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Exclusive: Saddam
Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties By Scott Wheeler CNSNews.com
Staff Writer October 04, 2004
(CNSNews.com) -
Iraqi intelligence documents, confiscated by U.S. forces and
obtained by CNSNews.com, show numerous efforts by
Saddam Hussein's regime to work with some of the world's most
notorious terror organizations, including al Qaeda, to target
Americans. They demonstrate that Saddam's government possessed
mustard gas and anthrax, both considered weapons of mass
destruction, in the summer of 2000, during the period in which
United Nations weapons inspectors were not present in Iraq.
And the papers show that Iraq trained dozens of terrorists
inside its borders.
One of the Iraqi memos contains an
order from Saddam for his intelligence service to support
terrorist attacks against Americans in Somalia. The memo was
written nine months before U.S. Army Rangers were ambushed in
Mogadishu by forces loyal to a warlord with alleged ties to al
Qaeda.
Other memos provide a list of terrorist groups
with whom Iraq had relationships and considered available for
terror operations against the United States.
Among the
organizations mentioned are those affiliated with Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi and Ayman al-Zawahiri, two of the world's most
wanted terrorists. Zarqawi is believed responsible for the
kidnapping and beheading of several American civilians in Iraq
and claimed responsibility for a series of deadly bombings in
Iraq Sept. 30. Al-Zawahiri is the top lieutenant of al Qaeda
chief Osama bin Laden, allegedly helped plan the Sept. 11,
2001 terrorist strikes on the U.S., and is believed to be the
voice on an audio tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera television Oct.
1, calling for attacks on U.S. and British interests
everywhere.
The source of the documents
A
senior government official who is not a political appointee
provided CNSNews.com with copies of the 42 pages of
Iraqi Intelligence Service documents. The originals, some of
which were hand-written and others typed, are in Arabic.
CNSNews.com had the papers translated into English by
two individuals separately and independent of each
other.
There are no hand-writing samples to which the
documents can be compared for forensic analysis and
authentication. However, three other experts - a former
weapons inspector with the United Nations Special Commission
(UNSCOM), a retired CIA counter-terrorism official with vast
experience dealing with Iraq, and a former advisor to
then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton on Iraq - were asked
to analyze the documents. All said they comport with the
format, style and content of other Iraqi documents from that
era known to be genuine.
Laurie Mylroie, who authored
the book, "Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein's Unfinished War
against America," and advised Clinton on Iraq during the 1992
presidential campaign, told CNSNews.com that the papers
represent "the most complete set of documents relating Iraq to
terrorism, including Islamic terrorism" against the
U.S.
Mylroie has long maintained that Iraq was a state
sponsor of terrorism against the United States. The documents
obtained by CNSNews.com , she said, include
"correspondence back and forth between Saddam's office and
Iraqi Mukhabarat (intelligence agency). They make sense. This
is what one would think Saddam was doing at the
time."
Bruce Tefft, a retired CIA official who
specialized in counter-terrorism and had extensive experience
dealing with Iraq, said that "based on available, unclassified
and open source information, the details in these documents
are accurate ..."
The former UNSCOM inspector zeroed in
on the signatures on the documents and "the names of some of
the people who sign off on these things.
"This is
fairly typical of that time era. [The Iraqis] were meticulous
record keepers," added the former U.N. official, who spoke
with CNSNews.com on the condition of
anonymity.
The senior government official, who
furnished the documents to CNSNews.com, said the papers
answer "whether or not Iraq was a state sponsor of Islamic
terrorism against the United States. It also answers whether
or not Iraq had an ongoing biological warfare project
continuing through the period when the UNSCOM inspections
ended."
Presidential campaign focused on
Iraq
The presidential campaign is currently
dominated by debate over whether Saddam procured weapons of
mass destruction and/or whether his government sponsored
terrorism aimed at Americans before the U.S. invaded Iraq last
year. Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry has repeatedly
rejected that possibility and criticized President Bush for
needlessly invading Iraq.
"[Bush's] two main
rationales - weapons of mass destruction and the al
Qaeda/September 11 (2001) connection - have been proved false
... by the president's own weapons inspectors ... and by the
9/11 Commission," Kerry told an audience at New York
University on Sept. 20.
The Senate Intelligence
Committee's probe of the 9/11 intelligence failures also could
not produce any definitive links between Saddam's government
and 9/11. And United Nations as well as U.S. weapons
inspectors in Iraq have been unable to find the biological and
chemical weapons Saddam was suspected of
possessing.
But the documents obtained by
CNSNews.com shed new light on the
controversy.
They detail the Iraqi regime's purchase of
five kilograms of mustard gas on Aug. 21, 2000 and three vials
of malignant pustule, another term for anthrax,
on Sept. 6, 2000. The purchase order for the mustard gas
includes gas masks, filters and rubber gloves. The order for
the anthrax includes sterilization and decontamination
equipment. (See Saddam's Possession of Mustard
Gas)
The documents show that Iraqi intelligence
received the mustard gas and anthrax from "Saddam's company,"
which Tefft said was probably a reference to Saddam General
Establishment, "a complex of factories involved with, amongst
other things, precision optics, missile, and artillery
fabrication."
"Sa'ad's general company" is listed on
the Iraqi documents as the supplier of the sterilization and
decontamination equipment that accompanied the anthrax vials.
Tefft believes this is a reference to the Salah Al-Din State
Establishment, also involved in missile construction. (See Saddam's Possession of Anthrax)
The Jaber Ibn Hayan General Company is listed as the
supplier of the safety equipment that accompanied the mustard
gas order. Tefft described the company as "a 'turn-key'
project built by Romania, designed to produce protective CW
(conventional warfare) and BW (biological warfare) equipment
(gas masks and protective clothing)."
"Iraq had an
ongoing biological warfare project continuing through the
period when the UNSCOM inspections ended," the senior
government official and source of the documents said. "This
should cause us to redouble our efforts to find the Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction programs."
'Hunt the
Americans'
The first of the 42 pages of Iraqi
documents is dated Jan. 18, 1993, approximately two years
after American troops defeated Saddam's army in the first
Persian Gulf War. The memo includes Saddam's directive that
"the party should move to hunt the Americans who are on Arabian land,
especially in Somalia, by using Arabian elements ..."
On Oct. 3, 1993, less than nine months after that
Iraqi memo was written, American soldiers were ambushed in
Mogadishu, Somalia by forces loyal to Somali warlord Mohammed
Farah Aidid, an alleged associate of Osama bin Laden. Eighteen
Americans were killed and 84 wounded during a 17-hour
firefight that followed the ambush in which Aidid's followers
used civilians as decoys. (See Saddam's Connections to al
Qaeda)
An 11-page Iraqi memo, dated Jan. 25, 1993,
lists Palestinian, Sudanese and Asian terrorist organizations
and the relationships Iraq had with each of them. Of
particular importance, Tefft said, are the relationships Iraq
had already developed or was in the process of developing with
groups and individuals affiliated with al Qaeda, such as Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi and Ayman al-Zawahiri. The U.S. currently is
offering rewards of up to $25 million for each man's capture.
The documents describe Al-Jehad wa'l Tajdeed as "a secret
Palestinian organization" founded after the first Persian Gulf
War that "believes in armed struggle against U.S. and western
interests." The leaders of the group, according to the Iraqi
memo, were stationed in Jordan in 1993, and when one of those
leaders visited Iraq in November 1992, he "showed the
readiness of his organization to execute operations against
U.S. interests at any time." (See More Saddam Connections to al
Qaeda)
Tefft believes the Tajdeed group likely
included al-Zarqawi, whom Teft described as "our current
terrorist nemesis" in Iraq, "a Palestinian on a Jordanian
passport who was with al Qaeda and bin Laden in Afghanistan
prior to this period (1993)."
Tajdeed, which means
Islamic Renewal, currently "has a website that posts Zarqawi's
speeches, messages, claims of assassinations and beheading
videos," Tefft told CNSNews.com. "The apparent linkages
are too close to be accidental" and might "be one of the first
operational contacts between an al Qaeda group and Iraq," he
added.
Tefft said the documents, all of which the
Iraqi Intelligence Service labeled "Top secret, personal and
urgent" show several links between Saddam's government and
terror groups dedicated not only to targeting America but also
U.S. allies like Egypt and Israel.
The same 11-page
memo refers to the "re-opening of the relationship" with Al-Jehad al-Islamy, which is described as
"the most violent in Egypt," responsible for the 1981
assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The documents
go on to describe a Dec. 14, 1990 meeting between Iraqi
intelligence officials and a representative of Al-Jehad
al-Islamy, that ended in an agreement "to move against [the]
Egyptian regime by doing martyr operations on conditions that
we should secure the finance, training and equipments." (See More Saddam Connections to al
Qaeda)
Al-Zawahiri was one of the leaders of Jehad
al-Islamy, which is also known as the Egyptian Islamic Group,
and participated in the assassination of Sadat, Tefft said.
"Iraq's contact with the Egyptian Islamic Group is another
operational contact between Iraq and al Qaeda," he
added.
One of the Asian groups listed on the Iraqi
intelligence memo is J.U.I., also known as the Islamic Clerks
Society. The group is currently led by Mawlana Fadhel
al-Rahman, whom Tefft said is "an al Qaeda member and
co-signed Osama bin Laden's 1998 fatwa (religious ruling) to
kill Americans." The Iraqi memo from 1993 states that J.U.I.'s
secretary general "has a good relationship with our system
since 1981 and he is ready for any mission." Tefft said the
memo shows "another direct Iraq link to an al Qaeda group."
Iraq had also maintained a relationship with the Afghani Islamist party since 1989, according
to the memo. The "relationship was improved and became
directly between the leader, Hekmatyar and Iraq," it states,
referring to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghani warlord who
fought against the Soviet Union and current al Qaeda ally,
according to Tefft.
Last year, American authorities in
Afghanistan ranked Hekmatyar third on their most wanted list,
behind only bin Laden and former Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
Hekmatyar represents "another Iraqi link to an al Qaeda
group," Tefft said. (See More Saddam Connections to al Qaeda)
The Iraqi intelligence documents also refer to
terrorist groups previously believed to have had links with
Saddam Hussein. They include the Palestine Liberation Front, a group
dedicated to attacking Israel, and according to the Iraqi
memo, one with "an office in Baghdad."
The Abu Nidal group, suspected by the CIA of
having acted as surrogates for Iraqi terrorist attacks, is
also mentioned.
"The movement believes in political
violence and assassinations," the 1993 Iraqi memo states in
reference to the Abu Nidal organization. "We have
relationships with them since 1973. Currently, they have a
representative in the country. Monthly helps are given to them
-- 20 thousand dinars - in addition to other supports," the
memo explains. (See Saddam's Connections to Palestinian Terror
Groups)
Iraq not only built and maintained
relationships with terrorist groups, the documents show it
appears to have trained terrorists as well. Ninety-two
individuals from various Middle Eastern countries are listed
on the papers.
Many are described as having "finished
the course at M14," a reference to an Iraqi intelligence
agency, and to having "participated in Umm El-Ma'arek," the
Iraqi response to the U.S. invasion in 1991. The author of the
list notes that approximately half of the individuals "all got
trained inside the 'martyr act camp' that belonged to our
directorate."
The former UNSCOM weapons inspector who
was asked to analyze the documents believes it's clear that
the Iraqis "were training people there in assassination and
suicide bombing techniques ... including
non-Iraqis."
Bush administration likely unaware of
documents' existence
The senior government official
and source of the Iraqi intelligence memos, explained that the
reason the documents have not been made public before now is
that the government has "thousands and thousands of documents
waiting to be translated.
"It is unlikely they even
know this exists," the source added.
The government
official also explained that the motivation for leaking the
documents, "is strictly national security and helping with the
war on terrorism by focusing this country's attention on facts
and away from political posturing.
"This is too
important to let it get caught up in the political process,"
the source told CNSNews.com.
To protect against
the Iraqi intelligence documents being altered or
misrepresented elsewhere on the Internet, CNSNews.com
has decided
to publish only the first of the 42 pages in Arabic, along
with the English translation. Portions of some of the other
memos in translated form are also being published to accompany
this report. Credentialed journalists and counter-terrorism
experts seeking to view the 42 pages of Arabic documents or to
challenge their authenticity may make arrangements to do so at
CNSNews.com headquarters in Alexandria,
Va.
E-mail a
news tip to Scott Wheeler.
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about this article.
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