Another War in Iraq question?

Question

Does Saddam Hussein Have anything to do with the 9/11 attacks? I heard he sponsored terrorism. And why do you think we invaded Iraq? Please don say oil, its been said so many times already. Also if you have the time please answer my other question. Thanks
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ai3lyeKs3Tmq5poOU5XgkM3sy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071201125429AA9q45e

Answer 1

Wow, it has only been 41/2 years or so, but we still have to keep answering this question.

The base premise for the War in Iraq was WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction. We, and nearly EVERY OTHER Nation on the planet believed this. It is a fact he used them against Iran and his own people. It was a fact the Saddam Hussein sponsored terrorism, offering "severence" to the families of those who blew themselves up in Israel.

We have had over decade of issues with Iraq up until this point. We felt the risk was too great that he would provide WMD to terrorist organizations, so we acted. We as it appears were wrong on the WMD, but not the terrorist connections, or the many other factors involved. We stayed in Iraq because it is the right thing to do. It would be morally bankrupt on our part to have abandoned the people in the void on the regime with no guidance or self security, and would have been a terrible stategic blunder on our part.

I do not believe Saddam Hussien had any direct support, or even knowledge of 9-11, if he had what would he had done, knowing we were watching him like a hawk. I do believe he gave indirect material support to OBL and Al Qaida, by offering them a haven, money and arms.

People who say it was for oil, or greed, or whatever are political and/or very short minded. If it where for oil, why Iraq, many other nations have more oil than they have? I believe for some it is from a pacifistic belief to the point of blindness to the worlds problems. For others it is for a hatred of a man they do not want, don't believe is legitimet, or is worthy of being the President, not out of principle but politics.

Answer 2

We invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein was said to posses weapons of mass destruction. It had "nothing" to do with oil. Oil prices have continued to go up regardless. Now Iraq sponsering terrorists is debateable. Did the Saddam regime have a direct connection with the 9/11 attacks. I dont think so. Is there terrorists in Iraq? Of coarse there are. There are terrorists in the United States. They are everywhere and there will always be people who want to scare people into making changes. Which is what terrorism is. Iraq is a mess and although we prolly shouldnt have invaded in the first place, we did and we need to find a solution in order to get our troops out of there while leaving somthing other than chaos behind.

Answer 3

Well Ive been here 6 times and still am here...I know you don't want to hear it but I believe its oil for a reason..If you notice, the American dollar has been dropping down the past few years and I believe Bush saw that coming a long time ago so we had to do something about it...We ,as in America, are the superpower but when you lose money you lose power and that means we are not in charge no more. We get the oil then the money goes back up so then we hold the power

Answer 4

Because of the treaty ending the first gulf war.

Iraq shot at US planes in the no fly zones

Bought missiles from France

would not allow inspectors to look for WMDs

It doesn't matter if WMDs were there or not, he wanted his people other mid east country and us to think he had WMD. And it worked

Oil is important not because we want it. A product will always get to market. It's important because it allowed a third world country to build a huge army and gain new more powerful weapons from selling the oil. Oil enables formally sleepy tribal sociality to become regional powers and then threats to ournational security.

Answer 5

I already answered your previous question. According to Micheal Moore's movie Condeleza Rice said that Saddam was connected to 9-11. However he did not show the rest of her sentence which went something along the lines of "in the sense that he supported international terrorism.

And yes he did, he paid the families of suicide bombers in Israel. We also know as fact that there were known terrorists living in Iraq and some even receiving medical care in Baghdad. All this has been covered so many times. its really getting boring.

Answer 6

There was a mulitude of reasons. One was oil, sorry but that is a reality. Another is that he indicated he had WMD's and denied IAEA inspectors access to facilities. He had also tried to kill Bush's father in 90. These are all realities. There are tenative links he sponsored terrorism but nothing positive. Regardless, we are there now and we need to win.

Answer 7

For the answers to questions as controversial as you proposed, you can only sift through as much information as you can and create an intelligent and informed opinion. Everybody's going to have a different answer. Deduce what you can and go from there. Keep in mind that the media tends to biased one way or another, so take it all in with a grain of salt.

Answer 8

It was about Bush on his quest to do what Other presidents have failed....bring peace to the middle east...and Grab control of that oil. (sorry but thats part of the reality)
Whats bush' family business???
OIL!

But lets not forget theres more to it.

Saddam had wanted to kill Bush Sr....so alittle vengeance is her.

But then lets also not forget that small group of welathy men....in their quest for "A BETTER TOMORROW"
that want their own movement where they are in control of the most powerful commodity in the world....

Oil is often repeated but thats because its the main truth.

Bush wants his legacy, and this is the only way he could do it.
Because his domestic plans were below par (before 9/11)

But more than tht Bush is a bully.
Plain and simply.
And hes called upon Americas military to act in a way he could not stomach.

Whats that saying "war is old men talking and young men dying"

We can thank bush for proving that true.

So its probably not the answer you may have wanted...but its the reality

Answer 9

I say we bomb them then bomb them again then one more time to make sure then start a war with whoever is left of the sorry little sapsuckers

Answer 10

Organizations funded, sheltered and/or trained by Saddam Hussein: Abu Nidal Organization, Ansar al-Islam, Arab Liberation Front, Kurdistan Worker's party, Mujahedin-e-Khalq, Plaestine Liberation Front.

Funding

At a minimum, we know that Saddam Hussein's government supported terrorism by paying "bonuses" of up to $25,000 to the families of Palestinian homicide bombers. "President Saddam Hussein has recently told the head of the Palestinian political office, Faroq al-Kaddoumi, his decision to raise the sum granted to each family of the martyrs of the Palestinian uprising to $25,000 instead of $10,000," Tariq Aziz, announced at a Baghdad meeting of Arab politicians and businessmen on March 11, 2002, Reuters reported the next day.

Shelter

Saddam Hussein's government provided diplomatic help to Islamic extremists. Abu Abbas, former secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Front. He masterminded the October 7-9, 1985 hijacking of an Italian cruise ship whose name, sadly, is now synonymous with terrorism. The Achille Lauro was on a voyage across the Mediterranean when four Palestinian terrorists seized it on the high seas. They held some 400 passengers hostage for 44 hours. Abbas, was captured but was allowed to leave custody on a plane to Iraq. Bettino Craxi, at that time, Italy's prime minister. As Craxi explained in an October 14, 1985 UPI story: "Abu Abbas was the holder of an Iraqi diplomatic passport: The plane was on an official mission, considered covered by diplomatic immunity and extra-territorial status in the air and on the ground." Abu Abbas finally ended up in Baghdad in 1994, where he lived comfortably as one of Saddam Hussein's guests. U.S. soldiers caught Abbas in Iraq in April 2003. This time, he did not get away. He died last March 9, in American custody, reportedly of natural causes.

The Philippine government expelled Hisham al Hussein, the former second secretary at Iraq's embassy in Manila, on February 13, 2003, just five weeks before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Cell phone records indicate he had spoken with Abu Madja and Hamsiraji Sali, two leaders of Abu Sayyaf, al-Qaeda's de facto franchise for the Philippines. The timing was particularly suspicious, as he had been in contact with the Abu Sayyaf terrorists just before and after they conducted an attack in Zamboanga City. Abu Sayyaf's nail-filled bomb exploded on October 2, 2002, injuring 23 individuals and killing two Filipinos and one American.

Abu Nidal lived comfortably in Iraq between 1999 and August 2002. As the Associated Press reported on August 21, 2002, Nidal's Beirut office said he entered Iraq "with the full knowledge and preparations of the Iraqi authorities." Prior to his relocation, he ran the eponymous Abu Nidal Organization: a Palestinian terror network behind attacks in 20 countries, at least 407 confirmed murders, and some 788 other terror-related injuries. Among other savage acts, Nidal's group used guns and grenades to attack a ticket counter at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport on December 27, 1985. Another cell in Austria simultaneously assaulted Vienna's airport, killing 19 people. If there is any justice here, perhaps it is the fact that Abu Nidal died in August 2002. Saddam Hussein's government claimed that he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head; four times.

Abdul Rahman Yasin, Indiana-born, Iraqi-reared terrorist remains wanted by the FBI for his role in the February 26, 1993 World Trade Center attack. President Bill Clinton's Justice Department indicted Yasin for mixing the chemicals in the bomb that exploded in the parking garage beneath the Twin Towers, killing six and injuring 1,042 people in New York. Soon after the smoke cleared, Yasin returned to Iraq. Coalition forces have discovered documents that show he enjoyed housing and a monthly government salary.

Abu Musab al Zarqawi, after running an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, he found his way to Baathist Baghdad, where he reportedly checked into Olympic Hospital, an elite facility run by the late Uday Hussein, son of the captured tyrant. Zarqawi is believed to have received medical treatment for a leg injury sustained while dodging American GIs who toppled the Taliban. He convalesced in Baghdad for some two months. Once he was back on his foot, Zarqawi then opened an Ansar al-Islam terrorist training camp in northern Iraq. Zarqawi is thought to be behind the October 28, 2002 assassination Lawrence Foley, a U.S. diplomat in Amman, Jordan who worked on international development projects.

Training

The Associated Press reports that Coalition forces shut down at least three terrorist training camps in Iraq. The most notorious of these was the base at Salman Pak, about 15 miles southeast of Baghdad. Before the war, numerous Iraqi defectors said the camp featured a passenger jet on which terrorists sharpened their air piracy skills. With a little looking you can find a satellite photo on the net that shows an urban assault training site, a three-car train for railway-attack instruction, and a commercial airliner sitting all by itself in the middle of the desert. Sabah Khodada is a former Iraqi army captain who once worked at Salman Pak. On October 14, 2001, Khodada granted an interview to PBS television program "Frontline," stating, "This camp is specialized in exporting terrorism to the whole world."

How about 9/11?

Then there is the interesting case of Ahmad Hikmat Shakir; an Iraqi VIP facilitator who worked at the international airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Citing "a foreign government service," page 340 of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on pre-Iraq-War intelligence indicates that, "Shakir claimed he got this job through Ra'ad al-Mudaris, an Iraqi Embassy employee" in Malaysia. On January 5, 2000, Shakir greeted Khalid al Midhar and Nawaz al Hamzi at Kuala Lampur's airport. He then escorted them to a local hotel where these September 11 hijackers met with 9/11 conspirators Ramzi bin al Shibh and Tawfiz al Atash. Five days later, according to The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes, Shakir disappeared. Khalid al Midhar and Nawaz al Hamzi subsequently spent the morning of September 11, 2001 flying American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, killing 184 people. Shakir, the Iraqi airport greeter, was arrested in Qatar on September 17, 2001. On his person and in his apartment, authorities discovered documents connecting him to the 1993 WTC bomb plot and "Operation Bojinka," al-Qaeda's 1995 plan to blow up 12 jets simultaneously over the Pacific. Interestingly enough, as a May 27, 2004 Wall Street Journal editorial reported, Ahmed Hikmat Shakir's name appears on three different rosters of the late Uday Hussein's prestigious paramilitary group, the Saddam Fedayeen. A government source told the Journal that the papers identify Shakir as a lieutenant colonel in the Saddam Fedayeen.

Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani was Consul and Second Secretary at Iraq's Czech embassy between March 1999 and April 22, 2001. He long has been suspected of meeting with September 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta, most likely on April 8, 2001. Perhaps at other times, too. While skeptics dismiss this encounter, Czech intelligence found Al-Ani's appointment calendar in Iraq's Prague embassy, presumably after Saddam Hussein's defeat. Al-Ani's diary lists an April 8, 2001, meeting with "Hamburg student." This meeting, we were told by the 9/11 Commission was not possible according to the timeline they developed. That timeline was the reason cited (once they admited to having had the information) for discouting the Able Danger information. If the Commission was wrong and Able Danger was right, there was time for this meeting. A meeting theat Czech intelligence still insists happened.