Iraq's provincial elections looking promising

[LittleGrizzly]

Are you saying Saddam was not more likely to give out WMDs to terrorists

Saddam would not have given WMD's to his enemies like Osama Bin Laden

[Devastatin Dave]

Actually, I still have 23 years left until I'm permanently retired as a soldier, so in theory, yes, it is.

LOL!!! Go get em Rambo!!!

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Are you saying Saddam was not more likely to give out WMDs to terrorists

Saddam would not have given WMD's to his enemies like Osama Bin Laden

Nobody said it would be Al Queda.

You are, of course, correct in that Saddam's regime and the AQ network were as minimally connected as Middle East politics would allow. The one AQ afiliated group and a few mid-level meetings were the absolute minimum sop that Saddam could throw their way in order to make sure that Saddam's own regime was not targeted.

Saddam's support of terrorism was largely financial and mostly directed at the West Bank and Gaza so that he could claim a few "the greater cause" points with those people who'd buy that line of hooey.

If he had decided to provide a bomb to anyone, it would have been Hamas and not AQ. More likely, he'd have kept any nukes for himself to add to his own power -- but might have provided the materials for a "dirty bomb" to Hamas or a Hamas splinter since those byproducts are less traceable to the source than are the refined materials used in true nuclear weapons. Saddam would not have provided a true nuke to strike Israel when Mossad and the US DIA would quickly trace it back to his reactors....he'd have known the response he faced.

However, the other sorts of WMD's -- weaponized anthrax, chemical agents and the like -- would have been easier to provide to surrogates like a Hamas splinter etc. Saddam may well have been willing to do so (though he would have been unable, since his people were only TELLING him they'd kept the programs going in secret without, apparently, actually doing much -- pity we bought the story told to us by defectors trying to win asylum in the USA without getting corroboration).

[LittleGrizzly]

Nobody said it would be Al Queda.

Nope, HoreTore mentioned OBL in the part CR quoted, and it was the classic line back in at the time of the invasion, Al Qaeda and Saddam linked, Saddam has wmd's, and there you have your immenent threat right there, ill admit that argument wasn't being made it just brought back bad memory's

If he had decided to provide a bomb to anyone, it would have been Hamas and not AQ. More likely, he'd have kept any nukes for himself to add to his own power -- but might have provided the materials for a "dirty bomb" to Hamas or a Hamas splinter since those byproducts are less traceable to the source than are the refined materials used in true nuclear weapons.

Whilst i see the possibility i also think...

Saddam's support of terrorism was largely financial and mostly directed at the West Bank and Gaza so that he could claim a few "the greater cause" points with those people who'd buy that line of hooey.

As you say it was a cause he just played up to, he had no real care for the cause and wouldn't take unnessecary risks, a dirty bomb would be a risk, yes it is hard to track, but he would be part of a small pool of candidate states, and that seems a big risk for someone who just grandstands for the cause...

pity we bought the story told to us by defectors

We really wanted to believe, its hard to tell whether we actually believed what we were being told or we decided what we wanted and then collected whatever information pointed towards it regardless of the truth of the matter...

BTW i hadn't heard that that Saddam's people were telling him such programs were still running..