The Institute for Defense Analysis recently released the first volume from the Iraqi Perspectives Project (IPP) look at Saddam’s terrorist connections, which set out to review over 600,000 documents captured following the fall of Saddam’s regime. The media, predictably, ignored the totality of the report’s findings and choose instead to focus on one single sentence: “This study found no ’smoking gun’ (i.e, direct connection) between Saddam’s Iraq and al Qaeda.” This lead to a flurry of media headlines as war critics rushed to be the first to breathlessly denounce President Bush, yet again.

From NRO:

ABC: Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda
CNN: Hussein’s Iraq and al Qaeda not linked, Pentagon says
New York Times: Study Finds No Qaeda-Hussein Tie
Washington Post: Study Discounts Hussein, Al-Qaeda Link
AFP: No link between Saddam and Al-Qaeda: Pentagon study
McClatchy: Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam and al Qaida

The media seems to be operating under the false assumption that Al Qaeda is the only terrorist group we are interested in. A more honest headline would have said something like: “Report finds Saddam supported Islamic terrorism,” since that’s what it actually said. Here are some quotes:

“Saddam’s interest in, and support for, non-state actors was spread across a variety of revolutionary, liberation, nationalist, and Islamic terrorist organizations.”

We aren’t at war with just Al-Qaeda.

Hmm, sounds like that should make Saddam a reasonable target in a “War on [Islamic] Terror.” Too bad the media and so many on the left seem to be under the mistaken impression that we’re really just in a war on Al-Qaeda, as if no other terrorist organization has ever attacked us, or wants to (they have, and they do). Back to th quotes:

“Despite their incompatible long-term goals, many terrorist movements and Saddam found a common enemy in the United States. At times these organizations worked together, trading access for capability.”

“Saddam’s regime often cooperated directly, albeit cautiously, with terrorist groups when they believed such groups could help advance Iraq’s long-term goals. The regime carefully recorded its connections to Palestinian terror organizations in numerous government memos. One such example documents Iraqi financial support to families of suicide bombers in Gaza and the West Bank.”

“Evidence of Saddam’s continuing interest and support for global terrorist activities is found in a 2002 annual report of the IIS M8 Directorate of Liberation Movements.”

“The IIS hosted thirteen conferences in 2002 for a number of Palestinian and other organizations, including delegations from the Islamic Jihad Movement and the Director General for the Popular Movement for the Liberation of al-Ahwaz.”

“In return for financial support, Palestinian terror groups, particularly Hamas, were willing to do Saddam’s bidding. Aftr the September 11th attacks on the United States, a Palestinian representative informed the Iraqis that Hamas had thirty-five armed terror cells around the world, mingled with refugee populations. These cells were in ‘France, Sweden, Denmark, and other places.’ The Palestinian boasted that these cells could shake America and force the United States to back out if it ever invaded Iraq.”

“Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri) or that generally shared al Qaeda’s stated goals and objectives.”

“Evidence that was uncovered and analyzed attests to the existence of a terrorist capability and a willingness to use it until the day Saddam was forced to flee Baghdad by Coalition Forces.”

Obviously, the fact that no ties were found between Saddam and Al-Qaeda is newsworthy. But focusing on only that, and pretending like it’s the most important aspect of this report, does a disservice to the truth. We aren’t at war with just Al-Qaeda. There were a lot of important findings in this report that have been largely ignored. The overarching theme is clear: Saddam was willing to utilize, fund, support or train Islamic terrorist organizations when it suited his purposes. Removing regimes engaging in such behavior is of strategic interest to the United States.

But don’t take my word for it, read it yourself:

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