Posted on 12/01/2002 2:23:10 PM PST by knighthawk
BEIRUT (Reuters) - An Iraqi Shi'ite Islamist opposition group Sunday accused members of an Iraqi militia of conducting joint training with al Qaeda loyalists aimed at carrying out operations against U.S. interests.
The Tehran-based Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) said elements of "Saddam's Fedayeen," a militia force led by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's son Uday, were training with a group linked to al Qaeda in northern Iraq.
"Sixty elements of Saddam's fedayeen militias joined the Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam), which is a follower of the al Qaeda organization in Iraqi Kurdistan," SCIRI said in a statement faxed to Reuters in Beirut.
"Our sources working on the inside confirmed these elements are getting joint training with elements of Jund al-Islam aimed at carrying out special operations against American interests in the world and with material financing from the Iraqi regime," said the statement.
The statement came days after six Iraqi opposition groups, including SCIRI, agreed to meet later this month in London to prepare to take power if Saddam is removed.
A U.N. resolution gives Baghdad one last chance to disarm or face a possible war, and the Iraqi leader has until December 8 to produce a full account of his weapons of mass destruction programs.
A SCIRI official in Lebanon said Jund al-Islam had several hundred people in northern Iraq in the border area near Iran and Turkey, and was connected to al Qaeda, which Washington blames for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and other "terror" operations.
"They have a connection to al Qaeda, and there is a lot of information on relations between the Iraqi regime and this group," he said.
SCIRI said the training of some militia members had already started. "These elements arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan three weeks ago, where they started getting special joint training with elements of Jund al-Islam," the statement said.
SCIRI, the largest Iraqi Shi'ite opposition organization, claims to have up to 8,000 fighters operating inside Iraq. It also has followers among the 500,000 Iraqi refugees living in Iran.
Northern Iraq has been outside Baghdad's control since the 1991 Gulf War and is controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
U.S. and British jets enforce "no-fly" zones over northern and southern Iraq set up after the war to protect the Kurdish enclave and Shi'ite Muslims in the south.
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Yep, this is by no means a new or unfamiliar scenario. However, I think the evidence, once revealed, will be so airtight that even the 'rats will have to bite their tongues as President Bush serves them heaping piles of crow.
The humiliation of this turn of events -- even though the 'rats will (perhaps accurately) accuse the President of holding out on them just for this reason -- is no doubt part of a carefully crafted plan to keep them in their place through the 2004 elections.
Ah, poor, simple, stumbling Dubya. Nothing to see here, folks, he's not smart enough to be dangerous, is he? Personally, I think we have a modern Lincoln on our hands. Lincoln pulled the same sorts of tricks on his opponents, in particular making them think he was a simpleton and no one of consequence, and proceded to deftly acquire more direct political and legal power during his reign than any U.S. president before or since. That is, until now.
Strategery, strategery...
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