History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

—President Ronald Reagan

BAGHDAD - The U.S. command announced on Wednesday the arrest of an al-Qaida leader it said served as the link between the organization's command in Iraq and Osama bin Laden's inner circle, enabling it to wield considerable influence over the Iraqi group.

The announcement was made as the White House steps up efforts to link the war in Iraq to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, with a growing number of Americans opposing the Iraq conflict. Some independent analysts question the extent of al-Qaida's role in Iraq.

the White House steps up efforts to link the war in Iraq to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans on Wednesday sought a congressional investigation into the improper handling of classified documents by President Clinton's national security adviser.

The aide, Sandy Berger, admitted last year that he deliberately took classified documents from the National Archives in 2003 and destroyed some of them at his office. He pleaded guilty in federal court to one charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material and was fined $50,000.

During Berger's sentencing hearing, lawyer Lanny Breuer characterized Berger as eager to get the facts of the Sept. 11 attacks right when he took the material, which contained information relating to terrorist threats in the United States during the 2000 millennium celebration.

The president now admits that Saddam Hussein was not responsible for 9/11

Iraq had nothing to do with the war on terror until the Bush administration decided to invade it.

CIA field agent "Kirk" contacts bin Laden's primary opposition, General Massoud of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, and they concoct a plan to capture bin Laden and bring him to the U.S. to face justice. The plan is never approved for action, but the simultaneous bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa push the Administration to respond with an ineffective missile strike that some think merely elevates bin Laden's stature in the Muslim world.

The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest. Nowhere is this public interest obligation more apparent than in the duty of broadcasters to serve the civic needs of a democracy by promoting an open and accurate discussion of political ideas and events.

"Osama bin Laden Contact With Iraq"

A newly released prewar Iraqi document indicates that an official representative of Saddam Hussein's government met with Osama bin Laden in Sudan on February 19, 1995, after receiving approval from Saddam Hussein. Bin Laden asked that Iraq broadcast the lectures of Suleiman al Ouda, a radical Saudi preacher, and suggested "carrying out joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia. According to the document, Saddam's presidency was informed of the details of the meeting on March 4, 1995, and Saddam agreed to dedicate a program for them on the radio. The document states that further "development of the relationship and cooperation between the two parties to be left according to what's open [in the future] based on dialogue and agreement on other ways of cooperation." The Sudanese were informed about the agreement to dedicate the program on the radio.

An Iraqi intelligence service document saying that their Afghan informant, who's only identified by a number, told them that the Afghan consul Ahmed Dahastani claimed the following in front of him:

• That OBL and the Taliban are in contact with Iraq and that a group of Taliban and bin Laden group members visited Iraq
  
• That the U.S. has proof the Iraqi government and "bin Laden's group" agreed to cooperate to attack targets inside America.
  
• That in case the Taliban and bin Laden's group turn out to be involved in "these destructive operations," the U.S. may strike Iraq and Afghanistan.
  
• That the Afghan consul heard about the issue of Iraq's relationship with "bin Laden's group" while he was in Iran.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A manager at an Arizona flight school that trained one of the Sept. 11 pilot-hijackers testified at the Zacarias Moussaoui trial Wednesday that she called the Federal Aviation Administration with concerns over his qualifications for a pilot license, but her concerns were dismissed by an FAA official.

Margaret Chevrette, manager at the flight school, was testifying in the death-penalty trial of Moussaoui, who has confessed to being an al-Qaida terrorist.

It was the second time this week jurors heard witnesses testify that people in positions of authority in the federal government responded either slowly, negatively - or not at all - to warnings about a possible terrorist attack.

...

Two other pilot-hijackers from the Sept. 11 attacks abandoned a small airplane on a taxiway of Miami International Airport during their flight training, but their actions didn't attract serious scrutiny from federal officials, another witness said.

...

Pursell said the tower chief at the airport called the Florida school to berate school officials after the plane was left on the runway. The FAA never questioned Atta and al-Shehhi, Pursell said.

During testimony Tuesday, a terrorism supervisor in FBI headquarters dismissed as "hunches and suppositions" a field agent's concerns about Moussaoui in the weeks before Sept. 11.

The supervisor, Michael Rolince, testified that he had not even read an Aug. 18, 2001, memo written by Minneapolis agent Harry Samit, who arrested Moussaoui and was convinced from the outset that Moussaoui was a terrorist with plans to hijack aircraft.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Pre-Sept. 11 intelligence conducted by a secret military unit identified terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta 13 different times, a congressman said Tuesday.

History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

—President Ronald Reagan

WASHINGTON — U.S. law enforcement never received information on Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta and his possible connections to Al Qaeda, even though that information was known more than a year before the attacks that left approximately 3,000 people dead, Rep. Curt Weldon said Tuesday.

PHOENIX (AP) - The FBI agent who wrote a memo warning that terrorists were training at flight schools before the Sept. 11 attacks said concerns over racial profiling may have prevented officials from acting on his intelligence.

"If you look at the world prior to 9/11, we were prevented from doing certain things. We were victimized by our own restraints," Ken Williams told The Arizona Republic in his first interview since writing his now-famous memo in July 2001.

History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

—President Ronald Reagan

• An anti-terrorist intelligence agency is needed.
  
• It should be headed by a cabinet-level official.
  

• Share information.
  

• A Congressional oversight committee.
  

Recently translated documents captured by U.S. forces provide new evidence of a direct link between Saddam Hussein's regime and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Rosters of officers in Saddam's Fedayeen list Lt. Col. Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, who was present at the January 2000 al-Qaida "summit" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at which the 9-11 attacks were planned, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Fedayeen was the elite paramilitary group run by Saddam's son Uday, which was deployed to do much of the regime's dirty work.

The U.S. has never been sure Shakir was at the Kuala Lumpur meeting on behalf of Saddam's regime or whether he was an Iraqi Islamist on his own, the Journal notes.

The paper cautions, however, it is possible the Shakir listed on the rosters is not the Iraqi of the same name with proven al-Qaida connections.

But sources tell the Journal the authenticity of the three Fedayeen rosters is not in question. Coalition forces have found millions of documents that still are being sorted, translated and absorbed, the paper said.

Reported accounts of the al-Qaida planning summit said Shakir had a job at the Kuala Lumpur airport he obtained through an Iraqi intelligence agent at the Iraqi embassy.

Among the al-Qaida operatives in attendance were the two who flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon — Khalid al Midhar and Nawaz al Hamzi — and Ramzi bin al Shibh, the operational planner of the 9-11 attacks.

Also in attendance was Tawfiz al Atash, a high-ranking Osama bin Laden lieutenant and mastermind of the USS Cole bombing.

Shakir left Malaysia four days after the summit finished, Jan. 13, 2000, then turned up in Qatar, where he was arrested Sept. 17, 2001, four days after the attacks.

A search uncovered phone numbers of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers' safe houses and contacts and information related to a 1995 al-Qaida plot to blow up a dozen commercial airliners over the Pacific.

But Shakir, inexplicably, was released after a brief detention and flew to Amman, Jordan, where he was arrested again. The Jordanians released him, however, with the OK of the CIA, after pressure from the Iraqis and Amensty International.

He was last seen returning to Baghdad.

—WND