Message posted by Bert on February 05, 2003 at 14:15:57 PST:

With all due respect, here's a summary of what I've read from various news sites, including CNN:

“Powell also said that an al Qaeda terrorist network headed up by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a high-ranking Osama bin Laden lieutenant who fled to Iraq from Afghanistan, had been operating freely in Iraq for more than eight months and was using Baghdad to coordinate its activities. Zarqawi has been linked to October's assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan and the ricin plot that was broken up in London last month. His whereabouts are unknown.

“Citing al-Qaida sources, Powell said Iraq's ties with al-Qaida date back to the early to mid-1990s when bin Laden was based in Sudan and reached an understanding with Hussein that al-Qaida would no longer support activities against Baghdad.
Powell said early al-Qaida ties were forged by secret high-level Iraqi intelligence service contacts, who have met with al-Qaida members repeatedly since the early 1990s. According to the Foreign Security Service, a senior Iraqi intelligence official met with bin Laden in 1996. A defector claims Iraqi agents have continued to visit bin Laden.
A senior al-Qaida terrorist now detained said bin Laden and his top lieutenants in Afghanistan went to Iraq for chemical and biological weapons training.
In 2001, after coalition partners ousted the Taliban regime from Afghanistan Iraq offered itself as a safe haven to al-Qaida.
Detainees say some members accepted the invitation. Among those, was a bin Laden collaborator who set up a terrorist training camp in northeastern Iraq in the Kurdish area not controlled by Iraq.
Powell said these al-Qaida affiliates based in Baghdad coordinate movement of people, money and supplies to and throughout Iraq and have been operating freely in Baghdad for more than eight months.
Powell said this al-Qaida-affiliated network plotted terrorist actions against countries including France, Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and Russia. He said it was this cell that was behind the ricin plots uncovered in London which have led to the arrest of some 116 operatives since last this year.

In all fairness, I must present Saddam’s case:

“Saddam, in an interview broadcast Tuesday in London, had forcefully denied that his government has a relationship with the al-Qaida or has weapons of mass destruction.

In Reply to: Re: Powells Speech posted by gary on February 05, 2003 at 12:25:41 PST:

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