These what we have:
Iraqi Documents that I translated and posted on FR which clearly showed that Saddam intelligence service did train foreign terrorists but they did not call them Al Qaeda. One document was about a directive from Saddam on April 4 2003, shortly before the fall of his regime, where he ordered the foreign terrorists (they call them foreign Moujahdeen) to be treated with the same level as Iraqi Special Operations. These are the foreign terrorists who later joined terrorist Zarqawi and Al Qaeda or may have been under Zraqawi and Al Qaeda to begin with.
I translated and posted on FR an Al Qaeda document written by one of Al Qaeda terrorist leaders called "Saif Al Adel" about Zarqawi and his terrorist coming to Iraq in 2002 before the war to fight our US troops. Despite that the document did not say that there were any cooperation between Saddam regime and Al Qaeda the document stated that Zarqawi and his terrorists establish their cells in the Sunni areas in central Iraq. These areas were under the full control of Saddam regime and it would have been impossible that they were not aware of Zarqawi and his terrorists presence there. They just turned a blind eye and let them establish their terrorist cells.
Let me know if yo need some of the documents that I mentioned above and I will give you the FR links to read it.
1980s : (ABU ABDULLAH ASHAFEI JOINS THE IRAQI ARMY - HE WOULD LATER GET INVOLVED WITH ANSAR AL ISLAM AND REPORTEDLY BE KILLED IN IRAQ IN THE GWOT) The original leader of Ansar al-Islam, Mullah Krekar, is in jail in Holland and the PUK said the group is now led by Abu Abdullah Ashafi, a low-born Kurd who joined the Iraqi army in the 1980s before turning to Islam and spending four years in Afghanistan. ———— “Saddam’s agents launch bloodbath against West’s allies ,” By Wendell Steavenson in Halabja , London Telegraph , (Filed: 23/12/2002)
1992 : (IRAQ : ELEMENTS OF AL QAEDA INCLUDING AL ZAWAHIRI ARRIVE IN BAGHDAD) Prisoner #2 [Abu Iman al-Maliki was an Iraqi intelligence officer for 20 years. (ABCNEWS.com)] : Al Qaeda Members Met With Saddam- Abu Iman al-Maliki was convicted of spying on the Kurds as an Iraqi intelligence officer. He says he worked as such for 20 years. Al-Maliki chain-smoked Marlboros as we talked, sitting on a metal chair in a T-shirt advertising a martial arts school that strained against his bulk. He is, simply put, a huge man. “The U.S. believes Iraq has had contact with al Qaeda,” I said, “Do you know that to be a fact?”
“Yes. In ‘92, elements of al Qaeda came to Baghdad and met with Saddam Hussein and among them was Dr. Al-Zawahiri.” Ayman Al-Zawahiri, you may recall, has been identified as a top lieutenant of bin Laden’s, and is widely thought to be a mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
“There is a relationship between the governments of al Qaeda and the Iraqi government,” he continued. “It began after the events of Kuwait approximately. That is when the relationship developed and many delegations came to Baghdad. There are elements of al Qaeda training on suicide operations, assassinations, explosions, and the making of chemical substances, and they are supervised by a number of officers, experts from the Iraqi intelligence, the Explosives Division, the Assassinations Division, different specialties.”
Al-Maliki’s specialty is somewhat more disturbing. He says he was part of a group of officers ordered by Saddam to hide chemical weapons throughout the Iraqi countryside. When I asked him if the U.N. weapons inspectors might find anything if they return, he smiled and said, “No. They will find nothing.” -————— “Direct Links Detailed : Three Prisoners in N. Iraq Outline Links Between Al Qaeda and Iraq,” Reporter’s Notebook
By Don Dahler, ABCNews.com, Sept 27,2002
1995 : (IRAQ SENDS ITS MUKHABARAT AGENT ABU WAEL TO AFGHANISTAN TO AL QAEDA - ABU WAEL WOULD LATER BE PART OF ANSAR AL ISLAM) According to the PUK, one of the two dominant Kurdish political parties, Ansar al-Islam is supplied with weapons and money by the Iraqi Mukhabarat, Saddam’s intelligence service, to destabilise the region.
A Mukhabarat agent called Abu Wa-il is said to be among the [Ansar al Islam] group. This is confirmed by Abu Iman al-Baghdadi, an ex-Mukhabarat officer now in jail. If true, it means Ansar al-Islam could have a wider global aspect because al-Baghdadi says Saddam sent Abu Wa’il to Afghanistan in 1995 where he formed links with al-Qa’eda.
Al-Baghdadi said he knew this because he was in the bodyguard of Saddam’s son-in law at the time and had been in a training camp with some of the agents they sent to Afghanistan.
“Saddam sent agents to Afghanistan to al-Qa’eda,” said al Bahgdadi. “But they had their own agenda and orders from Baghdad.” The peshmerga commander of the area, Sheikh Jafar Mustapha, says Ansar al-Islam has killed 130 of his men and 20 local villagers have died in crossfire or by stepping on scattered land mines. ———— “Saddam’s agents launch bloodbath against West’s allies ,” By Wendell Steavenson in Halabja , London Telegraph , (Filed: 23/12/2002)
1990s mid : (PAKISTAN : IRAQI EMBASSY HOSTS IRAQI BIOCHEMICAL SCIENTISTS : IRAQI SCIENTISTS MEET WITH AL QAEDA OPERATIVES INCLUDING ZARQAWI AT THE NEARBY TALIBAN EMBASSY) It is widely known that Zarqawi, al Qaeda’s chief biochemical engineer, was at the safe house in Afghanistan where traces of Ricin and other poisons were originally found. What is not widely known-but was briefly alluded to in Sec. Powell’s U.N. address-is that starting in the mid-1990s, Iraq’s embassy in Islamabad routinely played host to Saddam’s biochemical scientists, some of whom interacted with al Qaeda operatives, including Zarqawi and his lab technicians, under the diplomatic cover of the Taliban embassy nearby to teach them the art of mixing poisons from home grown and readily available raw materials. CIA Director George Tenet confirmed the outcome of this arrangement last week in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee when he said that “…Iraq has provided training in poisons and gases to al Qaeda… the results of which were successful…” - “Hand in Glove (Iraq and al Qaeda) ,” by Mansoor Ijaz, National Review , Feb.18, 2003
NOVEMBER 19?, 1998 Monday : (IRAQ : POIC??) “.An Islamic group in Iraq has called for a holy war against the United States, according to a broadcast by Baghdad’s government radio. The Popular Organization of Islamic Conference issued a statement in Baghdad calling for a jihad, or holy war, “by Muslims throughout the world against the U.S. administration,” according to a Baghdad Radio broadcast on Monday. The group’s statement said “striking [the U.S. administration’s] interests has become a holy and legitimate duty recognized by divine and human laws so as to protect societies against U.S. injustice.” The Iraqi group stated that the Clinton administration “supports the Zionists, who have usurped holy Arab and Muslim places,” and said Muslims should “seriously work to confront U.S. tyranny and condemn its hostile acts against faithful Iraq.” .”—————Drudge - THE WASHINGTON TIMES 11/19/98 Bill Gertz
SEPTEMBER 1999 : (NINTH POPULAR ISLAMIC CONGRESS) Baghdad, 23 May (AKI) - The number two of the al-Qaeda network, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited Iraq under a false name in September 1999 to take part in the ninth Popular Islamic Congress, former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi has revealed to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. In an interview, Allawi made public information discovered by the Iraqi secret service in the archives of the Saddam Hussein regime, which sheds light on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the Islamic terrorist network. He also said that both al-Zawahiri and Jordanian militant al-Zarqawi probably entered Iraq in the same period.
“Al-Zawahiri was summoned by Izza Ibrahim Al-Douri – then deputy head of the council of the leadership of the revolution - to take part in the congress, along with some 150 other Islamic figures from 50 Muslim countries,” Allawi said.
According to Allawi, important information has been gathered regarding the presence of another key terrorist figure operating in Iraq - the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
“The Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi entered Iraq secretly in the same period,” Allawi affirmed, “and began to form a terrorist cell, even though the Iraqi services do not have precise information on his entry into the country,” he said. Allawi’s remarks come after statements to al-Hayat by King Abdallah II of Jordan over Saddam’s refusal to hand over al-Zarqawi to the authorities in Amman.
On this question Allawi said: ‘’The words of the Jordanian King are correct and important. We have proof of al-Zawahiri’s visit to Iraq, but we do not have the precise date or information on al-Zarqawi’s entry, though it is likely that he arrived around the same time.”
In Allawi’s view, Saddam’s government “sponsored” the birth of al-Qaeda in Iraq, coordinating with other terrorist groups, both Arab and Muslim. “The Iraqi secret services had links to these groups through a person called Faruq Hajizi, later named Iraq’s ambassador to Turkey and arrested after the fall of Saddam’s regime as he tried to re-enter Iraq. Iraqi secret agents helped terrorists enter the country and directed them to the Ansar al-Islam camps in the Halbija area,” he said.
The former prime minister claims that Saddam’s regime sought to involve even Palestinian Abu Nidal - head of a group once considered the world’s most dangerous terrorist organisation - in its terrorist circuit. Abu Nidal’s organisation was responsible for terrorist attacks in some 20 countries, killing more than 300 people and wounding hundreds more. He added that Abu Nidal’s refusal to cooperate with Islamist groups was the reason for his death in Iraq, in the summer of 2002. -—— (Ham/Aki) 23-May-05 12:08-——IRAQ: FORMER PM (ALLAWI) REVEALS SECRET SERVICE DATA ON BIRTH OF AL-QAEDA IN IRAQ it)
| May 23, 2005 | AKI