More On Hussein-Bin Laden Links

Thomas Joscelyn has an interesting piece at The Weekly Standard noting yet another link between Hussein and al Qaida, and even more specifically, Osama Bin Laden himself. This link is drawn over the backdrop of Operation Desert Fox in 1998.

Just days after Operation Desert Fox concluded one of Saddam's most loyal and trusted intelligence operatives, Faruq Hijazi, was dispatched to Afghanistan. He met with senior leaders from the Taliban and then with bin Laden and his cohorts on December 21.

While we cannot be sure what transpired at this meeting, we can be sure that it was not some benign event. In fact, within days of the meeting bin Laden loudly declared his opposition to the U.S.-led missile strikes on Iraq and called on all Muslims to strike U.S. and British targets, including civilians, around the world. According to press accounts at the time, bin Laden explained, "The British and the American people loudly declared their support for their leaders' decision to attack Iraq." He added that the citizens' support for their governments made it "the duty of Muslims to confront, fight, and kill" them.

Bin Laden's words sounded alarm bells around the world. Countless media outlets scurried to uncover the details of the relationship between Saddam's regime and al Qaeda. Dozens of news outlets--foreign and domestic--reported on the growing relationship and its ominous implications. When assessing any news account the reader must take all of the information with a grain of salt. But the sheer weight of the evidence reported from so many different sources paints a disturbing picture.

Joscelyn goes on to lay out the media frenzy that ensued and the claims of cooperation between the two that were made. Reports, and claims, that seem to have been conveniently forgotten between then and now. Joscelyn notes the possibility that that the global media was wrong, but the sheer number of outlets reporting and the extent of the details given do create an overwhelming body of evidence.

Also posting: Power Line