New Saddam/Al Qaeda Talking Points (from WSJ)

http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110005133>Link

One striking bit of new evidence is that the name Ahmed Hikmat Shakir appears on three captured rosters of officers in Saddam Fedayeen...
<snip>
Our government sources, who have seen translations of the documents, say Shakir is listed with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

This matters because if Shakir was an officer in the Fedayeen, it would establish a direct link between Iraq and the al Qaeda operatives who planned 9/11. Shakir was present at the January 2000 al Qaeda "summit" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at which the 9/11 attacks were planned. The U.S. has never been sure whether he was there on behalf of the Iraqi regime or whether he was an Iraqi Islamicist who hooked up with al Qaeda on his own.

It is possible that the Ahmed Hikmat Shakir listed on the Fedayeen rosters is a different man from the Iraqi of the same name with the proven al Qaeda connections...
<snip>
As others have reported, at the time of the summit Shakir was working at the Kuala Lumpur airport, having obtained the job through an Iraqi intelligence agent at the Iraqi embassy.

I'll be asked about this tomorrow by my right wing friends. A few qualifiers (different man with same name, could've been working on his own), no named sources, etc. But this will be used, not only to attempt to link Saddam and Al Qaeda, but to link him to 9/11 as well.

Thoughts?

thinking Al Qaeda would ever work with the great Infidel, Saddam, is insane. It would take MUCH stronger evidence that some rumor from a Bush biased source to even get your attention. So what some sellout WSJ editor fantasizes that Saddam had a rogue lieutentant that might have "actual Al qaeda connections" That lieutenant would have been executed if Saddam had found out. Besides, Bush and his whole gang have amply demonstrated to all Americans that they cannot be trusted to tell the truth on anything they say about Saddam. Any idiot who believes their desperate grasping at footnotes in discredited reports is just a cult member, not a red-blooded American.

He got his job at the airport through Iraqi intelligence.

Knowing how paranoid Saddam is, if the WSJ "facts" check out, could it be he was covert? Trying to infiltrate al Qaeda?

The Newssmax idiots are carrying the story also See http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/5/27/100047.shtml

This story has not been verified and looks like so many of the other so call links. I personally think that it may be a planted or fake evidence that has been "discovered" just when Bush is tanking in the polls. Karl Rove would love to have something like this come out in time to save Bush's bacon.

The very RW WSJ op/ed is citing an article written in the neo-con Weekly Standard about a memo written by douglas feith.

check these out:

http://www.spinsanity.org/post.html?2003_11_23_archive.html

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2003_11_09_atrios_archive.html

That he was part of two organizations.. Say we find out a member of the NYPD is also was a member of the KKK does that mean the NYPD and the Klan work together ?

They need to demonstrate that Saddam Hussien contributed reasources (money, personnel, intelligence, etc) to Al Qaeda.. All this crap about someone from Iraq met with someone from AL Qaeda (Rummy met with Saddam, does that mean there is a connection?) or someone who worked for Saddam also worked for Al Qaeda is meaningless.

Maybe he was spying on Saddam. Maybe Saddam didn't even know he exsisted. Who knows ?