More dots?

Two noted conservative bloggers are reporting a story from a Kurdish newspaper that purports to show a document from Saddam's Iraq seeking a meeting with Ayman al-Zawahiri after 9/11.

Gateway Pundit and Strata Sphere

Both, including Regime of Terror, point out Saddam's previous ties to the Egyptian terror apparatus that featured not only Zawahiri but Mohammed Atta, the current leader of AQ in Iraq Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and the grandfather of jihad against America, the Blind Sheikh. Makes me wonder sometimes what actually happened with EgyptAir 990.

One more thing. In his book George Tenet mentioned the arrival of a group of EIJ members to Baghdad before the war:

What was even more worrisome was that by the spring and summer of 2002, more than a dozen al-Qa'ida -affiliated extremists converged on Baghdad, with apparently no harassment on the part of the Iraqi government.

More al-Qa'ida operatives would follow, including Thirwat Shihata and Yussef Dardiri, two Egyptians assessed by a senior al-Qa'ida detainee to be among the Egyptian Islamic Jihad's best operational planners, who arrived by mid-May 2002.

Former Iraqi Air Force General Georges Sada wrote about the animus between Saddam and the Royals in his book, recounting a trip by Izzat al-Duri to Saudi Arabia before the first Gulf War, which partially led to the first Gulf War. This very same hatred was recently exposed by FBI agent George Piro via Ron Kessler's book.

Does this mean Saddam attacked America? No, but if the document is indeed authentic it would represent yet another dot connected between Iraq and the terrorists who did attack America. One has to wonder just how many dots must be connected before we can officially call it a line--and if it becomes a line, how that would change our current political dynamic.

MORE 6/22/08

While 9/11 murderer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed awaits either trial or his habeas corpus petition at Guantanamo the New York Times has apparently decided that it's time to tell the story of his journey through interrogation, including that of the CIA hero assigned to his interrogation. Oh, and then name that man's name and current place of business.

Feel free to read it. There's nothing earthshatteringly new (other than KSM's poems and the notion that Poland is the 51st state). The only reason I can see for printing this (against the CIA's wishes) would be to start the ball rolling so that lower echelon journalists can chase the story and do the Times' dirty work. They must really feel like they're closing in on the enemy.