Saddam and Terror

A new report issued by the Pentagon highlights the former Iraqi dictator's ties to terror cells around the globe. It probably won't change any minds. Those opposed to the war will not be convinced otherwise, while those who supported it from the get-go will consider the report as more evidence that urgent action was required in '03. The report should remind honest citizens on both sides of the issue that the debate is not as black-and-white as some suggest. Here's an excerpt from The Wall Street Journal.

"The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the region gave Saddam the opportunity to make terrorism, one of the few tools remaining in Saddam's 'coercion' toolbox, not only cost effective but a formal instrument of state power," the authors conclude. Throughout the 1990s, the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) cooperated with Hamas; the Palestine Liberation Front, which maintained a Baghdad office; Force 17, Yasser Arafat's private army; and others. The IIS gave commando training for members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the organization that assassinated Anwar Sadat and whose "emir" was Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became Osama bin Laden's second-in-command when the group merged with al Qaeda in 1998...The main Iraq intelligence failure was over WMD, but the report indicates that the CIA also underestimated Saddam's ties to global terror cartels.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120631495290958169.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks