IRAQ DOCUMENTS PROVE AL QAEDA WAS ACTIVE IN IRAQ BEFORE THE INVASION

CAPT'S QUARTERS (WASHPOST):

John Negroponte has finally begun releasing the captured Iraqi Intelligence Service papers that the US has held since Baghdad fell almost three years ago, after pressure from the White House and Congress. In one of the first releases by the intelligence chief, the papers reveal that not only did al-Qaeda exist in Iraq before the invasion but that they had an active and successful recruitment program to bring new Iraqi fighters to Afghanistan:

... AQ had established itself in Iraq long before our March 2003 invasion. Moreoever, we have established that they had actively recruited fighters to attack Americans in Afghanistan. Both of those conditions would have warranted our invasion of Iraq as a continuance of the war on terror. After all, we had pledged to go after AQ wherever they had established themselves, and equally as important, we would have to cut off the flow of new fighters into the Afghanistan theater.

... Interestingly, for those who consistently deny that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was in Iraq and working for AQ before the invasion, the document itself has numerous pictures of the bloody terrorists.

These were collected by Iraqi intelligence in connection with their investigation of AQ in 2002. That is a strong indication that Zarqawi had indeed operated in Iraq and that the Iraqis considered him a significant component of AQ.

So, contrary to what the Left says, the Iraq War is deeply related to The Long War. Defeating the enemy in Iraq will be a huge step toward our ultimate victory.