01/07: Saddam's Iraq and al-Qaeda
Category: Media and Politics
Posted by: A Waco Farmer
Trivia Question: What is the least-read edition of any daily newspaper?
Answer: Saturday.
This Saturday in the Washington Post:
Christina Shelton, an intelligence analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1984 to 2006, writes of her role in determining the existing links between Saddam's Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist organization during the summer of 2002.
Quoting Shelton:
"[Back then] I summarized a body of mostly CIA reporting (dating from 1990 to 2002), from a variety of sources, that reflected a pattern of Iraqi support for al-Qaeda, including high-level contacts between Iraqi senior officials and al-Qaeda, training in bomb making, Iraqi offers of safe haven, and a nonaggression agreement to cooperate on unspecified areas."
The Shelton piece is a curious article (in full here), as it comes without editorial comment or context--but clearly radiates resentment for the way in which George Tenet, the media and the swirling "politics of the Iraq war" have clouded the study of an extremely complicated issue.
Notwithstanding, she optimistically predicts that "a more complete understanding of Iraq's relationship with al-Qaeda will emerge when [future less politicized] historians can exploit the numerous seized documents."
We can only hope.
For now, the template of the mainstream media, who often bemoan the lack of nuance in political discussions, demand "black and white," "right or wrong" answers when it comes to pre-war intelligence.
Answer: Saturday.
This Saturday in the Washington Post:
Christina Shelton, an intelligence analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1984 to 2006, writes of her role in determining the existing links between Saddam's Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist organization during the summer of 2002.
Quoting Shelton:
"[Back then] I summarized a body of mostly CIA reporting (dating from 1990 to 2002), from a variety of sources, that reflected a pattern of Iraqi support for al-Qaeda, including high-level contacts between Iraqi senior officials and al-Qaeda, training in bomb making, Iraqi offers of safe haven, and a nonaggression agreement to cooperate on unspecified areas."
The Shelton piece is a curious article (in full here), as it comes without editorial comment or context--but clearly radiates resentment for the way in which George Tenet, the media and the swirling "politics of the Iraq war" have clouded the study of an extremely complicated issue.
Notwithstanding, she optimistically predicts that "a more complete understanding of Iraq's relationship with al-Qaeda will emerge when [future less politicized] historians can exploit the numerous seized documents."
We can only hope.
For now, the template of the mainstream media, who often bemoan the lack of nuance in political discussions, demand "black and white," "right or wrong" answers when it comes to pre-war intelligence.
Derrick wrote:
It was GWB who institutionalized "you're either with me or against me" thinking and it was GWB who launched a global crusade against terror.
Not the media, who mostly lapped up every rumor and reported it as fact.
While not a "career intelligence analyst", it is imperative that we keep a few simple facts in mind:
- al Qaeda represents a strain of religious fundamentalism, with origins that trace back to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (although today , these two groups have diverged over the use of violence to achieve goals).
- Baathism (which is what Saddam represented) has its roots in Arab nationalism (think Nassar for an Egyptian parallel) and is not strongly allied with an religious tenets - save for continuing the Sunni the majority status and denigrating the Shia as potential Persian interlopers.
With these two concepts in mind, it becomes clear that for whatever "feelers" may be sent out by either group to the other, at their core they represent divergent paths and no collusion between them could hope to be long term. An operational "enemy of my enemy is my friend"? Sure. More than a decade of contiguous planning? Not likely.