[Lanny_MacDonald]

Originally Posted by Bingo

al Qaeda and Hussein had a mutual hatred of the US ... more than enough reason to get into bed together especially with Afghanistan becoming inhospitable for terrorists

That is such a bunch of disinformation. Hussein was a secularist. bin Laden and al Qaeda saw Hussein as one the leaders that needed to be removed for Islam to achieve the greatness he invisioned. Hussein imprisoned anyone that he viewed as a threat to his power and control. After the '93 WTC bombing one of the conspirators fled to Iraq, where Hussein immediately tracked him down, imprisoned him, and offered him up to the United States, multiple times. Hussein was no friend to al Qaeda. In fact, Zarqawi was only in Iraq because he was in a region protected by the no-fly zone and unreachable by Hussein and his goons. Hussein would have executed any terrorist found in Iraq. Don't confuse providing monitary support for those who attack Israel to supporting terrorists in his own country.

Syria and Iraq have a porous border so some transfers are certainly possible, but like the 911 stuff ... what a story for some journalist so I think it less and less likely as time marches on.

No, not at all possible. The UN was inspecting Iraq for almost a decade. The United States was enforcing the no fly zone and continually monitoring Iraq for movement of forces and equipment. The likelihood of WMD's sneaking out of Iraq are pretty minimal. The potential for them getting to Syria, pretty close to nil. Any movement would have been noticed. The US military would have to be as incompetant on a daily basis as you lead us to believe they were on 9/11. Based on the testimony of the military supporters here we are certain that this is not the case. The best and the brightest work in our military, and only the civilian meddling prevent them from doing their jobs efficiently, so I don't see this as being possible. As well, if this were indeed the case, the military leadership AND the regional governments would all be in an uproar over the potential threat from these weapons. There is no threat and has been no threat since 1991.

I don't think there was anything shady behind 911 from a US standpoint, though I do think it possible that they were hearing rumblings about a plane induced plot and likely didn't do enough to protect against such an event occuring.

There were hearing "rumblings"? You mean the Phillippines government turning over the whole plot in 1998, to the CIA, FBI and State Department, was a rumbling? The fact that all of the "suspected" terrorists were under surveillance for years prior to the event is rumbling? You mean the fact that Gary Hart mentioned an impending attack in an inteview with the Montreal Gazette on 9/04 was rumbling? There were not rumblings, there was a concise report delivered to the Oval Office that was ignored. Read 1000 Years for Revenge to get the background leading up to 9/11. The United States government knew what was happening. There is no doubt about that.