Free Republic

Saddam's Ambassador to al-QaedaBy Jonathan SchanzerWeekly Standard | February 23, 2004 A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al-Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam/al-Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in...

Return to the Article April 17, 2008Saddam and al-QaedaBy Debra Baker Claims that there were no links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda are wrong. Documents just released by the Pentagon prove it. In March 2008, the Pentagon released a document that details some of the classified documents from Saddam's regime.  This document called the Iraqi Perspectives Project Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents Volume 1 (Redacted) is an overview of "more than 600,000 original captured documents and several thousand hours of audio and video footage archived in a US Department of Defense (DOD) database. As...

Milan, 2 Oct. (AKI) - Italian police on Monday issued six arrest warrants - three of which were served - and announced they had dismantled a terrorist cell suspected of having financed two terror attacks near Algiers last year in which 20 people died. The group, made up mainly of Algerians, was allegedly close to the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has recently sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda, and to the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). One of the suspected militants is Mejri Afif, a Tunisian, who was arrested in Switzerland while Ahmed Nacer and El Heit Ali were...

MEDEA, Algeria (Reuters) - Suspected Algerian Islamic militants killed 16 people in the first attack on civilians since the start of the holy month of Ramadan, officials said on Saturday. The victims, mostly young people, were shot dead, burned or had their throats cut at a rebel roadblock early in the evening on Friday near the city of Medea, some 45 miles south of Algiers, a civil defense officer told Reuters. Local residents said those killed on a mountainous road were on their way to visit their farm lands. A security source said earlier reports of 13 others missing were...

SEATTLE -- Terrorists are using Canada as a launching pad to illegally enter America. An exclusive KIRO Team 7 Investigation uncovers not only are terrorist recruitments going on in British Columbia, but holes in border security between there and Western Washington are an open gate, letting terrorists walk right in. KIRO Team 7 Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne exposes the threat from Vancouver. This city wants to be known as our friendly neighbor to the north and host for the 2010 Winter Games. However, a KIRO Team 7 Investigation discovered it's also home to 55 known terrorist organizations, some of which...

Algiers - Islamist extremists killed eight people in an attack in western Algeria on Sunday, security services said. Armed Islamic Group (GIA) militants are active at Boukaat El Maqam near Ain Merrane in the Chlef region, 200 kilometres west of the capital Algiers, where the attack took place at 04:00. No other details of the attack were immediately available. The GIA is the most brutal extremist group in the Algerian civil war. Along with the rival Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), it has rejected a partial amnesty offered in 1999 by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika as part of a...

UPDATE 3 - U.S. applies new rules to 22 more 'terrorist' groups   (Adds comments by Rep. Tom Lantos, paragraphs 8-9) By Jonathan Wright WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday added 22 groups including Hamas and Hizbollah to the list of "terrorist" groups under tight financial controls introduced after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The main pro-Israeli lobbying organization in the United States applauded the decision, saying it showed the Bush administration intended to combat all forms of terrorism. Six groups -- al Qaeda and five allegedly associated groups -- came under the new rules in September. Al Qaeda, led by Saudi-born ...

ROME - During a raid on a small Roman apartment frequented by alleged Arabic terrorists arrested at dawn last Friday, police found videos of decapitations and suicide bombings, plus political propaganda for a holy war. But what set off alarm bells was an Arizona address on a folder of Arabic documents. "We are working with our American colleagues to see if there is a link between this Phoenix address and pilots of the September suicide attack in New York," says Col. Gianfranco Cavallo, a leading police investigator, in an interview. He says Italian and FBI detectives are also exploring ...

ROME Italian investigators are looking into a second ring of suspected terrorists who may have been plotting a chemical weapons assault on Rome. An Algerian, a Pakistani, a Tunisian and three Iraqis were arrested in early morning raids Friday. A group of Moroccans was arrested last month with a map of the U.S. Embassy and large quantities of a cyanide compound that experts say could have been turned into a deadly gas. The ring busted Friday is thought to be completely independent of the Moroccans, officials said, although both likely have ties to Al Qaeda's network of terror. Investigators said ...

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. Eleven killed, 10 wounded in machinegun attack on Algerian bus Agence France Presse International News June 12, 2002 Wednesday 8:00 PM Eastern Time ALGIERS, June 12 An armed group machinegunned a bus killing 11 passengers and wounding 10 late Tuesday at Medea, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Algiers, residents of the town said. "Neither truce nor dialogue nor reconciliation nor security, but blood, blood, destruction, destruction." Reached by phone from Algiers, they said the bus came under attack from Islamists in Takbou,...

A court has given death sentences to five of eight Somalis convicted of murder and accused of belonging to an armed Islamic organization, the Ethiopian News Agency reported Friday. The eight were convicted in the deaths of 36 people in attacks in Addis Ababa and a southeastern Ethiopian city six years ago. The Federal High Court handed down the sentences Thursday and said the accused should be hanged in a public place. The others three were given 15 to 25 years of hard labor. The court said the sentences could be appealed. During a five-year trial, the men were accused...