T

he widely propagated canard about how Saddam had nothing to do with terrorism, and how he would never have cooperated with Islamist jihadis (since he was a secular guy who had nothing in common with them), should finally be refuted once and for all if the latest nugget sifted from the mountain of newly released documents, proves authentic. A short letter contained in one of these documents was posted yesterday on Free Republic. On March 11, 2001, the commander of Ali Bin Abi Taleb Air Force Base wrote to "all units," asking for Air Force volunteers for suicide missions against American interests.

In the Name of God the Merciful The Compassionate

Top Secret

The Command of Ali Bin Abi Taleb Air Force Base

No 3/6/104

Date 11 March 2001

To all the Units

Subject: Volunteer for Suicide Mission

The top secret letter 2205 of the Military Branch of Al Qadisya on 4/3/2001 announced by the top secret letter 246 from the Command of the military sector of Zi Kar on 8/3/2001 announced to us by the top secret letter 154 from the Command of Ali Military Division on 10/3/2001 we ask to provide that Division with the names of those who desire to volunteer for Suicide Mission to liberate Palestine and to strike American Interests and according what is shown below to please review and inform us.

Air Brigadier General

Abdel Magid Hammod Ali

Commander of Ali Bin Abi Taleb Air Force Base

Air Colonel

Mohamad Majid Mahdi.

End of translation of page 6

[my emphasis]

Check the list of other docs translated by Freeper "jveritas" in the past few weeks (about 15 of them), who has also begun posting them on a new blog.

As mentioned here earlier, Ray Robison has been working through the documents with an Arabic translator as well, and with this latest smoking gun revelation, one of his readers pointed out that a large anti-Israel, and anti-US meeting of jihadi terror groups had taken place two months prior to this letter, in Beirut. Iraqi representatives were also present (dated Feb. 12, 2001):

A number of groups that U.S. officials consider the most dangerous were represented at the Beirut conference, including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization; Hamas; Hezbollah; and the Islamic Jihad, U.S. officials said.

[...]

Another reason for concern, officials say, was the presence of representatives from Iran and Iraq.

We know for a fact that Saddam had given support and funding for terrorist actions, and as regards the Palestinian terrorist movement, this was known long before he was overthrown. Now Iraqi government documents are showing that he wasn't just a sponsor of terrorism, he was a provider. Recruiting Air Force personel for suicide missions against the US? Hamas wouldn't need Iraqi pilots to blow up buses in Tel Aviv. But for suicide attacks involving aircraft, they could be quite useful -- indeed it would be the only reason to specifically recruit Iraqi Air Force suicide volunteers.

And how have professional journalists, with all the resources at their disposal, been diving into all these de-classified pre-war intel documents? This is real headline-grabbing stuff, right?

[crickets]

[more crickets, frogs]

[chirp! chirp! ribbit!]

I see one candidate for the likely answer for the strained silence: Bush was right. And we can't have that, now can we?