Why Did America Attack Iraq?

englishmajor is perceptive about the war for water. I live in an arid country (well much of it is arid) and water is a political issue here and very much an economic one. We have some people telling us that water is too cheap and that we need to pay more for it so that we conserve it better. They do have a point, I will concede that, but making a commodity of water only means it goes to the wealthiest, not that it's conserved and used properly.

Because Iraq was not responsible for the Towers going down. The attackers were Saudis.

The Salman Pak (al-Salman) facility was a top secret Iraqi military facility located approximately 15 miles south of Baghdad on a peninsula formed by a broad eastward bend of the Tigris River, near the town of Salman Pak. The facility grounds comprised approximately 20 square kilometres, was completely fenced in and the perimeter was patrolled by armed guards 24 hours a day.

The facility was used by the Mukhabarat (Iraqi Intelligence) to train Iraqi militia groups such as the Fedayeen in use of military small arms, RPG's, assassination, espionage, and counter insurgency techniques.

Shortly after the September 11 attacks, members of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress promoted claims that the facility was used to train the hijackers. Sabah Khodada, a former captain in the Iraqi Army, claimed that the attacks had been carried out by people who had been trained in Iraq. In a PBS special on US television, a man identified only "an Iraqi Lieutenant General", claimed that in 2000 he had been "the security officer in charge of the unit" at Salman Pak and had seen Arab students being taught how to hijack airliners using a Boeing 707 fuselage at Salman Pak.September 11 attacks, members of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress promoted claims that the facility was used to train the hijackers. Sabah Khodada, a former captain in the Iraqi Army, claimed that the attacks had been carried out by people who had been trained in Iraq. In a PBS special on US television, a man identified only "an Iraqi Lieutenant General", claimed that in 2000 he had been "the security officer in charge of the unit" at Salman Pak and had seen Arab students being taught how to hijack airliners using a Boeing 707 fuselage at Salman Pak.

Seymour Hersh, writing in the New Yorker, investigated this claim. He reported that he spoke separately to "a former C.I.A. station chief and a former military intelligence analyst" and both said that the camp had been built with the assistance of the United Kingdom's MI6 in the late 1980s "not for terrorism training but for counter-terrorism training." The former CIA official thought it unlikely that a plane would be required for training in hijacking, but that "to take one back you have to practice on the real thing." Standard counter-hijacking methods, since Operation Entebbe, involve distracting the hijackers and drawing them into the cockpit while simultaneously entering the body of the jet by surprise.

Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was also claimed that Salman Pak was at one time the central facility or a major facility in a biological warfare program.

Ok....Steve...but being a nurse I couldna' take your leg...and being a (don't tell anyone) a liberal Democrat in amurika I can't take your wallet, even though the right wing would like you to think that "liberal is just a dirty word". I know what dirty words are and they are not anything about being liberal. I just like to read your thoughts. Keep on talking...

I am not Vietnamese...just an American gal who took care of the wounded and dying in the last debacle ( I guess there were more, but Vietnam means larger debacle to me). I have no patience for any of the excuses for this one. Period.

We'll suffer before we work it out - our trade policy is based on dig/grow/sell. We don't even make our own buttons anymore. I am disgusted beyond words.

englishmajor wrote:

Because Iraq was not responsible for the Towers going down. The attackers were Saudis.

Ever heard of Salman Pak?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gunning/interviews/khodada.html

Hah! I deride velcro! See, I got out of that jacket easily...the old ones with the real straps and buckles used to work much better...

real life wrote:

englishmajor wrote:

Because Iraq was not responsible for the Towers going down. The attackers were Saudis.

Ever heard of Salman Pak?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gunning/interviews/khodada.html

oh yes Salman Pak. The place American troops headed straight to in Iraq. Where we all remember the pictures of the 707 that Saddam provided for bin Laden's men to train on....dont we? Well no we don't actually. An interesting footnote to the article you link to Reallife says this

"Sabah Khodada was a captain in the Iraqi army from 1982 to 1992. He worked at what he describes as a highly secret terrorist training camp at Salman Pak (see Khodada's hand-drawn map of the camp), an area south of Baghdad. In this translated interview, conducted in association with The New York Times on Oct. 14, 2001, Khodada describes what went on at Salman Pak, including details on training hijackers. He emigrated to the U.S. in May 2001.[Editors Note, June 2004: A year after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, there has been no verification of Khodada's account of the activities at Salman Pak. It should also be noted that he and other defectors interviewed for this report were brought to FRONTLINE's attention by the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a dissident organization that was working to overthrow Saddam Hussein.]"

I have thought quite carefully about what I am saying thank you reallife

and I've come to the conclusion that the claim that Saddam trained bin Laden's men at Salman Pak has no basis in fact

from the evidence gf found
from the notes to Khodada's testimony that you yourself provided
from the fact that Ahmed Chalabi was a notorious liar
from the fact that American forces did not show off Salman Pak as Saddams 911 training ground as they surely would have done if it had ANY connection with 911.
Suggest you re read your own link and have a bit of a rethink yourself.

A year after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, there has been no verification of Khodada's account of the activities at Salman Pak.

Well I guess if YOU have decided, then that's it.

No point taking the word of someone who has actually BEEN THERE.