The events of recent days have proven two important points beyond nearly any reasonable doubt. First, that Iraq likely continued the development of Weapons of Mass Destruction after the first Gulf War and that it retained a number of such weapons right through the present war. Second, that the former Iraqi regime was linked with al-Qaeda and that it was probably involved in staging the September 11th attacks upon the United States.

Let’s consider the evidence for the second statement first because it is certain to be the more controversial of the two. The key link between Iraq and al-Qaeda was a man named Ahmed Hikmat Shakir. Shakir worked in the airport at Kuala Lumpur where he facilities the arrival of two of the 9-11 hijackers, Khalid al Midhar and Nawaq al Hamzi. Shakir then accompanied the men to a summit where terrorist attacks were actively planned, including the September 11th attacks.

All of this is already generally conceded and agreed to. Those who would challenge this mostly focus of the fact that, beyond Shakir’s nationality, there’s nothing to tie him to his government. After all, fifteen of nineteen of the hijackers were Saudi in origin and we have not punished the House of Saud for this. However, as revealed yesterday by the Wall Street Journal, Shakir was no rogue operator: three separate records uncovered in Iraq have identified him as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Fedayeen, the paramilitary group run under the personal command to Uday Hussein.

Shortly after September 11th, Shakir was arrested in Qatar, where a search of his possessions revealed that he the phone numbers for the safe houses used by the bombers in the 1993 attack on the Word Trade Centre, information about the 1995 plot to destroy commercial aircraft over the Pacific, and contact information for several of the 9-11 hijackers. Released (for some reason) by Qatar, he made his way to Jordan- where he was rearrested but soon released due to pressure from Amnesty International and a belief by the CIA that he was a nobody whose continued detention wasn’t worth the trouble.

Let’s review: a Lieutenant Colonel in an elite Iraqi unit, operating under cover, helped two of the September 11th hijackers into a country where planning for the operation occurred. Planning that he reportedly attended. After the attacks he was discovered to possess contact information for the hijackers.

When you consider all of the other evidence: the files uncovered in Iraq that show a long working relationship (lasting over a decade) between Osama Bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence, the persistent reports that lead hijacker Mohammed Atta met with an Iraqi official in the Czech Republic, the terrorist training camp that Iraq maintained at Salman Pak (which included a Boeing 707 to be used in training hijackers), and all of the other evidence that is being laid out it becomes impossible to deny that a connection existed between Iraq and al-Qaeda and that, on the balance of probabilities, it is highly likely that Iraq had some degree of involvement in the September 11th attacks.

Now, let us move on to the question of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. The Sarin Gas shell used against our troops last week provides us with a great deal of new information which has so far gone unreported in the media. First, the weapons was a “mix-in-flight” shell. This is important.

Sarin is a binary chemical weapon, meaning that in order for it to be used two chemical components must first be mixed. All of the binary chemical munitions previously declared by Iraq had to begin the mixing process prior to launch- a dangerous proposition to say the least.

However, the shell used against American troops was one in which the chemical components would be mixed during the time between launch and impact. This is a sophisticated weapon which Iraq never declared.

Nor is it likely that this weapon came from anywhere other than Saddam’s arsenals. Only a few other nations would possess such sophisticated chemical weapons and, if they did, they wouldn’t be likely to give them to terrorists and, if they did give them to terrorists, they would be used for something other than an improvised explosive device. Had the shell been used properly it could probably have killed dozens or even hundreds of people. That it was expended as an IED strongly suggests that the people who set it had no idea what it was.

Now, why would they have no idea what was in the shell? The answer is obvious: it was stored somewhere alongside the literally millions of artillery shells which exist in Iraq. Whoever set the IED grabbed the shell from the arsenal unknowingly because it was purposefully made indistinguishable from other conventional artillery shells. Why would this be? Simple: because Iraq sought to hide its weapons from international inspections amid a pile of weapons so large that no one could ever find them.

The use of a Mustard Gas shell in another IED suggests the same. Saddam probably hid his weapons by destroying some, moving some into other countries and hiding others in places that UN inspectors would never look.

All of this goes to demonstrate the existence of a strong rationale for war beyond the larger strategic argument over “transformation” in the Middle East or the well-being of the Iraqi people. Iraq’s collaboration with al-Qaeda and its possible participation in the September 11th attacks alone represent a sufficient cause for war. Given this, Iraq’s continued efforts to retain an arsenal of WMD’s must be viewed with even greater alarm than it was before the war.

So, why haven’t we heard more about this? The answer is obvious: media gatekeepers do not wish the public to hear it because it would undercut all of the scurrilous slander they’re printing with the twin goals of defeating the President and undermining US efforts in Iraq. Moreover, most right-wing politicians and commentators are afraid of being roundly ridiculed by the liberal media for advancing these claims in the face of their convincing (though unsupported by facts) convictions that “Bush lied” about WMD and that there was “no connection” between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Other, that is, then the WMD being used against our troops and the twelve years of recorded contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda. But forget about all that.