THE PERILS OF BA'ATHISM:

Candidates Celebrate First and Worry Second (ADAM NAGOURNEY, 12/15/03, NY Times)

The news about Saddam Hussein fulfills what many Americans have long viewed as a crucial test for measuring success in the war in Iraq and thus could rob Democrats of an issue they have increasingly challenged President Bush on, Democrats said on Sunday.

But its impact could fall particularly heavily on the candidacy of Howard Dean, the Democrat who most party leaders view as the leading contender for the nomination. It could force Dr. Dean, Democrats said, to deal with a stronger incumbent in next year's general election, should the capture prove the turning point Mr. Bush has sought in the war. It could also lead to challenges from newly emboldened Democratic candidates who supported the war, who see an opportunity to attack Dr. Dean on his antiwar stance, the issue on which he has built his candidacy. [...]

"If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would be in power today, not in prison, and the world would be a much more dangerous place," Mr. Lieberman said. "The American people would have a lot more to fear." [...]

Even though it had been anticipated to some extent, the early morning news from Iraq seemed to shock the candidates and their aides, and left several expressing grudging admiration at what one described as Mr. Bush's continued good luck. They spent the day trying to applaud the capture while trying not to abandon their criticism of Mr. Bush's management of the war in Iraq as well as their attacks upon one another.

Lucky? Did they think our military wouldn't hunt him down eventually? Mr. Bush is most lucky in the low quality of his critics.

MORE:
Mohammed Atta's Iraqi Connection (Con Coughlin, December 15, 2003, London Telegraph)

Certainly the memo's detail concerning Mohammed Atta and Abu Nidal fits in with the known movements of the two terrorists in the summer of 2001. Abu Nidal, the renegade Palestinian terrorist responsible for a wave of outrages in the 1980s, such as the 1985 bomb attacks on Rome and Vienna airports, was based in Baghdad, under Saddam's personal protection, for most of his career.

Having briefly relocated to Libya, Abu Nidal returned to Baghdad at some point in early 2001. At the time it was assumed that Saddam had lured the Palestinian terrorist back to help the Iraqi leader plan a number of terrorist attacks aimed at destabilising American plans to remove him.

In particular, Saddam wanted Abu Nidal to revive his network of "sleeper cells" in Europe and the Middle East to carry out a new wave of attacks. During 2001 Abu Nidal lived in a number of houses in the Baghdad area, including a spacious home in the al-Dora district where he is reported to have met Atta.

The relationship between Abu Nidal and Saddam, however, quickly turned sour, mainly because - as the Telegraph reported at the time - the ageing Palestinian leader was reluctant to accede to Saddam's request to train al-Qaeda fighters in sophisticated terrorist techniques.

Abu Nidal was murdered in August 2001, although the Iraqis tried to claim that he had committed suicide. Habbush appeared at a hastily arranged press conference in Baghdad in an attempt to persuade the sceptical Arab media that Abu Nidal had taken his own life after Iraqi investigators had uncovered a plot to assassinate Saddam.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 15, 2003 08:53 AM