THE US, THE UN AND IRAQ VI

Not only are they more convincing to you than to hobbit, they are more convincing to you than to your president, to Rumsfeld, to Cheney, and to Powell, each of whom have now publicly acknowledged no evidence of connection (after a good deal of previous deceit).

It is sickening to hear people argue for the war, saying that it was justified to KILL a country's people to stop their dictator from doing it.
DON'T tell me we only killed and maimed a few hundred thousand to his millions. MY God---
that is like arguing with a man that you only will cut off one arm, but your leader would have cut off an arm and a leg. Who needs either???

Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders
World Islamic Front Statement

23 February 1998

Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin
Ayman al-Zawahiri, amir of the Jihad Group in Egypt
Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Egyptian Islamic Group
Shaykh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan
Fazlur Rahman, amir of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh

Praise be to Allah, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book: "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said: I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but Allah is worshipped, Allah who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders.

I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but Allah is worshipped

A year on from the start of the war, a new BBC poll suggests 48% of Britons now think military action was right, with 43% opposed and 9% undecided.

The ICM survey for BBC Two's Newsnight also suggests that 29% of people think Tony Blair told the truth about weapons of mass destruction.

But 40% of those interviewed said he exaggerated but did not lie and 22% said he lied about the weapons threat.

blatham wrote:

Not only are they more convincing to you than to hobbit, they are more convincing to you than to your president, to Rumsfeld, to Cheney, and to Powell, each of whom have now publicly acknowledged no evidence of connection (after a good deal of previous deceit).

Please provide references or links to the article or articles that quote Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and/or Powell publically acknowledging they have no evidence of connection between Saddam and the Taliban, or between Saddam and el Quada, or between Saddam and Indonesian Terrorists.

If you do, I shall surely get with the program.

I promise I will even abandon that old Einstein observation: "absence of proof is not proof of absence."

Experts: War on terrorism could spawn new enemies
Splinter groups may rise from crackdown on al Qaeda, they warn

From Kelli Arena
CNN Washington Bureau
Tuesday, March 16, 2004 Posted: 1:54 AM EST (0654 GMT)



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It is possible the U.S.-led war on terror has created new enemies of Western governments and societies by splintering al Qaeda, according to counterterrorism experts.

Some U.S. government officials go so far as to say that even if Islamic fundamentalists are eventually found responsible for the train bombings in Spain last week, the effort to identify one particular group may be futile.

"This is not like the Gambino crime family, a Mafia family, where if you just arrest the leaders it goes out of business," said Peter Bergen, a CNN terrorism expert and author of "Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden."

"This is more like a mass movement, and you can arrest as many people as you want. But it's very hard to arrest the movement of ideas."

One U.S. counterterrorism official said an al Qaeda connection to the Madrid bombings has been established. It was reported Monday that one of the five men arrested may have ties to an al Qaeda-linked bombing in Morocco last year.

"We do know that there is a connection to al Qaeda. We have verified that," said Asa Hutchinson, U.S. undersecretary for homeland security. "The extent of responsibility and whether any other terrorist organization is involved has yet to be determined." (Full story)

But experts such as MJ Gohel, a terrorism specialist at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London-based think tank, suggest the term al Qaeda is just shorthand for a complex global terror network.

"What we are dealing here with is an ideology," Gohel said. "It is a global jihad movement composed of al Qaeda and many affiliated terrorist groups. All of these groups are autonomous."

Terrorism experts have long said al Qaeda was made up of loosely affiliated groups. But most attacks, including those of September 11, 2001, could eventually be traced back to Osama bin Laden or other terrorist leaders.

As President Bush put it this month: "Some two-thirds of al Qaeda's key leaders have been captured or killed. The rest of them hear us breathing down their neck."

Now, counterterrorism officials say one of their biggest concerns is how U.S. actions such as the war in Iraq are motivating new recruits bound by a common goal: to destroy Western secular society.

Both government and private experts are bracing for what they say will be a war that could last for generations.

Walter - I haven't checked this discussion in over a month, and didn't feel like wading through looking for it. I've also created a discussion of its own about this survey, since I assume it will be a topic of discussion, and this other discussion is a bit broad. My link is to a new discussion about the survey, rather than to the report of the survey itself.

In case this hasn't come up yet: