Saddam-Osama Linkage
InstaMan leads us to these two articles from 1999...
This is CNN:
Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire accused by the United States of plotting bomb attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa, has left Afghanistan, Afghan sources said Saturday.Emphasis added.
Bin Laden's whereabouts were not known, said the sources who declined to be identified.
...
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has offered asylum to bin Laden, who openly supports Iraq against the Western powers.
From the Guardian:
Saddam Hussein's regime has opened talks with Osama bin Laden, bringing closer the threat of a terrorist attack using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, according to US intelligence sources and Iraqi opposition officials.Emphasis added
The key meeting took place in the Afghan mountains near Kandahar in late December. The Iraqi delegation was led by Farouk Hijazi, Baghdad's ambassador in Turkey and one of Saddam's most powerful secret policemen, who is thought to have offered Bin Laden asylum in Iraq.
The Saudi-born fundamentalist's response is unknown. He is thought to have rejected earlier Iraqi advances, disapproving of the Saddam Hussein's secular Baathist regime. But analysts believe that Bin Laden's bolthole in Afghanistan, where he has lived for the past three years, is now in doubt as a result of increasing US and Saudi government pressure.
Matt's Chat
The Partisan Mediatm had no problem linking Saddam and Osama in 1999... Why are they having so much trouble now? Why are they going out of their way to take statements out of context to make this president look bad? Oh, THAT liberal media...Note to the liberals: Bill Clinton (D) was President of the United States in 1999.
