NB: In the period between the 1991 Iraq War and the 2003 Iraq War, the CIA, working with Ayyad Allawi, and his organization, the Iraqi National Accord, attempted several coups. Each time they were penetrated by Iraqi intelligence and failed.
Allawi thinks you can use Ba'athists to fight Ba'athists, but how can we be confident that the same thing that happened in the 1990s is not happening again, on a very massive scale? Sunday Telegraph Iraqi colonel arrested as a rebel spy By Aqeel Hussein in Samarra (Filed: 26/09/2004) A colonel in the Iraqi National Guard has been arrested on charges of aiding insurgents by passing on tip-offs about planned raids on resistance safe houses. Samir Al-daraji led a unit of Iraqi troops that carried out raids around the rebel-held city of Samarra, north west of Baghdad. American troops arrested him last week after a series of operations went wrong and troops attacked empty houses that had previously been identified as resistance command centres. "It is true that Col Al-daraji gave information to the resistance," said Col Adnan Thabit, the head of the National Guard in the city. "In the last weeks we have carried out several searches for people who have obviously been warned in advance that they were going to be raided. The Americans say they have received information that Al-daraji disclosed our plans." Last week an American attack on the house of Khalid Al-abbasy, the purported leader of the local resistance fighters, reduced the building to rubble but failed to kill any rebels. The compromised operation is thought to have been the last straw for American commanders. Col Al-daraji's brother, Ahmed, acknowledged that the family had links with the resistance. "We talked about one of us joining the resistance and one of us joining the Iraqi army," he said. "People say my brother is a traitor but I believe him to be a hero for working against the occupation." Samarra has been outside American control for three months since a daring mortar attack by rebels on the city's National Guard base. That incident forced the Americans and their local allies to withdraw to the outskirts of the city. The city has been cordoned-off for days and the United States has launched air strikes against the rebels as preparations are made for a new ground assault by the coalition. Last week police officials said that three people had been killed in air attacks. The main bridge into the city has been shut down, forcing the local population to cross the Tigris river by boat. The Iraqi National Guard has established checkpoints on all main roads into the city. Even if US and Iraqi government forces retake Samarra their control of the city will be limited by continuing infiltration of the security forces by insurgents. At present, any Iraqi in Samarra who wants to serve in the police force must first ask permission from the rebels. In a separate development yesterday, US aircraft launched a fresh air attack on the rebel-held city of Falluja. Officials said they had received intelligence reports that terrorists loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who were the target of the raid, were planning new attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces.
