JUNE 6, 2001 : (MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES : ABU SAYYAF aka ASG & BAATHIST IRAQ : IRAQI AMBASSADOR FAXES IRAQ'S MIN OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CONCERNING ABU SAYYAF KIDNAPPINGS, IRAQI REGIME'S FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF ABU SAYYAF) SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support--temporarily, it seems--after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group. ------ "Saddam's Philippines Terror Connection(Yes, Saddam financially supported terrorists)," Weekly Standard ^ | 03/18/2006 | Stephen F. Hayes
Another Hayes article on this subject:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/011/990ieqmb.asp