Michael Scheuer, the current media darling who left the CIA after anonymously writing a book critical of the administration's Iraq policy, has not always been so skeptical of the connections between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden it turns out. Thomas Joscylen reports that Scheuer's earlier book flatly states that there was active cooperation between the two:
Scheuer's 2002 book, Through Our Enemies' Eyes offered startling conclusions regarding Saddam Hussein's willingness to assist al Qaeda's effort to obtain nuclear weapons. "In pursuing tactical nuclear weapons, bin Laden has focused on the FSU [Former Soviet Union] states and has sought and received help from Iraq," wrote Scheuer. In fact, bin Laden's "first moves in this direction were made in cooperation with NIF [Sudan's National Islamic Front] leaders, Iraq's intelligence service, and Iraqi CBRN [chemical-biological-radiological-nuclear] scientists and technicians."Through Our Enemies' Eyes pointed to evidence indicating a relationship between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda beginning in the early 1990s. And "there is information," Scheuer wrote, "showing that in the 1993-1994 period bin Laden began work with Sudan and Iraq to acquire a CBRN capability for al Qaeda."
Quick, someone tell John Kerry.
Taranto has more on the bizarre statements of Mr. Scheuer in today's BOTW.
UPDATE 11/23: Here's a follow-up piece by Thomas Joscylen on the many Saddam - bin Laden connections now being denied by Scheuer.
UPDATE 11/23: Yet more from The Weekly Standard.
Posted by dan at November 21, 2004 07:36 PM