes - Memo shows Iraq, Iran tried to contact bin Laden

or some of the more credible defectors, like this PBS - Frontline interview of Saba Khodada a defector who is also referenced on USInfo.gov - IRAQ: From Fear to Freedom

The entire "Gunning for Saddam" site is excellent, at least food for thought. PBS - Gunning for Saddam

And, there are many, many more "coincidences" and testimonies. I'm not conviced that there was no link.