Pentagon will mail you a copy of Iraq study that finds no smoking gun
Submitted by jajacobs on Fri, 2008-03-14 06:58.
ABC News is reporting that the Pentagon canceled plans to post a new comprehensive military study of Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism on the website of the Joint Forces Command. The story says, "The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia. It won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online." The Pentagon also canceled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release.
- Pentagon Report on Saddam's Iraq Censored?, ABC News: Rapid Report March 12, 2008.
- Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda, ABC News: Rapid Report, March 13, 2008.
The report was prepared by Kevin M. Woods and James Lacey "under the Iraqi Perspectives sub task of the Joint Advanced Warfighting Program (JAWP) task order for the Director, Joint Center for Operational Analyses and Lessons Learned, United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM)" and the Institute For Defense Analyses. It is based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion and on thousands of hours of interrogations of former top officials in Saddam's government in U.S. custody.
The executive summary of the report says
This study found no "smoking gun" (i.e., direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda. Saddam's interest in, and support for, non-state actors was spread across a variety of revolutionary, liberation, nationalist, and Islamic terrorist organizations.
The ABC report says that when asked why the report would not be posted online and could not be emailed a Pentagon official said initial press reports on the study made it "too politically sensitive."
ABC has posted a copy of an executive summary of the document here:
- Iraqi Perspectives Report Saddam And Terrorism: Emerging Insights From Captured Iraqi Documents Volume 1 (Redacted) January 2007. IDA Paper P-4287. (9 pages, 3.4 Meg PDF) [another copy is available at www.webcitation.org/5WJZa7Cuc]
ABC also has a copy of a longer version of what is apparently the same report here:
- Iraqi Perspectives Project Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents Volume 1 (Redacted) "This volume is a redacted version of Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents, Volume I (IDA Paper P-4151). November 2007 Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. IDA Paper P-4287 Log: H 07-001575 ( 94 page, 11.7 Megs, PDF) [another copy is available at www.webcitation.org/5WJaXglxS]
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Is that like asking the FBI for your file?
Thanks Jim. I had meant to write about it earlier in the week. According to the Joint Forces Command Web site, their address is:
But I wonder if that's like trying to get your FBI file. Urban legend has it that if you ask, they'll *start* a file on you. I'll let y'all know if, after I ask for the report, my phones get tapped ;-)
just put it in the mail
I just put my request in the mail. We'll see how long it takes them to send me the report and how much they redact.
saddam report
they posted it
:)
saddam report
As far as I can tell, this is another copy of the 94 page report that ABC news posted (see above) and is posted on the site http://geopolice.wordpress.com/,
which is not a Pentagon site. It is nice to have this additional link, nevertheless. (If you search the web for "Iraqi Perspectives Project Saddam and Terrorism" you will find other copies as well and a search of WordCat shows some paper copies of this and other volumes. ) Geopolice has copies of other files and links to official sites that readers of FGI may find of interest. If anyone does notice a copy appearing on a .gov site, let us know!
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