Ray Robison: Pointing out the obvious to the oblivious: Cheney is absolutely right

MSN is reporting this morning that VP Cheney restated his position that Saddam had ties to al Qaeda. The fact is I had doubted the Zarqawi connection to Saddam in Iraq before the start of OIF. I was wrong. My research shows that Zarqawi was a Jordanian who led an Islamic jihad group (tawhid) that got its spiritual guidance from a man named Sheik Abu-Mohammed al-Maqdisi (or Isam Mohammad Taher al-Barqawi) a major al Qaeda leader. Barqawi is the one who sent Zarqawi to Iraq. Barqawi was one of tens of thousands of Palestinian-Jordanians who supported Saddam's occupation of Kuwait. When these Palestinians were kicked out of Kuwait for conspiring with Saddam, hundreds of thousands went to Jordan were were they set up jihad operations and joined with al Qaeda. This al Qaeda branch, the Jordanian based "jihad stream" from Kuwait was highly supportive of Saddam (because of his support to the Palestinians )and Barqawi sent them to Iraq to fight for Saddam. In fact, if you read our book, Both In One Trench, you will learn that the "returnees from Kuwait" were just one of the many 'portals' that Saddam used to support Islamic terrorism.

Regarding the "DOD report", folks it was an Inspector General report, not an intelligence analysis. The IG office investigates personel and processes. It does not provide "fresh intelligence" as some MSM have labeled the report. It is NOT an analysis of the links between Saddam and al Qaeda. Good lord, watching the media spin this, I now know how Germans must have felt watching as the Nazi's started burning books. The MSM is starting to get just, plain frightening.

A more in depth explanation at American Thinker.