Saddam-terror links, with documents and photos

They exist whether you say they do or not

Excerpts:

Let's start with money. 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. How do we know this?
Tariq Aziz, Hussein's own deputy prime minister, was stunningly candid
about the Baathist government's underwriting of terrorist killings in
Israel...

Between the time Saddam Hussein boosted his bonus payments to the
families of Palestinian terrorists and the March 20, 2003 launch of
Operation Iraqi Freedom, 28 homicide bombers injured 1,209 people and
killed 223 more, including at least eight Americans. These bonus checks
were handed out at ceremonies where banners proclaimed the friendship of
the PLO's Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein...

The hijackers surrendered to Egyptian authorities in exchange for safe
passage to Tunisia. Abu Abbas then joined them on a flight to freedom
aboard an Egypt Air jet. However, four U.S. fighter planes forced the
airliner to land at a NATO base in Sicily. Italian officials took the
hijackers into custody. But Abbas possessed the ultimate get-out-of-jail
card: An Iraqi diplomatic passport...

After escaping Italian police in October 1985 following the Achille
Lauro hijacking (thanks to his Iraqi diplomatic passport), 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.

Abbas' Baghdad sojourn was not an isolated incident. Saddam Hussein
granted avowed international terrorists refuge in Baathist Iraq. Terror
mastermind Abu Nidal also enjoyed his hospitality.

So far, we have documented that Saddam Hussein harbored terrorists
(many with al-Qaeda links) responsible for international mayhem and even
the incidental deaths of Americans. But is there any evidence that Iraq
sheltered those responsible for attacks on America?

Enter Abdul Rahman Yasin...

Former ABC News correspondent Sheila MacVicar looked for Yasin, and here
is what she reported on July 27, 1994: 'Last week, [television program]
Day One confirmed [Yasin] is in Baghdad... Just a few days ago, he was
seen at [his father's] house by ABC News. Neighbors told us Yasin comes
and goes freely.'

...This is 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...

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. This satellite photo
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...

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...

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