Excerpt:
Goldberg interviewed several prisoners held by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two rival Kurdish factions in the north. The prisoners related an intricate web of coordination between an al Qaeda splinter group and Saddam's intelligence service, the Mukhabarat.
Goldberg: "The allegations include charges that Ansar al-Islam has received funds directly from Al Qaeda; that the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein has joint control, with Al Qaeda operatives, over Ansar al-Islam; that Saddam Hussein hosted a senior leader of Al Qaeda in Baghdad in 1992; that a number of Al Qaeda members fleeing Afghanistan have been secretly brought into territory controlled by Ansar al-Islam; and that Iraqi intelligence agents smuggled conventional weapons, and possibly even chemical and biological weapons, into Afghanistan. If these charges are true, it would mean that the relationship between Saddam's regime and Al Qaeda is far closer than previously thought."
Goldberg sprinkled his prose with caveats--about the possible motivations of the Kurds, about the differing agendas of Saddam and Islamic radicals. That skepticism made his account more credible. But what ultimately made the report convincing was the detail. Goldberg named the prisoners, he explained their relationships, he recreated their battles, and he described their travels. In short, his work is verifiable.
Which is why the Kurds invited him to interview the prisoners in the first place--they hoped it might arouse the interest of U.S. intelligence. "The F.B.I. and the C.I.A. haven't come out yet," reported the PUK's director of intelligence. His deputy added, "Americans are going to Somalia, the Philippines, I don't know where else, to look for terrorists. But this is the field, here."
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