Still skeptical about the Axis of Evil?
More on Saddam's anti-US terrorist program.
Iraq planned clandestine attacks against American warships in the Persian Gulf in early 2001, according to an operative of Iranian nationality who says he was given the assignment by ranking members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle.The alleged plan involved loading at least one trade ship with half a ton of explosives, and – sailing under an Iranian flag to disguise Iraq's role – using a crew of suicide bombers to blow up a US ship in the Gulf.
The operative, who says he smuggled weapons for Iraq through Iran for Al Qaeda during the late 1990s, says he was told that $16 million had already been set aside for the assignment – the first of "nine new operations" he says the Iraqis wanted him to carry out, which were to include missions in Kuwait.
The first plot, remarkably similar to the attack on the USS Cole on Oct. 12, 2000, was never carried out. The status of the other nine operations remains unclear.
In some of the quotes in the article, this "operative" uses language that seems to suggest that Iraqi military has several formally trained "suicide squads." Pythonesqueness aside, the level of organization hinted at in this article is pretty disturbing, though perhaps it ought not to be surprising.
Are there such Iraqi "operatives" and suicide squads in the US, waiting to spring into action once the war begins? It seems more likely than not. (It's also pretty likely that their weapons wouldn't be limited to incendiary devices, but would include Saddam's favorite low-cost, high-impact chemical and biological weapons.) Considering Saddam's clear ties to Palestinian terrorist groups, the Fatah threats against US interests "all over the world" are even more worrying. "We are not bin Laden," said the head of Arafat's Fatah movement, "but we have our own style."
$16 million would fund enough suicide terror welfare payments to raise a substantial suicide army. He's already managed to wring a great deal of destruction out of a mere $500,000 in Israel; and the Saudis apparently have also been funding the martyr brigades, putting up $400 million last year alone, according to the Weekly Standard's Steven Schwartz. Schwartz does the math:
The kingdom pledged $400 million last year for the support of "martyrs' families," according to the Saudi Embassy's Web site. At $5,300 per "martyr," that works out to about 75,000 martyrs, suggesting the Saudi princes anticipate a lot more suicide bombings than Israel has yet suffered.
Getting them into the US, as we have unfortunately learned, would be a piece of cake.
(By the way, the link to the Weekly Standard comes via Best of the Web-- in the same item, Taranto cites this blurb by Bob Novak about Bill Clinton's receipt of a $750,000 speaking fee as well as a pledge of Presidential Library funding from the Saudi government. The caption: "you don't have to kill Jews to benefit from Saudi largesse." Does the goal of Clinton-bashing over-ride all considerations of taste and decency? Apparently so.
The final article in the series cited in this item is about the Clinton administration's quashing of a 1995 investigation of Islamic charities, which is an interesting story to be sure. Taranto comments: "Federal agents raided 14 Islamic businesses in Virginia that are suspected of sending money to terrorists, but the feds aren't saying what they found." I'll tell you one thing they found: Grover Norquist. I'm sorry, but there are as many Republican fingerprints as there are Democratic ones on the "lack of sufficient vigilance against Arab terrorism" crime scene.
Clinton's not my favorite guy, but the anti-Clinton people are starting to remind me of the logic-deprived "activists" of my youth, who are to this day still babbling the same anti-Reagan platitudes as though he were still President. You've got to get over it, fellows.)
Posted by Dr. Frank at April 3, 2002 11:18 AM | TrackBack