Documents now being unearthed in Iraq are now confirming much of the intelligence had by Western powers prior to the liberation of Iraq

Recently discovered Iraqi documents now being translated by U.S. intelligence analysts indicate that Saddam Hussein’s government made extensive plans to hide Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 - and had deep ties to al Qaida before the 9/11 attacks.

The explosive evidence was discovered among “millions of pages of documents” unearthed by the Iraq Survey Group weapons search team, reports the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes.

This is not something that would surprise me, or others who don’t swallow hole the “Bush lied” myth. Some of the more notable titles, prior to complete translation of the documents themselves

• Chemical Gear for Fedayeen Saddam

• Memo from the [Iraqi Intelligence Service] to Hide Information from a U.N. Inspection team (1997)

• Iraq Ministry of Defense Calls for Investigation into why documents related to WMD were found by UN inspection team

• Correspondence between various Iraq organizations giving instructions to hide chemicals and equipment

• Correspondence from [Iraqi Intelligence Service] to [the Military Industrial Commission] regarding information gathered by foreign intelligence satellites on WMD (Dec. 2002)

• Cleaning chemical suits and how to hide chemicals

• [Iraqi Intelligence Service] plan of what to do during UNSCOM inspections (1996)

Still other reports suggest that Iraq’s ties to al Qaida were far deeper than previously known, featuring headlines like:

• Secret Meeting with Taliban Group Member and Iraqi Government (Nov. 2000)

• Document from Uday Hussein regarding Taliban activity

• Possible al Qaeda Terror Members in Iraq

• Iraqi Effort to Cooperate with Saudi Opposition Groups and Individuals

• Iraqi Intel report on Kurdish Activities: Mention of Kurdish Report on al Qaeda - reference to al Qaeda presence in Salman Pak

• [Iraqi Intelligence Service] report on Taliban-Iraq Connections Claims

• Money Transfers from Iraq to Afghanistan

The authenticity has not been confirmed as of yet. One of the theories bounced around before the failure to find WMD’s became political heroin for rabid Democrats was that Saddam’s generals were masquerading as if they had active WMD programs to placate their mentally unstable boss. These documents could be a part of that scheme. Or they could confirm the accuracy of some of that pre-war American, German, French, Russian and Clinton-era intelligence. If the documents pertaining to hiding WMD’s mentions Syria, the roots of that thwarted massive chemical attack in Amman of last April become more clear.

It will take time, but two myths die with the one truth that Iraq was a danger to the world (other than the fact that everyone believed that to be the case at the time of invasion) - that Saddam Hussein had no WMD program or capability and that Bush somehow lied about it. If these recently found documents do suggest a Baathist/al Qaeda connection there are going to be a lot of Democrats with egg on their face.

Thanks to Mark Rose for the pointer.

As Drudge says….developing…

UPDATE More al Qaeda / Saddam connections here.

FURTHER UPDATE The crumbling foundation under “Bush lied” .