Wow Kerry took the Florida primary!

[kandrathe]

I found it on the PUK site, because I knew they are group most interested in getting this story heard. They made this claim well before even the US cared to listen.

Jonathan Schanzer has credentials that neither you nor I have, and he's been to Iraq in person within the last two months. He does caution us to be skeptical, and that adds to his credibility. He ends the article saying that additional corroboration and additional sources need to be explored, which I assume(hope) will be done. I guess you would also attack "The Weekly Standard", for publishing such unsubstantiated drivel or join in the condemnation of William Safire for reporting on the link to Al Queda in the first place. I think the critical piece you are missing is in taking the interview information Jonathan Schanzer obtained at the end of January, in conjunction with the intercepted Zarqawi CDRom from the middle of February. Together, and independently they present an image of an Iraqi complicity with terrorists linked to Queda. Yes, more needs to be done.

Ok, I challenge the more objective jounalists, like Barbara Walters, to focus their lens of truth on the subject. But wait! What are America's "investigative journalists" worried about? Hmmm, lemme see. "In a special 20/20, John Stossel puts his skeptical eye to work on another set of popular myths — some that you've asked 20/20 to investigate. Is it safer to drive a car or an SUV? Is it true that psychics solve crimes? " I guess they aren't interested.

Abu Wael is given access to whatever he needs to get these groups on board and fighting the Kurdish: mortar rounds, cash, visas, flights to Tahiti, whatever.

Why do you assume that these terrorist king pins are only doing as Saddam asks? Yes, they attacked the PUK, but there are clear links to Zarqawi activities in Germany, Italy, and Turkey. You are right that it is bigger than Iraq, though. There are big problems with the aid given Zarqawi, and others in Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia as well. I don't want to attack them, and I don't know the answer. We need to convince them to not harbor and support murderers.

... the US government has been connected in far more tangible ways to such groups all over the world, Al Qaeda not being the least of them.

You just want me to accept that statement at face value without any evidence? What specifically are you talking about? BTW -- what would you consider an "Act of War"? Iraq passed that point with me when they tried to assassinate Bush Sr. It's not a Bush thing, and I would be just as PO'd if they tried to kill any of our elder statesmen, or women. All the other things about Saddam's regime, and the terrorism links, gassing the Kurds, and WMD research makes it seem all the more compelling. Like I said earlier, really a festering boil, only getting more infected and some action needed to be taken. The US went this way, lancing the boil, rather than using some more "UN medication". Maybe the "UN Medication" would have cleared it up, or at least made it so we could live with the boil for a while more. It might be that lancing the boil causes the infection to spred, but this one petty tyrrant has caused enough misery for our lifetimes. He had 30 years to show his colors, and I don't regret a day that he and his ilk rot in jail. The deed is done. We did it. We can wring our hands about it, or we can look at the situation and try to figure out what the best "next step" is.

Only a few whispered rumors, one intercepted document, and the confessions of people who have everything to gain by telling us what we want to hear. And even that points to the connection perfectly backwards: Terrorists helping Saddam, not Saddam helping Terrorists.

All I can say is that I see a viper, and you see a bunny.

But, even with your "bunnifying" spin on the topic, you've gone from "a complete lack of evidence", to "Is there anything more solid than the Ansar al-Islam connection?", to finally seeing some rumors, dubious confessions, one little damning CDRom. I'm just a guy with a browser -- think what a real investigator might be able to put together for you. I'm pretty confident, based on the plethora of information I've sifted through, that it'll be viper. But, I may be surprised, it may be bunny.