TERRORISM: AL-QAEDA 'DEVELOPING NEW ARMS', REPORT

Baghdad, 7 May (AKI) - Al Qaeda in Iraq is involved in developping new arms and using new techniques to carry out its terrorist attacks, according to sources within the Iraqi insurgency, quoted by the Egyptian Islamic press agency al-Naba. According to the agency's internet site, after creating new missiles able to strike US combat helicopters with greater precision, the al-Qaeda network is seeking new methods, different from the characteristic suicide attacks or car bombs.

Last week a cell of al-Qaeda active in Kurdistan reportedly tried for the first time to use a remote-controlled aircraft to carry out an attack, with the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Suleimaniya the target.

The attack was however foiled. Kurdish sources say that the police had found out about the plan before it could be carried out. Despite this Iraqi security forces are said to be concerned by the technical progress made by the followers of al-Qaeda in Iraq in developing weapons and in their guerilla techniques.

During the first months of the year, the terrorist formation is reported to have downed 10 US helicopters in the space of a wek weeks. In parallel they developed chemical weapons and carried out at least three attacks in the area of Falluja, using chlorine gas.

The first known attempt to detonate a vehicle bomb with chlorine gas occurred in Ramadi on 28 January though the sixteen deaths were not believed caused by the chlorine.

The next chlorine gas attack was a suicide bomb in Ramadi on 19 February 19, while several days later, another bomber detonated a chlorine tanker truck in Taji, north of Baghdad, just a few days later.

American forces also found a large quantity of chlorine and other chemicals in Karma, a location near Falluja.

Iran’s Green Cards for Sunni Terrorists
Steve

Osman Ali Mustapha is a former Kurdish police officer who turned to Iranian intelligence for gainful employment as a terrorist. The New York Sun’s Eli Lake has interviewed him in Iraq, and what Mr. Mustapha shares regarding Iranian facilitation of Sunni terrorists within its own borders is especially noteworthy. Mustapha is currently in an Iraqi prison after being arrested for his first attack, where he chose the target, delivered explosives from Iran into Iraq and coordinated the suicide bombing attack. He readily admits to his actions, which are both personal in nature and compelling. The headline is apt: For Iraqi Terrorists Inside Iran, Membership Has Its Privileges.

The opening graphs of Eli’s important report from Sulaimaniya, Iraq are below.

For Iraqi terrorists in Iran, membership has its privileges.

The leaders of many of the Sunni jihadist groups that are harbored there are issued a special political refugee card. With the laminated photo identification card, described this week in an interview by a former Kurdish spy for Iranian intelligence, the terrorists can sail through checkpoints and border checks.

If ever a jihadist were to encounter a problem with the local police, flashing the card would make his problems disappear, in part because the all-powerful intelligence ministry, known as Ettelaat, and Revolutionary Guard are the only people allowed to issue them. As such, these ministries have files with photographs and biographical information on most of the Iraqi terrorists in Iran.

The status of the Al Qaeda affiliated jihadists in Iran was recounted Tuesday in an interview with Osman Ali Mustapha, a former Kurdish police officer who was recruited as a spy for the Iranians. In his first interview with the press, and his second conversation with any American, the former spy for Iran said of the terrorists who operate across the Iranian border from Iraqi Kurdistan: “Each one of them filled out a form at Ettelaat. They bring them to Ettelaat. It is a green card for political refugees. When you want to go through a checkpoint, the green card will let you go.” Later, he said these cards “are not issued to non-Islamists. Normal refugees do not get this.”
Mr. Mustapha added, “If you have this card you are treated better than a Kurd. When the Kurds want to go somewhere, the authorities have a suspicion about relations with Kurdish parties. When you have this card, it means you are working for them.”

Those who continue to question the level of cooperation possible between the Iranian Shi’a terror masters and Sunni terrorists who are deemed useful should take careful note of Mustapha’s first hand accounting of this facilitation. Note with interest that Mustapha’s conduit to Iranian intelligence was a senior member of Ansar al-Islam, an Islamist terrorist organization that was based in northern Iraq which carried out chemical weapons testing and production at their camps.

Mr. Mustapha is in a position to know Iran’s relationship to Al Qaeda. He was recruited in 2004 to the Ettelaat by a senior leader of what was then Ansar al-Islam, the Sunni jihadist group that linked up with Al Qaeda’s Iraqi chief, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The terrorist who served as a liaison to the Iranian intelligence officers went by the nom de guerre of Ali Mujahid, or Ali the holy warrior. Soon after Mr. Mustapha was fired from his job as a police officer at Halabja in the early spring 2004, Ali Mujahid gave him a number in Tehran and had him meet him in the town of Marywan.

In another piece of excellent work, Eli Lake’s accounting of Mustapha’s path from the Iraqi Kurdish police to Iranian intelligence and his travels back and forth across the border, as Mustapha tells it, should be read in full. The implications are just as clear as the dismissals are surely forthcoming.

http://rapidrecon.threatswatch.org/2007/04/irans-green-cards-for-sunni-te/

We can only surmise from the title and content of the article that it's intent is to tout the prowess and ingenuity of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Let's break this down:

Last week a cell of Al Qaeda active in Kurdistan reportedly tried for the first time to use a remote-controlled aircraft to carry out an attack, with the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Suleimaniya the target.
The article them states that it was a failure, as it was broken up by Kurdish police

the terrorist formation is reported to have downed 10 US helicopters in the space of a wek(sic - I suppose the word should be 'few') weeks.
The US has been conducting aggressive combat operations; bringing the battle to the enemy. It is only natural that with the increased tempo of operations that more casualties would be incurred. Nothing here backs up the assumption that Al Qaeda is getting more proficient.

In parallel they developed chemical weapons and carried out at least three attacks in the area of Falluja, using chlorine gas.
The article then goes on to say about the first use in Ramadi "though the sixteen deaths were not believed caused by the chlorine." In fact, the article does not show that any deaths in the 3 attacks mention were caused by the use of chlorine gas.

All in all, the article goes a long way in showing how far the opposite direction Al Qaeda is from proficient and effective really is.

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