What because some people got purple ink on a finger when they voted that means it was right to forcefully go in and set up elections?
There are plenty of places more needing of change than Iraq was, but its not our place to effect that change for other people.
Has Iraq sponsored terrorism?
Yes. Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship provided headquarters, operating bases, training camps, and other support to terrorist. During the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam commissioned several failed terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities.
The State Department has listed Iraq as a state sponsor of terrorism through both Democrat and Republican administrations.
http://cfrterrorism.org/sponsors/iraq.html
Has Iraq ever used weapons of mass destruction?
Yes. In the 1980s Iran-Iraq War,
Iraqi troops repeatedly used poison gas, including mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin, against Iranian soldiers, and dropping mustard-gas bombs on Iranian villages. Human Rights Watch reports that Iraq frequently used nerve agents and mustard gas against Iraqi Kurds living in the country’s north.
In March 1988, Saddam’s forces killed thousands of Iraqi Kurds in the town of Halabja with chemical weapons.
(Warning very graphic)
http://www.firethistime.org/halabjavictims.jpg
http://www.iraqdigest.com/Halabja-.jpg
Coalition troops destroyed at least three terrorist training camps, and soldiers of the 7th Marine Regiment destroyed a suspected terrorist camp early Sunday en route to Baghdad.
It featured a passenger-jet fuselage where numerous Iraqi defectors reported that foreign terrorists were instructed how to hijack airliners with utensils.
http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock040703.asp
Saddam Hussein paid bonuses of up to $25,000 to the families of Palestinian homicide bombers
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, formerly the director of an al Qaeda training base in Afghanistan, fled to Iraq after being injured as the Taliban fell.
His safe place to fall back to was Iraq, were he set up camp afterwards.
Saddam’s forces killed thousands of innocent Iraqi civilian Kurds in the town of Halabja with chemical weapons, men women and children littered the streets dead were they stood when the bombs fell.
http://www.barzan.com/hal66.jpg
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/iraq/decade/sect5.html
Even in the absence if actual WMDs, those who combed through the remains of Saddam’s regime in Iraq have already turned up incontrovertible evidence of intent. Dr. David Kay, the chief arms investigator, reported results to congress, he found:
1.) A clandestine network of laboratories and safe houses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained
equipment for continuing chemical and Biological weapons research.
2.)
A prison laboratory complex used in human testing of BW agents, which Iraqi officials were explicitly order not to report to the UN.
3.)
New research on BW-applicable agents, Burcella and Congo Crimean hemorrhagic fever, and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin, which were not declared to the UN and done in secret.
4.) D
ocuments and equipment, hidden in scientist’s homes that would have been useful in resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation.
5.)
Reference strains used to produce biological weapons concealed in a scientist’s home
6.) A line of UAV’s undeclared and that tested way out of range, with weapons delivering abilities.
7.)
Continuing covert capability to manufacture fuel propellant useful for prohibited SCUD variant missiles, and Iraqi scientist’s admission of concealment from the UN.
8.)
Plans and designs for long range missilery with ranges of up to 1000 km, well beyond the imposed UN limits
9.) Clandestine attempts at obtaining long range missilery from the N. Korean’s.
Any way you slice it, there’s no denying Saddam’s intent- not only to develop prohibited weaponry, but to destroy all traces of any weapon.
“In addition to the discovery of extensive concealment efforts” Dr. Kay told Congress,
“We have been faced with a systematic sanitization of documents and computers evidence in a wide range of offices, laboratories, and companies suspected of WMD work.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2003/david_kay_10022003.html
UN Security Council resolutions on Iraq, threatening war, now just imagine this in our own terms, would you be ok with a murderer getting a slap on the wrist and a reprimand this many times to run free in the community.
1490, 1483, 1476, 1472, 1454, 1443, 1441, 1409, 1382, 1360, 1352, 1330, 1302, 1293, 1284, 1281, 1280, 1275, 1266, 1242, 1210, 1205, 1194, 1175, 1158, 1154, 1153, 1143, 1137, 1134, 1129, 1115, 1111, 1060, 1051, 986, 949, 899, 806, 778, 773, 715, 712, 707, 706, 705, 699, 692, 689, 688, 687, 686, 685, 678, 677, 676, 674,
671, 670, 669, 667, 666, 665, 664, 662, 661, 660
Saddam was bribing the international community through the UN, to prevent any action on these many, many, resolutions he was flaunting. Saddam was setting the precedence to bribe your way through the UN, and the corrupt body has yet to do anything serious to reform itself.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/saddam_oil_vouchers_040129-4.html
Saddam’s Gifts
Document: Saddam Supporters Received Lucrative Oil Contracts Continued
Russia
Head of the Russian Presidential Cabinet: 90 million
The Companies of the Russian Communist Party: 137 million
The Companies of the Liberal Democratic Party: 79.8 million
France
Bernard Merimee, French ambassador to the United Nations: 3 million
Charles Pasqua, minister of interior: 12 million
Palestinian Territories
The Palestinian Liberation Organization: 4 million
Abu Al Abbas: 11.5 million
Libya
Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem: 1 million
Syria
Firas Mostafa Tlass, son of Syria's defense minister: 6 million
Turkey
Zeynel Abidin Erdem: more than 27 million
Lotfy Doghan: more than 11 million
Indonesia
Megawati Sukarnoputri: 11 million
Spain
Ali Ballout, 8.8 million
Canada
Arthur Millholland, 9.5 million
Bin Laden aided a group of Islamist extremists operating in Kurdistan. In the late 1990s, these extremist groups suffered major defeats by Kurdish forces. In 2001,
with Bin Ladin’s help they re-formed into an organization called Ansar al Islam. There are indications that
the Iraqi regime tolerated and may even have helped Ansar al Islam
-911 Commission Final Report 7/22/04
With the Sudanese regime acting as intermediary,
Bin Ladin himself met with a senior Iraqi intelligence officers in Khartoum in late 1994 or early 1995… the ensuing years saw additional efforts to establish connections.
-911 Commission Final Report 7/22/04
On November 4, 1998, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed its indictment of Bin Ladin. The indictment added that
al Qaeda had “reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq.”109
-911 Commission Final Report 7/22/04
"Does [America] realize the meaning of every Iraqi becoming a missile that can cross to countries and cities?"
Saddam Hussein, September 29, 1994
"[O]ur striking arm will reach [America, Britain and Saudi Arabia] before they know what hit them."
Al-Qadisiyah, October 6, 1994 (State-controlled newspaper)
"One chemical weapon fired in a moment of despair could cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands." Al-Quds al-Arabi, October 12, 1994 (State-controlled newspaper)
Khobar Towers Bombing, June 25, 1996
"[The U.S.] should send more coffins to Saudi Arabia, because no one can guess what the future has in store."
Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Radio, June 27, 1996
U.S.S. Cole Bombing, October 12, 2000
"[Iraqis] should intensify struggle and jihad in all fields and by all means..."
Iraq TV, October 22, 2000 (State-controlled)
The Attacks of September 11
"The United States reaps the thorns its rulers have planted in the world."
Saddam Hussein, September 12, 2001
"The real perpetrators [of September 11] are within the collapsed buildings."
Alif-Ba, September 11, 2002 (State-controlled newspaper)
"[September 11 was] God's punishment."
Al-Iktisadi, September 11, 2002 (State-controlled newspaper)
"
If the attacks of September 11 cost the lives of 3,000 civilians, how much will the size of losses in 50 states within 100 cities if it were attacked in the same way in which New York and Washington were? What would happen if hundreds of planes attacked American cities?"
Al-Rafidayn, September 11, 2002 (State-controlled newspaper)
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/iraq/sadquots.htm
