Investor's Business Daily, March 15th, 2007
War On Terror: Al-Qaida mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has confessed to being the mastermind for a lot of terrorist crimes. Old news? Hardly. His confession appears to link al-Qaida to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
War critics argue that Saddam Hussein had little to do with terrorism, and nothing to do with al-Qaida. Since there was no Iraq-al-Qaida link, they say, the U.S. should never have invaded to get rid of Hussein, no matter how evil he was. But something interesting has come out of the interrogations of the lead al-Qaida suspects at Guantanamo.
In particular, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confirmed what was suspected all along: He was the driving force and chief planner behind 15 years of al-Qaida terrorism -- nearly 30 attacks and plots in all. That includes 9/11, the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl and, much earlier, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
If so, it further cements the evidence that Iraq was, at minimum, a willing partner of al-Qaida's in the decadelong burst of terrorism that culminated in 9/11. Indeed, Mohammed's Gitmo confession neatly ties the '93 WTC bombing and 9/11 to Iraq and al-Qaida. After all, Iraq had the means -- oil money -- and the motive -- revenge for Hussein's humiliation in the 1991 Gulf War.
Of particular interest is the revelation about Mohammed's involvement in the '93 bombing. It shows a linkage not only between the '93 WTC attack and 9/11, but also between Iraq and al-Qaida.
We already know, for instance, that Abdul Rahman Yasin, the Iraqi responsible for carrying out the '93 bombing, found a haven in Iraq for a decade after the attack. Yasin worked closely with another al-Qaida operative, Ramzi Yousef, on the '93 WTC bombing.
For the record, Yousef is Mohammed's nephew. He was described by the National Commission On Terrorism's 9/11 report as "the mastermind" of the '93 bombing. And according to U.S. intelligence, he got funding from al-Qaida.
Intelligence documents captured in Baghdad in September 2003 show that Yasin and the others received financial aid from the Iraqi government. This raises a big question: Why would Iraq, under international scrutiny for both WMD and sanctions, support a known terrorist with ties to al-Qaida? The only reasonable answer is, it wanted to keep Yasin quiet about Iraq's involvement.
There's ample evidence of Iraq's role in 9/11 too. The lead 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Atta, met at least twice with Iraqi intelligence in Europe before carrying out the attacks. And Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, an Iraqi intelligence operative, attended a key meeting of the 9/11 hijackers and other al-Qaida terrorists in January 2000.
Upon capture, Shakir was found to be in contact with Zahid Sheikh Mohammed, brother of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Iraqi Musab Yasin, brother of Abdul Rahman Yasin, and Ibrahim Ahmad Suleiman, a '93 WTC conspirator.
It's pretty clear that al-Qaida and Iraq, far from being enemies, were tactical allies against the U.S. As such, removing Hussein wasn't a distraction from our war on terror; it was vital to it.
Copyright 2007 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.
