OH, THAT AL QAEDA CONNECTION:

Did Colin Powell hit a bull's-eye? (Terence Jeffrey, May 5, 2004, Townhall)

As better information emerges about the recently foiled terrorist strike against the Jordanian intelligence headquarters in Amman, the event just might demonstrate that Secretary of State Colin Powell hit the bull's-eye when, speaking before the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, he made his most incriminating charge against Saddam Hussein.

Powell said then that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, "an associate and collaborator of Usama bin Laden and his al-Qaida lieutenants," had taken sanctuary in Iraq after the U.S. invasion chased him out of Afghanistan.

Invited by an agent of Saddam, Zarqawi's organization migrated to the Kurdish controlled area of Iraq, Powell said. There, they set up "another poison and explosive training center camp." But in May 2002, Zarqawi went to Baghdad for medical treatment.

"During his stay, nearly two dozen extremists converged on Baghdad and established a base of operations there," said Powell. "These al-Qaida affiliates based in Baghdad now coordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for his network, and they have now been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months.

"From his terrorist network in Iraq," Powell said, "Zarqawi can direct his network in the Middle East and beyond."

What's more, Powell said, Saddam's regime rebuffed U.S. overtures to surrender Zarqawi. "We asked a friendly security service to approach Baghdad about extraditing Zarqawi and providing information about him and his close associates," Powell said. "This service contacted Iraqi officials twice, and we passed details that should have made it easy to find Zarqawi. The network remains in Baghdad. Zarqawi still remains at large, to come and go."

Now, information in the videotaped confession of one of Zarqawi's alleged lieutenants captured in Jordan appears to back up Powell's startling assertion that Saddam -- a secular Arab dictator -- provided sanctuary to anti-American Islamist terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda.

Could they please, please find the yellowcake in time to shut Joe Wilson up.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 5, 2004 8:02 AM