Ties to terrorism? (no spam)

James Mason · Post by **James Mason** » Tue May 13, 2003 11:36 pm

Ties to terrorism? NO SPAM

*NO SPAM* This includes anything about the Bush admin, WMD's etc. Just answer the question, give your opinion, write a novel on it.
Did Iraq have ties to terrorism? Please, tell me your opinion and please back it up with newspaper articles etc.

at99 · Post by **at99** » Wed May 14, 2003 3:45 am

There are documents found a while ago about Iraq and al-quida in baghdad. Sorry , I dont have the articles with me at hand. It will be a while however before we know the full extent of Iraq's dealings. It is to early to tell I am afraid.

CM · Post by CM » Wed May 14, 2003 1:12 pm

Nope Nada Zilch. The only terrorist there was Saddam himself.

RandomThug · Post by **RandomThug** » Wed May 14, 2003 1:29 pm

I am not 100% sure on this but I am sure the had no ties to Al-queda. But from what I have read and it is under my impression that groups like Hamas and others had shelter... or was it education stuff in iraq. Anyhow I doubt a man in that location with that much money/oil power had no ties to the enemies of his enemy.

CM · Post by CM » Wed May 14, 2003 1:44 pm

Hamas = Syria and Jordan
Hizbollah = Lebanon and Syria aid from Iran
PFLP = Iraq

That is how it breaks up.

RandomThug · Post by **RandomThug** » Wed May 14, 2003 2:52 pm

PFLP?

CM · Post by CM » Wed May 14, 2003 2:56 pm

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - the original name is in french. It is a relatively unknown organization, not very active now. Its boss was picked up by the US in Iraq in April.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Wed May 14, 2003 3:05 pm

Lots of terrorists have passed through Iraq, but Saddam Hussein has never sheltered terrorist groups because 1) he can't always control them and 2) he's not a terrorist, he's a thug.

Saddam Hussein is/was a despot who is more concerned with his own power than in the ideological or political motivations of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, Hamas or Jemaahl Islamiah. The only thing Hussein and many of the groups I mentioned have in common is their hatred of the United States.

RandomThug · Post by **RandomThug** » Wed May 14, 2003 3:33 pm

HLD you have to admit the idea of a power like saddam holding an isolationist view towards Terrorists sounds a bit off.

Of course geographically i dont even know the scale of how many terrorists there are TOTAL and how much land they would fill (aka saddam could have been harboring terrorists and not know just because of pure size of iraq..)

I dont know..

Nippy · Post by **Nippy** » Wed May 14, 2003 4:52 pm

Originally posted by HighLordDave
Lots of terrorists have passed through Iraq, but Saddam Hussein has never sheltered terrorist groups because 1) he can't always control them and 2) he's not a terrorist, he's a thug.

Saddam Hussein is/was a despot who is more concerned with his own power than in the ideological or political motivations of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, Hamas or Jemaahl Islamiah. The only thing Hussein and many of the groups I mentioned have in common is their hatred of the United States.

And the fact that they give money to the families of suicide bomber terrorists.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Wed May 14, 2003 6:10 pm

It's not that Saddam Hussein didn't consort with terrorists and he doesn't sympathise, but Iraq was never a state sponsor of terrorism in the same way as a country like Libya or Syria.

Saddam Hussein wanted to be the biggest dog on the block. If Osama bin Laden or another terrorist mastermind were around, he would have to play second fiddle and would probably have the other eliminated as a rival.

Terrorism was also unappealing to Hussein because he liked to live. After seeing the assassination attempts made on Osama bin Laden and Moamar Khaddafi, Hussein knew he could not push the US too far by sponsoring bombers. Plus, most terrorists have either an ideological or political motivation and Hussein had neither; as long as he could rule his own private fiefdom, he didn't care about anyone else.

@Nippy:
Hussein was also very good at playing the Islam card when it suited him. In the years leading up to Gulf War II, Hussein tried to paint himself as an Islamic martyr being picked on by the big, bad Western Satan, when in fact he was about as pious as Gene Simmons. Giving money to the families of suicide bombers was a PR ploy trying to generate sympathy from the radical Islamic anti-Palestinean movement, but there were no terrorist training camps in Iraq and as a state, Iraq did not sponsor any of the bombings.