Saddam didn't train the 9/11 hijackers; the US government did.

[Minstrel Boy]

Mohammed Atta attended the International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force in Alabama. Saeed Alghamdi studied at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey. At least three other alledged 9/11 hijackers received training at secure US military installations.

This was reported as early September 16, 2001 by The New York Times, but has since been flushed down the official memory hole.

Lt. Col. Steve Butler was vice chancellor for student affairs at the Defense Language Institute while Alghamdi was a student. In a letter published May 26, 2002, Butler charged "Bush knew of the impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism. What is...contemptible is the President of the United States not telling the American people what he knows for political gain." Butler was removed from his position and threatened with court martial.

According to its web site, the Defense Language Institute provides foreign language services to "Department of Defense, government agencies and foreign governments" to support "national security interests and global operational needs." Why was Alghamdi there? Why did he enter the US through a visa office run as a CIA operation?

Fifteen of the alledged hijackers received visas through Jeddah, bin Laden's home, headquarters of the bin Laden family business and Osama's Saudi base before his expulsion. Michael Springman, a 20-year veteran of the State Department who was stationed to Jeddah, says he was repeatedly ordered to approve unqualified visa applicants: terrorists who received training in the United States by leave of the CIA. "The State Department did not run the Consulate in Jeddah. The CIA did."

A CBC radio interview with Springman, from January 19, 2002, can be heard here: http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/dispatches/audio/020116_springman.rm. He claims his decisions to deny visas to unqualified applicants were frequently overturned for "national security reasons." In the interview, he claims he was told the CIA was working with bin Laden through the Jeddah office as a channel to send al Qaeda recruits to the United States for training as terrorists. He bluntly asserts that this partnership didn't end with the expulsion of the Soviets from Afghanistan, and continued as late as September 11, 2001. Springman raised hell, and lost his job. Why would the CIA be helping bin Laden send terrorists into the US after the Soviet defeat? Springman: "It's only a few thousand dead, and what's that against the greater gain for the United States in the Middle East?"

Springman, 20-year State Department veteran, suggests that those who died on September 11 "may have been sacrificed in order to further wider US geopolitical objectives."

It wasn't Saddam who trained them. It was the United States.

http://www.madcowprod.com/index5.html
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/offi-j21.shtml
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=104&row=1
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2002/02/521.shtml
http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/dispatches/audio/020116_springman.rm

[seventhson]

1. Very good points and good timing for this post

I'm afraid it will get ignored though.

But thanks for posting it. Solid info.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

2. as much as I don't want to believe mihop

There's really no other explanation now is there, unless you want to blieve some wild conspiracy/coincidence theories. Unfortunately, I think Springman is right.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. kicking

because, darn it, it's important.

[Minstrel Boy]

4. a final kick

before consigning it to oblivion beneath a pile of "Saddam-Saddam-Saddam."