For many who keep saying there is no evidence linking Iraq with Al Qaeda or that they still retain WMDs, here are portions of but a few articles I found tonight with very little trouble. The entire articles may be viewed at the links provided, if you are interested in reading them.
From a PBS interview with an Iraqi defector Sabah Khodada
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gunning/interviews/khodada.html
Sabah Khodada was a captain in the Iraqi army from 1982 to 1992. He worked at what he describes as a highly secret terrorist training camp at Salman Pak, an area south of Baghdad. In this translated interview, conducted in association with The New York Times on Oct. 14, 2001, Khodada describes what went on at Salman Pak, including details on training hijackers
And they trained people to hijack airplanes?
Yes.
For what purpose?
... It has been said openly in the media and even to us, from the highest command, that the purpose of establishing Saddam's fighters is to attack American targets and American interests. This is known. There's no doubt about it.
That was your reaction on September 11 -- that some of these people might be involved?
I assure you, this operation was conducted by people who were trained by Saddam. And I'm going to keep assuring the world this is what happened.
Osama bin Laden has no such capabilities. Why? Because this kind of attacks must be, and has to be, organized by a capable state, such as Iraq; a state where they can provide high level of training, and they can provide high level of intelligence to do such training.
From Guardian Unlimited, we read in part:
http://www.observer.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,591439,00.html
His friends call him Abu Amin, 'the father of honesty'. At 43, he is one of Iraq's most highly decorated intelligence officers: a special forces veteran who organised killings behind Iranian lines during the first Gulf war, who then went on to a senior post in the unit known as 'M8' - the department for 'special operations', such as sabotage, terrorism and murder. This is the man, Colonel Muhammed Khalil Ibrahim al-Ani, whom Mohamed Atta flew halfway across the world to meet in Prague last April, five months before piloting his hijacked aircraft into the World Trade Centre .
Asked whether he believed the foreigners' camp had trained members of al-Qaeda, Zeinab said: 'All I can say is that we had no structure to take on these people inside the regime. The camp was for organisations based abroad.' One of the highlights of the six-month curriculum was training to hijack aircraft using only knives or bare hands. According to Zeinab, women were also trained in these techniques. Like the 11 September hijackers, the students worked in groups of four or five.
From a letter to the editors addressed to Mr Blair in the UK from an Iraqi refugee living there;
http://www.caabu.org/campaigns/iraqi-exiles-letter.html
Today, in the face of so much opposition, we look to you to remain steadfast for all that is decent and honourable. The anti-war coalition ignores the terror we have lived under for so long. Their demonstration can only bring comfort to Saddam Hussein.
And in the face of his brutality the protesters offer nothing in comfort to the suffering of Iraqi people; nor indeed do they say how they would seek to disarm a dictator whose weapons of mass destruction threaten not only his own people with his use of chemical weapons, but also that of his neighbours and beyond.
The last thing we wish to see is war. We do not want war. No civilised person would wish for such a terrible event when lives of people we hold dear could be lost. But we do want Saddam Hussein and his regime removed. You and the UN must persevere in using diplomatic pressure, but if all fails, and as an absolute last resort, then we accept that force must be used to remove him.
From the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, we read in part;
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/scud_info/scud_info_refs/n41en172/iraq.htm
For Nuclear weapons capability:
- With sufficient black-market uranium or plutonium, could fabricate a nuclear weapon within one year.
- If United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) inspections were to be terminated, could produce weapons-grade fissile material within several years.
- Retains large and experienced pool of nuclear scientists and technicians.
- Retains nuclear weapons design, and may retain related components and software.
- Repeatedly violated its obligations under the NPT, which it ratified on 10/29/69.
- Repeatedly violated its obligations under United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 687, which mandates destruction of Iraq's nuclear weapon capabilities.
For Chemical Weapons capability:
- May retain stockpile of chemical weapon (CW) munitions, including special chemical/biological al-Hussein ballistic missile warheads, 2,000 aerial bombs, 15,000-25,000 rockets, and 15,000 artillery shells.
- Believed to possess sufficient precursor chemicals to produce hundreds of tons of mustard gas, VX, and other nerve agents.
- Retains sufficient technical expertise to revive CW programs within months.
- Repeatedly used CW against Iraqi Kurds in 1988 and against Iran in 1983-1988 during the Iran-Iraq war.
- An extensive CW arsenal–including 38,537 munitions, 690 tons of CW agents, and over 3,000 tons of CW precursor chemicals–has been destroyed by UNSCOM.
- Repeatedly violated its obligations under UNSC Resolution 687, which mandates destruction of Iraq's chemical weapon capabilities.
For Biological Weapons capability:
- Iraq's claim that it destroyed biological weapon (BW) munitions unilaterally– including 157 R-400 aerial bombs and all of its special chemical/biological Al-Hussein warheads–has not been verified by UNSCOM.
- May retain biological weapon sprayers for Mirage F-1 aircraft.
- May retain mobile production facility with capacity to produce dry biological agents (i.e., with long shelf life and optimized for dissemination).
- Has not accounted for 17 tons of BW growth media.
- Maintains technical expertise and equipment to resume production quickly of anthrax, botulinum toxin, aflatoxin, and Clostridium perfringens (gas gangrene).
- BW prepared for missile and aircraft delivery during 1990-1991 Gulf War.
- Conducted research on BW dissemination using unmanned aerial vehicles.
- Repeatedly violated its obligations under UNSC Resolution 687, which mandates destruction of Iraq's biological weapon capabilities.
For Ballistic Missile Capability:
- May retain components for dozens of Scud-B and al-Hussein missiles, as well as indigenously produced Scud missile engines.
- If UNSCOM inspections were to be terminated, could resume production of al-Hussein missiles within one year.
- Maintains clandestine procurement network to import missile components.
In the Washington Times from an Iraqi Nuclear Scientist;
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020916-28573872.htm
Iraq is already using copies of pirated German equipment to process nuclear material for an atomic weapons program, according to a former Iraqi nuclear scientist who testified before the U.S. Senate this summer.
Khidir Hamza, who led a section of the Iraqi nuclear bomb program before his defection in 1994, said the devices may not be discovered even if U.N. inspectors are allowed to return to Iraq.
"The beauty of the present system is that the units are each very small, and in the four years since the inspectors left, they will have been concealed underground or in basements or buildings that outwardly seem normal," he said.
From a CNN article about Iraqs amassed chemical weapons;
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/09/02/iraq.weapons/index.html
"Iraq continues to possess several tons of chemical weapons agents, enough to kill thousands and thousands of civilians or soldiers," said Jon Wolfsthal, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
U.N. weapons experts have said Iraq may have stockpiled more than 600 metric tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, VX and sarin. Some 25,000 rockets and 15,000 artillery shells with chemical agents are also unaccounted for, the experts said.
From a UK Telegraph article about Iraq’s nuclear capability;
United Nations weapons inspectors have uncovered evidence that proves Saddam Hussein is trying to develop an arsenal of nuclear weapons, The Telegraph can reveal. The discovery was made following spot checks last week on the homes of two Iraqi nuclear physicists in Baghdad.
Acting on information provided by Western intelligence, the UN inspection teams discovered a number of documents proving that Saddam is continuing with his attempts to develop nuclear weapons, contrary to his public declarations that Iraq is no longer interested in producing weapons of mass destruction.
From another UK Telegraph article about Iraq’s murder of Palestinian terrorist, Abu Nadal, for his refusal to train Al Qaeda terrorist inside of Iraq;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2002%2F08%2F25%2Fwnidal25.xml
While in Baghdad, Abu Nidal, whose real name was Sabri al-Banna, came under pressure from Saddam to help train groups of al-Qa'eda fighters who moved to northern Iraq after fleeing Afghanistan. Saddam also wanted Abu Nidal to carry out attacks against the US and its allies.
When Abu Nidal refused, Saddam ordered his intelligence chiefs to assassinate him. He was shot dead last weekend when Iraqi security forces burst into his apartment in central Baghdad. The body was taken to the hospital where he had had cancer treatment.