Pierre Legrand’s Pink Flamingo Bar

Michael Scheuer is used as a go to person by the media when they need an expert on Al Qaeda. Oddly enough they don’t point out that Michael Scheuer contradicts himself, Fisks himself so to speak regarding one of the central themes of his recent celebrity, that there were no connections between Saddam and Al Qaeda.

So let’s just start with this statement which is part of a PBS interview. In plain language he states unequivocally that there was no relationship

Tenet, to his credit, had us go back 10 years in the agency’s records and look and see what we knew about Iraq and Al Qaeda. I was available at the time, and I led the effort. We went back 10 years. We examined about 20,000 documents, probably something along the line of 75,000 pages of information, and there was no connection between [Al Qaeda] and Saddam.

There were indications that Al Qaeda people had transited Iraq, probably with the Iraqis turning a blind eye to it. There were some hints that there was a contact between the head of the intelligence service of the Iraqis with bin Laden when he was in the Sudan, but nothing you could put together and say, “Here is a relationship that is similar to the relationship between Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah,” which was what Doug Feith’s organization was claiming. There was simply nothing to support that.

So we did the research, we gave him the documentation, we came up with a conclusion. But then we turned all of that information over to the analysts, and the analysts then did the same thing. They, as far as I know, found no connection that was remotely approaching what DoD was claiming in regard to Saddam and Al Qaeda

Which doesn’t match up very well with these earlier quotes. For starters lets quote his first book, “  Through Our Enemies’ Eyes”   page 124:

Search for CBRN Capability

In Sudan, bin Laden decided to aquire and , when possible, use chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons against Islam’s enemies. Bin Laden’s first moves in this direction were made in cooperation with NIF Leaders, Iraq’s intelligence service, and Iraqi CBRN scientists and technicians. He made contact with Baghdad through its intelligence officers in Sudan, and by a Turabi-brokered June 1994 visit by Iraq’s then-intelligence chief Faruq al-Hijazi; according to Milan’s Corriere della Sera, Saddam, in 1994, made Hijazi responsible for “nurturing Iraq’s ties to [Islamic] fundamentalist warriors.” Turabi had plans to formulate a “common strategy” with bin Laden and Iraq for subverting pro-U.S. Arab regimes, but the meeting was a get-aquainted session where Hijazi and bin Laden developed good rapport that would “flourish” in the late 1990s.

Turabi’s scheme for an overall strategy was not achieved, but there is information showing that in the 1993-94 period bin Laden began to work with Sudan and Iraq to aquire a CBRN capability for al Qaeda. Bin Laden lieutenant Abu Hajir al-Iraqi appears to have been his point man in this effort, and Time magazine reported in 1993 al Qaeda tried to buy a “Russian nuclear warhead” on the black market. Bin Laden halted the effort when a warhead for sale could not be located, and instead, “his agents began scouring former Soviet republics for enriched uranium and weapons components that could be used to set off fuel.” Time magazine claims bin Laden was frustrated in this effort and “settled on chemical weapons which are easier to manufacture.”

In regard to CBW, it is prudent to assume bin Laden’s tannery in Sudan has legally purchased dual-use chemicals that allow production of chemical weapons as well as of leather. In the nuclear area, al Qaeda as early as 1993 drafted “plans to buy enriched uranium from the former Soviet Union to produce portable light nuclear explosive canisters to be used in terrorist operations.” Suggesting al Qaeda’s interest in biological weapons, moreover, is Saudi journalist Jamal Khashogji’s recollection of visiting Sudan in the early 1990s and hearing bin Laden “earnestly discussing the virtues of genetically engineered crops.” In all of these efforts, bin Laden’s goal was to get a CBRN weapon to use on a U.S. target. Al-Watan Al-Arabi has said bin Laden especially wants the capability of “manufacturing mobile weapons of mass destruction that could be used in terrorist operations and in confronting the United States in particular.”

Whatever progress bin Laden made in Sudan toward arming al Qaeda with CBRN weapons appears to have had Turabi’s approval and was supported by the Khartoum factories of the Military Industrial Corporation (MIC)-where bin Laden had a private office-or other NIF-controlled facilities. A Sudanese military engineer named Colonel Abd-al-Basit Hamza-who now builds military factories and once built roads for bin Laden’s Al-Hijra Company-reportedly manages a “group of companies…run by the NIF in cooperation with Iraq and bin Laden. The operation of this program is led by Iraq scientists and technicians, led by Dr. Khalil Ibrahim Mubaruhah, and by Asian and foreign experts.” The New Republic quotes a Sudanese military defector as saying that “up to 60 Iraqi military experts rotate through Sudan every six months, and that some of these experts are involved in some kind of munitions development” at the MIC. In addition, Sudanese oppositionists-not the most unbiased sources-claim Iraq’s technicians are helping Sudan build chemical weapons at MIC facilities in Khartoum and, in return, Iraqi chemical weapons have been hidden by Sudan at the Yarmuk Military Manufacturing Complex in Sheggara, south of Khartoum.

Then we have the claim by one Michael Scheuer that he was one of the major sources for the indictment against bin Laden filed in 1998. See here   for a complete look at that indictment which clearly states the relationship that Saddam had with Al Qaeda. Best quote from that document is:

The indictment noted that Al Qaeda, Bin Laden’s international terrorist group, forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in Sudan and with the government of Iran and with its associated group Hezballah to “work together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States.” Additionally, the indictment states that Al Qaeda reached an agreement with Iraq not to work against the regime of Saddam Hussein and that they would work cooperatively with Iraq, particularly in weapons development.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/341eptvh.asp  

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/949ycflv.asp?pg=2  

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/interviews/scheuer.html 0

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1116220/posts  

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