Only those that are "either naive, ignorant, stupid, or any combination thereof" would choose to segment the Islamic terror threat into neat little boxes in order to be able to deny the depth of the threat, when the reality is that they must be treated as a single enemy. Those who choose to deny Saddam's terror history aren't just "either naive, ignorant, stupid, or any combination thereof", they are dangerously misinformed. Ask Abu Nidal. Those who question Iraq aren't just "either naive, ignorant, stupid, or any combination thereof", they are unfamiliar with, or unaware of, military tactics.

__________________
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

---- Ronald Reagan

Tell me of Saddam's support for terrorism then? And the relevance of military tactics? Perhaps too tell me your knowledge of terrorist organizations and group in Iraq and before the invasion? Of if not specific information, tell me source of your beliefs.

The references supporting the claim that Saddam was an active purveyor of Islamic terrorism are many and varied. In the interest of expediency, I will only quote two, but if you need more, I'll be glad to send them to you.

http://www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins091903.asp

National Review Online - James Robinson - Sept 12, 2003 (You'll find some of his comments OBE, but his recitation of history is unassailable).

"Saddam Hussein showed no reluctance to support terrorism per se during his career. The fact that he gave money to the families of Palestinian suicide terrorists and had a close working relationship with the PLO was well known, and something he admitted. The Iraqi regime maintained a terrorist training camp at Salman Pak near Baghdad where foreign terrorists were instructed in methods of taking over commercial aircraft using weapons no more sophisticated than knives (interesting thought that). Saddam also harbored Abu Nidal and other members of his international terror organization (ANO) in Baghdad. Abu Nidal died under suspicious circumstances in Baghdad in August 2002, an apparent multiple gunshot suicide. Abd-al-Rahman Isa, ANO's second in command based in Amman, Jordan, was kidnapped September 11, 2002, and has not been heard from since. Coalition forces did recently apprehend ANO member Khala Khadr al-Salahat, the man who reputedly made the bomb for the Libyans that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. He was hiding out in Baghdad. Another bomb maker, Abdul Rahman Yasin, was also a Baghdad resident. He was one of the conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who had fled there after being detained briefly by the FBI. Recent document finds in Tikrit show that Iraq supplied Yasin with both money and sanctuary. The 1993 WTC attack was masterminded by Yasin's associate Ramzi Yousef, who received financial support from al Qaeda through Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a key 9/11 planner.

There is also the case of Abu Zubayr, an officer in Saddam's secret police who was also the ringleader of an al Qaeda cell in Morocco. He attended the September 5, 2001 meeting in Spain with other al Qaeda operatives, including Ramzi Bin-al-Shibh, the 9/11 financial chief. Abu Zubayr was apprehended in May, 2002, while putting together a plot to mount suicide attacks on U.S. ships passing through the straits of Gibraltar. He has allegedly since stated that Iraq trained and supplied chemical weapons to al Qaeda. In the fall of 2001 al Qaeda refugees from Afghanistan took refuge in northern Iraq until they were driven out by Coalition forces, and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, an al Qaeda terrorist active in Europe and North Africa, fled from Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has reportedly been sent back to Iraq to coordinate al Qaeda activities there.

Iraq made direct payments to the Philippine-based al Qaeda-affiliated Abu Sayyaf group. Hamsiraji Sali, an Abu Sayyaf leader on the U.S. most-wanted terrorist list, stated that his gang received about one million pesos (around $20,000) each year from Iraq, for chemicals to make bombs. The link was substantiated immediately after a bombing in Zamboanga City in October 2002 (in which three people were killed including an American Green Beret), when Abu Sayyaf leaders called up the deputy secretary of the Iraqi embassy in Manila, Husham Hussain. Six days later, the cell phone used to call Hussain was employed as the timer on a bomb set to go off near the Philippine military's Southern Command headquarters. Fortunately, the bomb failed to detonate, and the phone yielded various contact numbers, including Hussain's and Sali's. This evidence, coupled with other intelligence the Philippine government would not release, led to Hussain's expulsion in February 2003. In March, ten Iraqi nationals, some with direct links to al Qaeda, were rounded up in the Philippines and deported as undesirable aliens. In addition, two more consulate officials were expelled for spying.

The most intriguing potential link is reflected in documents found by Toronto Star reporter Mitch Potter in Baghdad in April, 2003. The documents detail direct links between al Qaeda and Saddam's regime dating back at least to 1998, and mention Osama bin Laden by name. The find supports an October 2001 report by William Safire that noted, among other things, a 1998 meeting in Baghdad between al Qaeda #2 Ayman al Zawahiri and Saddam's vice president, Taha Yasin Ramadan. Other reports have alleged bin Laden himself traveled to Iraq around that time, or at least planned to. Former Iraqi ambassador to Turkey, Farouk Hijazi, now in custody, allegedly met with bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks."

http://www.cfr.org/publication/9513/

A backgrounder by the Council on Foreign Relations

"Has Iraq sponsored terrorism?

Yes. Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship provided headquarters, operating bases, training camps, and other support to terrorist groups fighting the governments of neighboring Turkey and Iran, as well as to hard-line Palestinian groups. During the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam commissioned several failed terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities. Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the State Department listed Iraq as a state sponsor of terrorism. The question of Iraq’s link to terrorism grew more urgent with Saddam’s suspected determination to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD), which Bush administration officials feared he might share with terrorists who could launch devastating attacks against the United States.
Was Saddam involved in the September 11 attacks?

There is no hard evidence linking Saddam to the attacks, and Iraq denies involvement. Many commentators have noted that Baghdad failed to express sympathy for the United States after the attacks.

Does Iraq have ties with al-Qaeda?

The Bush administration insists that hatred of America has driven the two closer together, although many experts say there’s no solid proof of such links and argue that the Islamist al-Qaeda and Saddam’s secular dictatorship would be unlikely allies.

What evidence does the administration offer?

Some Iraqi militants trained in Taliban-run Afghanistan helped Ansar al-Islam, an Islamist militia based in a lawless part of northeast Iraq. The camps of Ansar fighters, who clashed repeatedly with anti-Saddam Kurds, were bombed in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the UN Security Council that Iraq was harboring a terrorist cell led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a suspected al-Qaeda affiliate and chemical and biological weapons specialist. Powell said al-Zarqawi had both planned the October 2002 assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan and set up a camp in Ansar al-Islam’s territory to train terrorists in the use of chemical weapons. Powell added that senior Iraqi and al-Qaeda leaders had met at least eight times since the early 1990s.

Czech officials have also reported that Mohammed Atta, one of the September 11 ringleaders, met an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague months before the hijackings, but U.S. and Czech officials subsequently cast doubt on whether such a meeting ever happened. Al-Qaeda members fleeing Afghanistan have reportedly hid in northern Iraq, but in areas beyond Saddam’s control.

What type of terrorist groups did Iraq support under Saddam Hussein’s regime?

Primarily groups that could hurt Saddam’s regional foes. Saddam has aided the Iranian dissident group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (known by its Turkish initials, PKK), a separatist group fighting the Turkish government. Moreover, Iraq has hosted several Palestinian splinter groups that oppose peace with Israel , including the mercenary Abu Nidal Organization, whose leader, Abu Nidal, was found dead in Baghdad in August 2002. Iraq has also supported the Islamist Hamas movement and reportedly channeled money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. A secular dictator, however, Saddam tended to support secular terrorist groups rather than Islamist ones such as al-Qaeda, experts say."

It might help you, as well, to read Gen Wesley Clark's book, "Winning Modern Wars: Iraq, Terrorism, and the American Empire". General Clark, as I'm sure you're aware, is an ardent critic of the war. However, in his book, General Clark confirms the above commentaries, and adds some heretofore unknown connections between Saddam and Islamic terrorists. So, even the dissident admit that Saddam was supporting Islamic terrorism.

If you need more, just holler.

__________________
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

---- Ronald Reagan

lol ... uh, stoneghost, I'd call that a checkmate.

Nice job, Spare.

I didn't mean sources like articles, although that's fine. I meant influences.

You also didn't answer all my questions.

Most of the second article is irrelevant as it deals with post invasion Iraq. The PKK, whose terrorist credentials I question, were, by your sources supported by Iraq. That is also irrelevant as they are not anti American. The same goes for the PLO, I would concede the support cited is supporting a terrorist organization. It appears that their support, which was not substantial or sustained in anyway, had little to no impact on the US. Nor would it have. China invests substantially more money on industrial on the US which hurts us a lot more than a few Palestinian dip (*)(*)(*)(*)s blowing themselves up. Since the original point made by nobama-man was that Saddam was a threat to the US through his support for terrorism, and there is nothing substantial here, i'm going to have to stick with my belief he was not a threat.

Perhaps you can tell that to the young navy man beaten, killed, and thrown from the aircraft --- by Abu Nidal. Perhaps you can tell that to the old crippled guy in a wheel chair that was killed aboard the Achille Lauro - by Abu Nidal.

But, that's not the point .. the point is simply this.

We said that we are going after terrorists, and those who support them. We are in a global war, and our allies have been fighting these people for us long enough. It is time that we pulled our share of the load.

Let's be clear -- we do not differentiate between the monsters who crashed into the WTC, or the monsters who blew up the London subway, or the monsters who crashed into the side of the USS Cole, or the monsters who blew up Flt 103, or the monsters who drove a truck into the Beirut barracks, or the monsters who blew up a German nightclub just to kill 7 Americans, or the monsters who have created havoc and carnage in Indonesia, Spain, Philippines, France, Pakistan, Afghanistan, or anywhere else. In fact, we were quite clear, I think -- we're coming to get you, and we're going to get those who help you, who support you, who fund you, who train you, and who hide you. Anybody who believes Iraq is the end of it is simply not paying attention ... anybody who believes it was about oil is simply not listening.

So, back to your original question .... Saddam fit the profile.

__________________
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

---- Ronald Reagan