The Pentagon's big report detailing the non-existence of the connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda is finally online. Here's my favorite part:
Saddam viewed international terrorist organizations in terms of what they could do to further his "historic" mission. During the course of the 1990s, bin Laden came to see Islamic terrorist groups as part of a jihad that would one day topple all apostate governments, unite all Muslims, and finally restore the caliph- ate. Saddam had his own slightly less grand vision, namely, a Ba'athist pan-Arab socialist super-state with Iraq at its center. Whether attempting to overthow the Egyptian government or the Kuwait royal family, the vision was always about the centrality of Saddam and his pan-Arab vision - and never about the glory of Islam or some modem-day caliphate.
Just in case that is not perfectly clear, let me translate:
Saddam was intent on building a secular, pan-Arab, socialist state where his word was law.
bin Laden was intent on building a theocratic pan-Arab state where the word of the Koran was law.
In bin Laden's view, because Saddam's government - both real and imagined - explicitly rejected the words of the Koran as its organizing principle, it was apostate.
bin Laden saw al Qaeda as part of a jihad that would one day topple all apostate governments.
Thus, Saddam and bin Laden were mortal enemies.
That's not my interpretation. That's the interpretation of the Institute for Defense Analysis, the group hired by the Pentagon to examine all of the evidence the Pentagon had.
I've been saying this for years. Its nice to finally know that even the Pentagon agrees with me.
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