Posted on 09/14/2002 4:40:26 PM PDT by Ranger
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LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair's promised dossier on Iraq is to reveal that Saddam Hussein trained some of Osama bin Laden's key lieutenants, The Sunday Telegraph reported. The dossier is also expected to disclose that the Iraqi leader has reconstructed three plants to manufacture biological and chemical weapons, it said. Blair, facing opposition from within his own Labour Party over going to war with Iraq without U.N. backing, has recalled parliament to discuss the issue later this month and promised to publish a dossier detailing evidence against Saddam Hussein. The Sunday Telegraph said a draft version of the dossier contains detailed information on how two alleged leading al Qaeda members, Abu Zubair and Rafid Fatah, underwent training in Iraq and are still linked to the Baghdad government. It said Abu Zubair was an Iraqi intelligence officer trained in using terror against the Kurds in Northern Iraq. Rafid Fatah also worked with him against the Kurds, the paper added. They were then said to have joined ranks with Osama bin Laden, accused by Washington of being the mastermind behind last year's September 11 hijack attacks. On reports that Saddam Hussein has reconstructed three weapons plants, the paper said evidence was based on "worrying activity" captured by American satellite photographs. One security official, quoted by the Sunday Telegraph, said the photos "clearly show very worrying activity of rebuilding work at these plants which we already knew were being used for developing chemical and biological weapons. That is what Saddam is doing again." |
By John Lumpkin in Washington
June 20 2002
The arrest in Morocco of a senior al-Qaeda recruiter known as "the Bear" is the latest in a series of breakthroughs for Washington.
US officials claim Abu Zubair is a close associate of Abu Zubaydah - al-Qaeda's former operations chief, now in US custody - and has a wealth of knowledge about the group's operations and cell members.
Abu Zubair is described as "maybe one of the top three or four" most important members of al-Qaeda to be captured, though US officials are unsure if he was involved in planning the September11 attacks.
Meanwhile, German and Arab intelligence sources have confirmed that Mohammed Haydar Zammar, a key figure in the German al-Qaeda cell's planning for September11, has been held in secret detention in Syria. He was reportedly arrested in Morocco and then expelled to Damascus with US knowledge.
Abu Zubair's nickname, the Bear, is said to come from his weight - more than 130 kilograms. Before September11, he reportedly ran al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, and during the US-led war there helped al-Qaeda operatives flee the country, officials said. How he got to Morocco from Afghanistan is unclear.
America's ABC TV quoted US officials as saying they were in no hurry to take custody of Zubair as Moroccan authorities "can use much more persuasive methods in questioning a suspect".
For Moroccan authorities, it was the second recent breakthrough. Last week they said they had broken up an al-Qaeda plot to attack US and British ships in the Strait of Gibraltar. On Tuesday, Moulay Abdallah Alaoui Belghiti, the prosecutor of Casablanca Court of Appeal, confirmed that three Saudis and four Moroccans had been charged over the reported plan to sail small boats loaded with explosives into shipping lanes.
Another al-Qaeda lieutenant, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, is suspected of organising the plot. Nashiri, an alleged organiser of the bombing of USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, remains at large.
Zubair's arrest was separate from those linked to the Gibraltar plot.
The debriefing of Zammar, a German citizen of Syrian origin who has told his interrogators that he recruited the lead
hijacker, Mohammed Atta, highlights the way September11 has redefined US engagement with regimes it once vilified.
Syria remains on a State Department list of regimes that sponsor terrorism. And Syrian officials complain the United States is not acknowledging Damascus's assistance in the "war against terrorism".
Arab intelligence sources say the Syrian debriefing of Zammar, 41, is providing the US with critical information on the genesis of the September11 plot as well as al-Qaeda's structure and possible plans.
It is unclear whether US officials have direct access to Zammar or whether the Syrians put US questions to the prisoner and then report back. But an Arab source said Zammar had become another check on information the US gleans from the interrogation of al-Qaeda prisoners worldwide, including Abu Zubaydah.
Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, The New York Times
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/19/1023864455929.html
Don't tell PsychoScott Ritter--he'll do his training video, "Scott Ritter Kissing Saddam's Ass"--
Oh, he said, "Scott Ritter Kicking Your Ass"--
But with Ritter, he'll say the reverse in short order.
As will the Senate's token dwarf with Napoleonic pretensions, Tom Thumb.
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