Clinton: Iraq/al Queda Ties
ARE AL QAEDA'S links to Saddam Hussein's Iraq just a fantasy of the Bush administration? Hardly. The Clinton administration also warned the American public about those ties and defended its response to al Qaeda terror by citing an Iraqi connection.
For nearly two years, starting in 1996, the CIA monitored the al Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan. The plant was known to have deep connections to Sudan's Military Industrial Corporation, and the CIA had gathered intelligence on the budding relationship between Iraqi chemical weapons experts and the plant's top officials. The intelligence included information that several top chemical weapons specialists from Iraq had attended ceremonies to celebrate the plant's opening in 1996. And, more compelling, the National Security Agency had intercepted telephone calls between Iraqi scientists and the plant's general manager.
Iraq also admitted to having a $199,000 contract with al Shifa for goods under the oil-for-food program. Those goods were never delivered. While it's hard to know what significance, if any, to ascribe to this information, it fits a pattern described in recent CIA reporting on the overlap in the mid-1990s between al Qaeda-financed groups and firms that violated U.N. sanctions on behalf of Iraq.
The clincher, however, came later in the spring of 1998, when the CIA secretly gathered a soil sample from 60 feet outside of the plant's main gate. The sample showed high levels of O-ethylmethylphosphonothioic acid, known as EMPTA, which is a key ingredient for the deadly nerve agent VX. A senior intelligence official who briefed
reporters at the time was asked which countries make VX using EMPTA. "Iraq is the only country we're aware of," the official said. "There are a variety of ways of making VX, a variety of recipes, and EMPTA is fairly unique."
Read the whole thing by Stephen Hayes from the Weekly Standard.
Matt's Chat
Here is the money shot:The al Shifa plant in Sudan was largely destroyed after being hit by six Tomahawk missiles. John McWethy, national security correspondent for ABC News, reported the story on August 25, 1998:
Before the pharmaceutical plant was reduced to rubble by American cruise missiles, the CIA was secretly gathering evidence that ended up putting the facility on America's target list. Intelligence sources say their agents clandestinely gathered soil samples outside the plant and found, quote, "strong evidence" of a chemical compound called EMPTA, a compound that has only one known purpose, to make VX nerve gas.
Then, the connection:
The U.S. had been suspicious for months, partly because of Osama bin Laden's financial ties, but also because of strong connections to Iraq. Sources say the U.S. had intercepted phone calls from the plant to a man in Iraq who runs that country's chemical weapons program.
Once more, dear friends, the liberals in this country can't seem to remember their own history. This further proves that, yet again, for the liberals, the FACTS can't get in the way of a good smear.
Our President has put it all on the line to protect America. The liberals in this country can't seem to get past their own narcissism and vanity in their grab at power to realize that George W. Bush is right.
Mark's Remarks
Amen, Matt...But it just makes me question: if the links were so obvious, as they were, as far back as 1998, then why didn't Mr. Clinton go in? Why did he only bomb empty tents and milk factories? Why did he not make the connection more public and obvious? Why did he wait until after 9/11 to say he supposedly gave a huge warning to the Bush admin? The reasoning is simple. Mr. Clinton was more worried about fixing his legacy, fixing the Lewinsky situation, than leading the nation and protecting America. Further proof that he was wrong not to take Sudan's offers of turning over Usama bin Laden. Further proof of his administration's bungling of foreign policy, of instead turning to "symbolic" missile strikes instead of definitive action. All it did was make the terrorists think we were too afraid of casualties or bad p.r. to go after them. Thank goodness we now have a leader who does not care about those issues, and is putting everything on the line to wage war against these animals.
