Saddam link to terror group

The Daily Telegraph ^ | April 17, 2003 | Philip Smucker and Adrian Blomfield

[MadIvan]

Saddam Hussein's regime was linked to an African Islamist terrorist group, according to intelligence papers seen by The Telegraph. The documents provide the first hard evidence of ties between Iraq and religious terrorism.

Secret dossiers detailing the group's discussions with the Iraqi Intelligence Service were found in the spies' Baghdad headquarters, among the detritus of shredding.

The papers show how Iraq's charge d'affaires in Nairobi, Fallah Hassan Al Rubdie, was in discussion with the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan guerrilla group with ties to other anti-western Islamist organisations.

While the United States has long argued that Saddam's regime was aiding Islamist groups, it has struggled until now to provide compelling evidence.

In a letter to the head of the Iraqi spy agency, a senior ADF operative outlined his group's efforts to set up an "international mujahideen team".

Its mission, he said, "will be to smuggle arms on a global scale to holy warriors fighting against US, British and Israeli influences in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Far East".

The letter, dated April 2001, was signed: "Your Brother, Bekkah Abdul Nassir, Chief of Diplomacy ADF Forces".

Nassir offered to "vet, recruit and send youth to train for the jihad" at a centre in Baghdad, which he described as a "headquarters for international holy warrior network". It was not clear whether the centre was established.

"We should not allow the enemy to focus on Afghanistan and Iraq, but we should attack their international criminal forces inside every base," the letters said.

The ADF emerged in 1996, when it launched a rebellion against President Yoweri Museveni's government. In December 2001 the movement was placed on the US list of terrorist organisations.

Throughout its campaign the ADF has been provided with weapons and funding by the Islamist government in Sudan, one of more than half a dozen states Washington accuses of sponsoring terrorism.

The key figure behind the ADF is widely acknowledged to be a fundamentalist Islamic cleric, Sheikh Jamil Makulu.

According to the Ugandan government and western intelligence sources, Sheikh Makulu became friendly with Osama bin Laden in the early to mid-Nineties, when the al-Qa'eda chief was living in Khartoum.

The IIS's headquarters were only loosely guarded by US special forces yesterday. The Telegraph entered the building through one of the many holes left by devastating bombing.

[MeekOneGOP]

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[Grampa Dave]

But, the Mullah in charge of the American Ba-athist Party, the Rat Party, Mullah Da$$hole, told us there were no links to terrorism and Soddomite.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Well, what happened to our embassies in two African countries comes clearer.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Mullah Da$$hole

Is that an original?

I like it!

[k2blader]

Bump!

[semaj]

Who says we are not at war with Islam? Who says that this is not a war between the philosophies of East and West?I say to the peoples of the West, it's time to wake up and see what time it is.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Methinks we're going to see a lot more of this. I would like to see ALL of these documents translated and posted on the internet. The world must know what has been going on here.

[Grampa Dave]

Actually, I labeled him Mullah Da$$hole when I posting the graphic art pic of him with a towel wrapped around his head.

One of these days, I will find it and recycle it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Methinks we're going to see a lot more of this. I would like to see ALL of these documents translated and posted on the internet. The world must know what has been going on here.

Sounds like a great idea to me!

[Sabertooth]

I wonder what the Leftists would say then.

They'll say, "Yeah, but there's still some pickpockets in Baghdad, and what about that stolen election in Florida?"

[Illbay]

Who says we are not at war with Islam?

President George W. Bush. Perhaps you've heard of him.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Yeah. Predictable!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Hannity was working over a Rat tonight who would not admit that us going in to Iraq was a good thing! Because it was a Preemptive strike!,,, give me a break!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Geez!

[laz17]

Nope, this can't be true. There is no link between Saddam and terrorism. This evidence was planted by the CIA. I know, because I have a satellite dish. I'll go on Fox & Friends and dispute these false allegations against Saddam and make a total buffoon out of Brian Kilmeade. And while I'm at it, I'll also rip O'Reilly a new one. When I wear my glasses, no one can possibly be a match for my towering intellect in any debate.
-- Janeane Garofalo

[laz17]

BTW, I'm still waiting for Bush to come crawling on his knees and apologize to me.
-- Janeane Garofalo

[Sabertooth]

Hannity was working over a Rat tonight who would not admit that us going in to Iraq was a good thing! Because it was a Preemptive strike!

Teacher's unions go on preemptive strikes all the time.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Public education is a pre-emptive strike.

[Beck_isright]

Don't count on the socialist media to make a big deal about this....

[GailA]

The UK papers are hitting them hard. Ours are still soft soaping all this stuff.