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<!-- all.clsMenuItemNS{font: small Trebuchet MS; color: white; text-decoration: none;} .clsMenuItemIE{text-decoration: none; font: x-small Trebuchet MS; color: white; cursor: black;} A:hover {color: #0000CC} -->   SEARCH | FREE SUBSCRIPTION | ABOUT US | HOME       >Gold >Down Under >Mining Finance >Junior Mining >Platinum >Base Metals >Classic Mining >Special Reports >Diamonds >Trader's Notes >London Beat >Stock Picks >UN purges Iraq documents with $15-bn in question By: Tim Wood Posted: 2003/04/28 Mon 11:00 EDT  | © Mineweb 1997-2003 NEW YORK -- Increasing attention has been focused on the United Nations administered oil-for-food programme that was intended to provide the people of Iraq...

Not that it should come as a surprise to anyone, but it turns out some of the staunchest international opponents of invading Iraq -- on principle, you understand -- were up to their eyeballs in secret deals with the now deposed regime of Saddam Hussein. Since the fall of Baghdad earlier this month, documents found at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, at the headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service, Mukhabarat, and elsewhere around the capital have revealed just how deeply involved were those who sided against the war at the United Nations -- France, Germany, Russia, China and the UN itself...

Well surprise, surprise. Documents found in the headquarters of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service, show that Saddam Hussein's people were talking to Osama bin Laden's people, according to a story in the Toronto Star. Actually, make that "STAR FINDS DOCUMENTS LINKING BIN LADEN, IRAQ" -- at the Toronto Star, the Toronto Star is always the story. The minor detail that a reporter for the Daily Telegraph was also present when the documents were found, or that the crucial reference to bin Laden was spotted by their interpreter, played rather below the fold. Still, it is fortuitous that the Star,...

I sweet-talked my way into dreaded intelligence HQ(Filed: 27/04/2003) Inigo Gilmore describes how he gained access to documents in the complex that most Iraqis under Saddam were desperate to avoid.The documents which provide the first proof of direct links between Osama bin Laden and the regime of Saddam Hussein were hidden deep inside a building which for decades was one of the most feared places in Iraq. During Saddam's time, few civilians dared even glance at the imposing headquarters of the Mukbaharat - the feared intelligence service - as they drove past in case they were hauled in and...

According to Barton Gellman, writing in the March 23rd edition of the Washington Post, “Al Qaeda leaders, long known to covet biological and chemical weapons, have reached at least the threshold of production and may have manufactured some of them, according to a newly obtained cache of documentary evidence and interrogations recently conducted by the U.S. government.” Gellman describes the al Qaeda biochemical weapons program as being more advanced than originally thought, and included the ability to produce their own low-grade anthrax. This information comes from data captured with Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and is chilling news, but not unexpected. Al...

If it turns out there was an Al Qaeda/Iraq connection, it would be great to be prepared with celebrity quotes denying that connection.Here are two from Sarandon and Streisand.Sarandon plans to act up before State of the Union WASHINGTON - Just before President Bush delivers his State of the Union address tonight, activist actress Susan Sarandon plans to upstage him. "Before our kids start coming home from Iraq in body bags and women and children start dying in Baghdad, I need to know, 'What did Iraq do to us?'" the 56-year-old New Yorker asks in a 30-second television spot that...

A host of Britons feature in the files of the Iraqi foreign ministry, which faithfully record dealings with Saddam Hussein's regime that many might prefer to forget. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing, but many of those who contacted the Iraqi regime wrote in somewhat naive terms. A letter from Sir Edward Heath dated March 6 2000 cheerfully records a luncheon with Mudhafar Amin, head of the Iraqi Interests Section in London, at his home in Salisbury. "I was delighted that you and your wife were able to come," wrote Sir Edward. "Thank you for leaving me with such an...

How I found the papers in a looted foreign ministry office By David Blair in Baghdad (Filed: 22/04/2003) Standing on a heap of grubby box files piled on the floor in the office of Iraq's foreign minister, I dropped to my knees and started rummaging through a secret archive of correspondence. Documents stamped "Confidential and Personal" emerged from overflowing pale blue folders, all carrying the Iraqi eagle, the symbol of the state. Letters signed by famous names in Iraqi politics such as Tariq Aziz, once deputy prime minister, and Naji Sabri, the former foreign minister, were suddenly cascading on...

The damning of Gorgeous George In a burning Baghdad building a journalist finds 'proof' that the Labour MP and Saddam apologist was in the pay of the Iraqi regime. Andy McSmith pieces together the full extraordinary story and asks: was he or wasn't he? 27 April 2003 On a Saturday afternoon in Baghdad, while other correspondents worried about the looting of museums or the disorder in the streets, the man from The Daily Telegraph went to the Foreign Ministry to have a rummage.The ministry building was in a bad state. It had been hit by a cruise missile and ransacked...

Saddam, bin Laden link found: Canadian reporter Last Updated Sat Apr 26 22:54:29 2003 BAGHDAD-- Secret documents uncovered in the bombed headquarters of Iraq's former spy agency show the first clear link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, according to a Canadian journalist. 'It was marked top secret, and of course they went to great lengths to try to mask the contents' – Mitch Potter Mitch Potter, a foreign correspondent with the Toronto Star, says he discovered the file while digging through what's left of the Mukhabarat intelligence office. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had already...

UK Newspaper Says Documents Link Bin Laden to Iraq Sat Apr 26, 5:19 PM ET Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo! LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper said it had discovered documents showing Iraqi intelligence hosted an envoy from Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) in 1998 and sought to meet the alleged September 11 mastermind in person. The finding, if verified, would appear to support Washington's assertion of links between ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and bin Laden, one of the justifications for the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web...

The SUNDAY TELEGRAPH is reporting that papers found by reporters at Iraq's bombed out intelligence service building provide evidence of a direct link between Saddam Hussein's regime and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida... According to the papers, an al-Qaida envoy met with officials in Baghdad in March 1998 to create a relationship based upon a mutual hate of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. An unidentified Western intelligence official describes the find as 'sensational.' MORE/// In the SUNDAY TIMES reporters allege docs found at the Iraqi foreign ministry show Paris gave regular updates to Baghdad on diplomatic dealings between France and the...

The revelation that Saddam Hussein's intelligence chiefs were seeking to establish links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network is the first concrete proof that the dictator was colluding with the world's most ruthless terrorist operation. The documents discovered yesterday by The Telegraph in the former headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service, the Mukhabarat, will also reopen the debate about whether Saddam was directly involved in the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The issue of Saddam's involvement has been a long-standing source of contention between London and Washington. In the days immediately following the attacks, President George...

Transcipts of documents linking Iraq to Bin LadenDocument 1, dated February 19, 1998 Marked "Top Secret and Urgent" in the margin and signed by "MDA", thought to be the codename for the director of one of the intelligence sections within the Mukhabarat. "The envoy is a trusted confidant and known by them. According to the above mediation we request official permission to call Khartoum station to facilitate the travel arrangements for the above-mentioned person to Iraq. And that our body carry all the travel and hotel expenses inside Iraq to gain the knowledge of the message from bin Laden and...

Today, The Sunday Telegraph reveals a remarkable cache of documents, discovered in Baghdad by our reporter Inigo Gilmore, which provide the first hard evidence of the direct links between al-Qa'eda and Saddam Hussein's regime. Since September 11, the Bush administration and, to a lesser extent, the British Government have been struggling to prove that this deadly relationship existed. The papers, which concern a clandestine visit by an envoy of Osama bin Laden to Baghdad in 1998, do just that. Saddam's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and his refusal to comply fully with UN weapons inspectors meant that there was...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper said it had discovered documents showing Iraqi intelligence hosted an envoy from Osama bin Laden in 1998 and sought to meet the alleged September 11 mastermind in person. The finding, if verified, would appear to support Washington's assertion of links between ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and bin Laden, one of the justifications for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The paper said the documents, which its correspondent found in the wrecked headquarters of the Iraqi Mukhabarat intelligence service, showed Iraq brought a bin Laden aide to Baghdad in early 1998 from his former...

According to the papers, an Al Qaeda envoy met with Baghdad in March 1998 to create a relationship based upon a mutual hate of the United States and Saudi Arabia.An unidenfiied Western Intelligence Source describes the find of intelligence (linking Saddam and Al Qaeda) as 'sensational.'

UK Newspaper Says Documents Link Bin Laden to IraqSat April 26, 2003 05:13 PM ETLONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper said it had discovered documents showing Iraqi intelligence hosted an envoy from Osama bin Laden in 1998 and sought to meet the alleged September 11 mastermind in person. The finding, if verified, would appear to support Washington's assertion of links between ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and bin Laden, one of the justifications for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The paper said the documents, which its correspondent found in the wrecked headquarters of the Iraqi Mukhabarat intelligence service, showed...

NEWSPAPERS: DOCS SHOW IRAQ/AL-QAIDA LINK XXXXX FRANCE BRIEFED SADDAM ON PRIVATE MEETINGS WITH U.S. The SUNDAY TELEGRAPH is reporting that papers found by reporters at Iraq's bombed out intelligence service building provide evidence of a direct link between Saddam Hussein's regime and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida... An unidentified Western intelligence official describes the find as 'sensational' According to the papers, an al-Qaida envoy met with officials in Baghdad in March 1998 to create a relationship based upon a mutual hate of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. MORE///