how are saddam and iraq linked to terrorism? even though there was a sunday telegraph article linking iraq and al-Qaeda based on documents provided to them, i am not going to argue their validity here. there is a more obvious connection between saddam and iraq to terrorism, or at least supporters of terrorist activity. i am referring to saddam’s long association with the PLO (palestinian liberation organization). i also contend that the israeli/palestinian struggle is also related in a peripheral manner to 9/11. i will explain why i think the muslims keep referencing that struggle. here are a few articles discussing this.
(most titles are mine… they were changed for clarity) if you want to skip to my summary of all these articles, it’s after all the links. 🙂
saddam pays off palestinian suicide bombers
iraq and terrorism–from national review
terrorism: q & a–council on foreign relations summary also points out saddam’s past use of WMDs
chronology of the first gulf war
THE PERSIAN GULF CRISIS AND THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT –from a senate discussion –an article talking about saddam’s relationship with the PLO and how the PLO supported his invasion of kuwait
israel holds back during the gulf war — suggestion that israel was influenced by the U.S. not to retaliate against iraq during the kuwait conflict so as not to inflame other arab states against the U.S.
what prompted this post was a book called al-jazeera, by mohammad el-nawawy and adel iskandar in which it is noted that the PLO was kicked out of kuwait after its liberation. why? they were kicked out, and rightly so i might add, for supporting saddam’s invasion of kuwait. it would naturally follow that israel would support this, being a sworn enemy of most PLO foreign policies. the opposition to saddam and the general aims of terrorist supporters of the PLO was not helpful to gain support for the U.S. we have always supported israel. in the arab world, some would consider us the enemy because of this. this book even suggests that some arabs/muslims believe that there is a zionist conspiracy at work in our media to unfairly portray palestinians. (wait ’til ted turner hears about this!!)
saddam and the PLO were obviously connected. he paid off some of their suicide bombers. the PLO supported saddam’s invasion of kuwait, and even provided logistical support for it. when the U.S. came in and liberated kuwait, and kicked out the PLO, this annoyed saddam and israel’s main opposition group. that’s the connection to the israel/palestinian conflict. it’s also the seed of muslim resentment toward the U.S. that continues post 9/11.
bin laden and the PLO were also quite chummy, according to this piece. it’s not that much of a stretch to believe that a mutual hatred of the U.S. and Israel and a mutual support of the PLO would bring bin laden and saddam together. an attack on america would hurt israel too, and would no doubt be a motivating factor.
just my opinion.
Technorati : PLO, iraq, israel, kuwait, osama bin laden, saddam hussein