Stephen F. Hayes in the Weekly Standard extracts information from a Pentagon survey of 600,000 Iraqi documents that the liberal-leftist media dare not report. Among other things, he says that:
1. Saddam Hussein actively supported al-Qaeda, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups.
2. "Because Saddam's security organizations and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network operated with similar aims (at least in the short term), considerable overlap was inevitable when monitoring, contacting, financing, and training the same outside groups. This created both the appearance of and, in some way, a 'de facto' link between the organizations."
3. "In 1993, as Osama bin Laden's fighters battled Americans in Somalia, Saddam Hussein personally ordered the formation of an Iraqi terrorist group to join the battle there."
4. "There is much, much more. Documents reveal that the regime stockpiled bombmaking materials in Iraqi embassies around the world and targeted Western journalists for assassination. In July 2001, an Iraqi Intelligence agent described an al Qaeda affiliate in Bahrain, the Army of Muhammad, as 'under the wings of bin Laden.' Although the organization 'is an offshoot of bin Laden,' the fact that it has a different name 'can be a way of camouflaging the organization.' The agent is told to deal with the al Qaeda group according to 'priorities previously established.'"
This is just a partial listing, but it's enough to show that Saddam Hussein's regime provided money, Iraqi passports, training, equipment, and other forms of support to terrorist groups.
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