Iraqi ties to terrorism are real, despite Crimson Staff claims

When asserting that all United States’ rationales for going to war in Iraq had “crumbled,” (with the notable exception of humanitarian purposes) in your staff editorial “Falluja Under Fire” (Nov. 12) the Crimson Staff made the claim that it found, “no plausible terrorist ties.” However, upon taking Baghdad, our troops found Iraq to be harboring Abu Abbas, the Palestinian terrorist who hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985 and killed a wheelchair-bound American named Leon Klinghoffer. He was killed presumably for being Jewish and his shipmates were forced at gunpoint to throw him from the ship. Currently, the leading terrorist insurgent in Iraq is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an international terrorist of Jordanian birth with ties to al Qaeda, who was in Iraq long before we arrived there. In April of 2003 U.S. Marines found terrorist training camp south of Baghdad which was run by the Iraqi government and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Iraq was also home to Abu Nidal before his death in 2001. He was one of he world’s most wanted terrorists, a ruthless Palestinian who killed over 300 innocent people throughout Europe and the Middle East over thirty years. Furthermore, the 9/11 Commission has stated that in the late 1990’s al-Qaeda operatives has gone to Iraq and Iraqi personnel had gone to Afghanistan in meetings arranged by Egyptian born Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is second in command of al Qaeda.

Apparently the Staff has either forgotten about these numerous Iraqi ties to international terrorism or has managed to sum them all up as “not plausible.” If The Crimson wishes to argue that these are not valid reasons for war then it should make that attempt. But to dismiss them as not plausible is irresponsible and disrespectful to the countless innocent people who died at the hands of these monsters.

KENNY SMITH ’04

Nov. 13, 2004