Sunday, March 07, 2004
What Were Saddam's Ties to Al Qaeda, Again?
Remember Salman Pak? And no, it isn't the name of another of those fascinating Baghdad bloggers. But I'll bet it's familiar-sounding, even if you can't pin it down.
Luckily for us, Tim Dunlop, the proprietor of The Road To Surfdom, understood the significance back in January of 2003 of a claim, not only by various Iraqi defectors, but also by the number 2 guy to have served on the UNSCOM inspection team, of the existence of a terrorist camp at a place called Salman Pak, south of Baghdad, where an actual 707 was said to have been used to teach potential hijackers the finer points of taking over an airline. After all, if such a camp did exist, Saddam's potential threat to us and the world would look quite different than the view then held by the anti-war left. Also lucky for us, Tim's response was to take the time and analytic energy to give the possibility a serious look; ultimately, he found it wanting in credibility, not least because of the reluctance of the Bush administration to stress it in their case for war.
He was on the case then; he's still on the case, which has been given fresh relevance by this Miami-Herald article , the gist of which is, if you thought WMD claims were based on shaky evidence, wait 'til you take a gander at what they based their claims of ties between Saddam and Al Queda on; one example is the Salam Pak terrorist camp, about which the article blandly tells us, "The U.S. military has found no evidence of such a facility."
Tim's second look isn't about chortling, it's about how, if the reporters who wrote the Miami-Herald piece are right, everyone else could have been so wrong, including that UN inspector, who, interestingly, happens to be the guy who has replaced David Kay as the head of the Iraq Survey Group that is still looking for...what was it again, I forget...still the WMDs?
"The Disappearing 707" is, put quite simply, a wow of a post; so good it jusifies the conceptual basis of blogging, and it puts most mainstream journalism to shame. Do not miss it.
It's a long post, and Tim suggests, and I urge that you read the prior post from last year, which is also a long one but crucial to understanding the issues, before reading the current one; it's worth reading just for a particularly dumb quote from Jim "WW3" Woolsey, that you should feel free to chortle about to your heart's content because it's such a perfect specimen of his oily ideological logic.
Tim's got all the links you need right in the post: Go!
Luckily for us, Tim Dunlop, the proprietor of The Road To Surfdom, understood the significance back in January of 2003 of a claim, not only by various Iraqi defectors, but also by the number 2 guy to have served on the UNSCOM inspection team, of the existence of a terrorist camp at a place called Salman Pak, south of Baghdad, where an actual 707 was said to have been used to teach potential hijackers the finer points of taking over an airline. After all, if such a camp did exist, Saddam's potential threat to us and the world would look quite different than the view then held by the anti-war left. Also lucky for us, Tim's response was to take the time and analytic energy to give the possibility a serious look; ultimately, he found it wanting in credibility, not least because of the reluctance of the Bush administration to stress it in their case for war.
He was on the case then; he's still on the case, which has been given fresh relevance by this Miami-Herald article , the gist of which is, if you thought WMD claims were based on shaky evidence, wait 'til you take a gander at what they based their claims of ties between Saddam and Al Queda on; one example is the Salam Pak terrorist camp, about which the article blandly tells us, "The U.S. military has found no evidence of such a facility."
Tim's second look isn't about chortling, it's about how, if the reporters who wrote the Miami-Herald piece are right, everyone else could have been so wrong, including that UN inspector, who, interestingly, happens to be the guy who has replaced David Kay as the head of the Iraq Survey Group that is still looking for...what was it again, I forget...still the WMDs?
"The Disappearing 707" is, put quite simply, a wow of a post; so good it jusifies the conceptual basis of blogging, and it puts most mainstream journalism to shame. Do not miss it.
It's a long post, and Tim suggests, and I urge that you read the prior post from last year, which is also a long one but crucial to understanding the issues, before reading the current one; it's worth reading just for a particularly dumb quote from Jim "WW3" Woolsey, that you should feel free to chortle about to your heart's content because it's such a perfect specimen of his oily ideological logic.
Tim's got all the links you need right in the post: Go!
