Unmasked men - Iraqi intelligence documents connect Saddam to terror leaders, al-Zarqawi, bin Laden

World Magazine ^ | October 02, 2004 | Mindy Belz

[streetpreacher]

Unmasked men
COVER STORY: Leaked Iraqi intelligence documents connect Saddam Hussein to prominent terror leaders, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden. Only question is, when will John Kerry change his stump speech? | by Mindy Belz


 

Walid Phares thumbed a sheaf of documents, all in Arabic and nearly all bearing the spherical slogan of Iraq's intelligence service, or Mukhabarat. The Middle East scholar, a Lebanese-American Christian who speaks four languages and is a recognized expert on Islamic militants and terrorism, has interrupted a sick day (prior engagement with a root canal) in order to evaluate 42 just-leaked intelligence documents confiscated by U.S. forces in Iraq.

Moistening his finger and translating out loud, Mr. Phares read from the pages in his third-floor office in downtown Washington, where he is taking a year off from teaching at Florida Atlantic University to serve as senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He didn't notice as his narrating voice rose with incredulity. Finishing, he rapped the papers with his fingers and concluded: "This is a watershed. This is big."

Mr. Phares is one of at least four eminent Middle East experts to agree that the documents—published for the first time last week—demonstrate that Saddam Hussein collaborated with and supported Islamic terrorist groups, including the current terror nemesis in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The papers, obtained by Cybercast News Service (CNS) and released Oct. 4, "establish irreversible evidence that there were strategic relations between the Baathist regime and Islamist groups that became al-Qaeda," Mr. Phares said after reviewing them at WORLD's request on Oct. 6. In addition, the documents link al-Zarqawi-associated groups throughout the Middle East, including al-Qaeda, on Saddam's payroll and acting under his direct authority.

Evidence and the word of experts, however, is having little effect on the John Kerry campaign, which has staked its bid for the White House on what it calls a flawed rationale for war in Iraq. Only hours after the CNS website absorbed so many hits over the revelations that its server crashed, vice-presidential candidate John Edwards blasted the president's war strategy in a televised debate with Vice President Dick Cheney. "There is no connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11th—period," Mr. Edwards said. "In fact, any connection with al-Qaeda is tenuous at best."

Sen. John Kerry, too, insists on the stump that the president's "two main rationales—weapons of mass destruction and the al-Qaeda/Sept. 11 connection—have been proved false."

But the documents suggest otherwise. They include an 11-page memo, dated Jan. 25, 1993, listing "parties related to our system . . . expert in executing the required missions." The memo cites Palestinian, Sudanese, and Asian terror groups, and shows a developing relationship with groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, including Mr. al-Zarqawi, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar—figures who are now on the U.S. most-wanted list for ongoing assaults in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Jan. 25, 1993, memo also describes an intelligence service meeting with a splinter group led by Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman. Mr. Abdel-Rahman is a son of the blind Egyptian, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, accused of inspiring the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and arrested in 1994 for targeting New York landmarks. Pakistani officials caught the younger Abdel-Rahman last year, and say he helped lead authorities to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the 9/11 attack planners.

A separate memo, dated March 18, 1993, asks intelligence officers to provide "details of Arab martyrs who got trained" in conjunction with post–Gulf War "committees of martyrs act." In reply another office supplied 92 names with nationalities, all "trained inside the ‘martyr act camp' that belonged to our directorate." In all, 40 are linked to Palestinian groups, 21 are Sudanese, and others range from Eritrea, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, and Egypt. Most of the trainees completed a government-sponsored course on Nov. 24, 1990, and were sent on missions throughout the Arabian Peninsula.

Accompanying the memos are separate notations signed by Saddam Hussein's secretary, suggesting the president himself had reviewed and endorsed each action.

"Saddam was personally overseeing the details" of training terrorists and assigning their missions, Mr. Phares said. "From 1993 on, Saddam Hussein connected with Sunni fundamentalists in the Arab world. He was in touch with the founding members of al-Qaeda."

CNS enlisted its own cast of experts—a former weapons inspector with the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM), a retired CIA counterterrorism official with experience in Iraq, and a former Clinton advisor on Iraq—to review the documents prior to publication. CNS reporter Scott Wheeler received the data from an unnamed "senior government official" who is not a political appointee. The source said the documents have not been made public because Bush administration officials have "thousands and thousands" of similar documents waiting to be translated and "it is unlikely they even know this exists."

Former Clinton advisor Laurie Mylroie, who taught at Harvard and the U.S. Naval College and authored two books on Iraq under Saddam Hussein, told CNS the find represents "the most complete set of documents relating Iraq to terrorism, including Islamic terrorism."

Bruce Tefft, the retired CIA official, described the documents as "accurate." He cited as particularly significant the Iraq link to al-Jihad al Tajdeed. Tajdeed is allied with Mr. al-Zarqawi. Its website currently posts Mr. al-Zarqawi's speeches, messages, and videos—including images portraying the Jordanian terrorist actively participating in the beheading of American Nicholas Berg and, just last month, the beheading of U.S. engineer Eugene Armstrong. At 37, Mr. al-Zarqawi is considered the main instigator behind suicide bombings, assassination attempts, and beheadings in Iraq. The connections "are too close to be accidental," Mr. Tefft told CNS, suggesting "one of the first operational contacts between an al-Qaeda group and Iraq."

Mr. al-Zarqawi is often portrayed as a lone ranger, a cult figure running a nascent uprising in response to so-called U.S. imperialism. Yet these latest documents, along with other emerging reports, reveal Mr. al-Zarqawi's "authority stemmed from specific instructions and guidance" received from Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders. According to terror expert Yossef Bodansky in his new book, The Secret History of the Iraq War, intelligence data shows Mr. al-Zarqawi entered northern Iraq from Iran shortly before the war to oversee a sophisticated guerrilla-war plan crafted in conjunction with Iraqi intelligence agents and Saddam himself.

In addition to the terror-group connections, several pages of the leaked documents also demonstrate that Saddam possessed mustard gas and anthrax, both considered weapons of mass destruction. They describe Iraq's purchase of five kilograms of mustard gas in August 2000 and three vials of malignant pustule, a term for anthrax, the following month—all at a time when Saddam prohibited UN weapons inspectors from working in Iraq. The purchase orders include gas masks, filters, sterilization, and decontamination equipment.

With this latest release of Iraqi documents, and the assembly of nonpartisan experts standing by them, the Kerry campaign will have to work harder to dismiss Bush administration actions as "a rush to war."

"What you see reading through these documents is that the [Persian Gulf] war did not end. This is a continuation of that war," Ms. Mylroie told WORLD. Saddam's aim, she said, was to "pick off the [1991] coalition" with terror attacks as a means of turning Middle East allies against the United States. That tactic emboldened the kind of transnational terror network described in the documents, continuing through 2001 and beyond. "What is interesting is that Iraq was working with Islamic militants of all stripes. Saddam did not make a distinction between Baathists or Sunnis or Shiites or anyone else," Ms. Mylroie said.

Such conclusions, she said, may prompt critics to call her paranoid and to denigrate the importance of this recent find as outdated and fanciful. But Ms. Mylroie has been called a conspiracy theorist before. Ignoring the evidence of state-sponsored terrorism and its ongoing threat is a zero-sum game for Bush opponents. Focusing only on the role of individual terror fanatics like Mr. al-Zarqawi, says Ms. Mylroie, does "make the terrorist threat appear as terrifying as possible. But authorities can do virtually nothing about terrorism when it is depicted this way."

Despite "missteps" in prosecuting the war, "the war was necessary because Saddam was involved in 9/11," Ms. Mylroie said. "There is no question that Saddam is part of a terror war."

For the Kerry campaign the revelations have come late enough in the election season to inflict lasting damage on his foreign-policy credibility. For U.S. and Iraqi forces fighting terror in Iraq, they have come not a moment too soon. —with reporting by Priya Abraham —•

 

[streetpreacher]

World Magazine is an independent Christian publication. I'm surprised you haven't heard of it because it is well-known outside of Christian circles. I've seen it in most University library periodical sections and bookstores.

[BenLurkin]

Don't be surprised at my ignorance. I make no claim to erudition.

[streetpreacher]

One entry found for erudition.

Main Entry: er·u·di·tion
Pronunciation: "er-&-'di-sh&n, "er-y&-
Function: noun
: extensive knowledge acquired chiefly from books : profound, recondite, or bookish learning
synonym see KNOWLEDGE

Well considering I had to look up the word, I guess I can "make no claim to erudition" either.

[tuesday afternoon]

bump

[MeekOneGOP]

Unmasked men - Iraqi intelligence documents connect
Saddam to terror leaders, al-Zarqawi, bin Laden

Excerpt:

COVER STORY: Leaked Iraqi intelligence documents connect Saddam Hussein to prominent terror leaders, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden. Only question is, when will John Kerry change his stump speech? | by Mindy Belz

Walid Phares thumbed a sheaf of documents, all in Arabic and nearly all bearing the spherical slogan of Iraq's intelligence service, or Mukhabarat. The Middle East scholar, a Lebanese-American Christian who speaks four languages and is a recognized expert on Islamic militants and terrorism, has interrupted a sick day (prior engagement with a root canal) in order to evaluate 42 just-leaked intelligence documents confiscated by U.S. forces in Iraq.

Moistening his finger and translating out loud, Mr. Phares read from the pages in his third-floor office in downtown Washington, where he is taking a year off from teaching at Florida Atlantic University to serve as senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He didn't notice as his narrating voice rose with incredulity. Finishing, he rapped the papers with his fingers and concluded: "This is a watershed. This is big."

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

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks!

There is a whole lot of good October stuff coming out for our side.

[lesser_satan]

nice article, but a magazine piece dated october 2 ain't breaking news on october 10.

Am I missing something here? This story is dated 10-2, but makes reference in past tense to 10-4 and 10-6. The CNS story is dated 10-4. What the heck is going on?

[browardchad]

an unnamed "senior government official" who is not a political appointee

A careerist. Well, if nothing else, it's refreshing to see one of these trying to get the truth out, instead of leaking leaking national security info to the New York Times.

[Cindy]

CNS NEWS.com: "EXCLUSIVE: SADDAM POSSESSED WMD, HAD EXTENSIVE TERROR TIES" by Scott Wheeler (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "THE SOURCE OF THE DOCUMENTS A senior government official who is not a political appointee provided CNSNews.com with copies of the 42 pages of Iraqi Intelligence Service documents. The originals, some of which were hand-written and others typed, are in Arabic. CNSNews.com had the papers translated into English by two individuals separately and independent of each other.") (October 4, 2004) (Read More...)

[justshutupandtakeit]

More evidence of the abaolute abdication of the RATmedia to its duty to search for the truth.

This propaganda arm of the democRAT party must be destroyed for the good of mankind.

[justshutupandtakeit]

That is not true. Since when has the RATmedia depended upon truth for their attacks on the President? NEVER. It lies with every breath and has refused on almost every occassion to allow even a glimmer of the truth to be carried over their programs.

This media is the greatest enemy of mankind that exists. IT lives to lie and can ONLY live by the lie. Truth affects it like sunlight does a vampire.

[Txsleuth]

I'm sensing a lot of skepticism about this but it has been posted at CNS.news for a week - you would think if it didn't have at least a little truth, they would have taken it down by now. Also, Whalid Phares has been on Fox a lot lately and seems pretty credible to me. Besides, all we need is this news out there, after all the 9/11 commission and the Senate Intelligence commission both agreed that there was a connection between al-queda and Saddam. The Bush campaign just needs to repeat this over and over.

[MeekOneGOP]

Yeah! :^D

[ClancyJ]

Ok, so we do nothing. No use to post all these articles, no use to send campaign funds, no use to even vote - it might harm Kerry's campaign.

When are we going to fight the MSM? When is FR going to jump in and do the news gathering and publishing that the MSM defaults on?

Now we are hearing there are problems with Fox going liberal - our sole hope in America.

What now? We just give up?

Or, do we start thinking and come up with a way to fight back. How many people could we reach with all our email lists? What about a daily summary of world articles (not mentioned on MSM) that will be sent out to the email lists?

Or some other effort - anything that can tell the MSM and the liberals that this is America and we WILL HAVE FREE ELECTIONS, WE WILL HAVE FAIRNESS IN CANDIDATES, WE WILL NOT LISTEN TO PROPAGANDA.

We have the internet, we have FR, we have smart people, we are being spoon fed a presidential candidate, we are being lied to, we are seeing our freedom and constitution stolen from us.

How do we use what we have to counter what the MSM is doing to us here in America? Do we spend all our effort complaining about it or do we take action and counter it?

Do we write complaints to the MSM against their actions as they use their power to put the superpower into the hands of liberals, socialists and the media? Just what good will that do? They know full well what their goal is and it is not to listen to us.

[international american]

If this is true, it could tilt the election. I just wonder if it IS true, and if so, why has at least Fox jumped on it?

[lesser_satan]

I would suggest FReeping center-right blogs and talk radio. Except for making mention of it the day it broke, they seem to be hesitant to cover it, and, after Rathergate, I can't blame them. I have sent a lot of emails, but to no effect (yet). If we could deluge them with emails from many different people, it might be different. If this is going to have any effect on the election, it has to get started NOW.

[Rockitz]

This was originally a 4 October exclusive at CNSNews.com

http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=\\SpecialReports\\archive\\200410\\SPE20041004a.html

[TexKat]

That is not true. Since when has the RATmedia depended upon truth for their attacks on the President?

I do not think I referred to the RATmedia in my post. I was not even thinking in that respect.

It is my belief that our government would have divulge this info prior to (CNS) or other media outlets, especially with the recent Duelfer report, and the talk show rounds by Iraqi scientist Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, author of The Bomb in my Garden, in the past couple of weeks.

[sullivan-fan]

Do these documents pass the global test?

[sullivan-fan]

Do these documents pass the global test?