Book details how CIA hired clerics to stem anti-American sentiment
Posted: September 24, 2003
1:00 p.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
New details about the lengths the United States went to in its post-9-11 war on terror reveal the CIA hired Islamic mullahs to stem the rising tide of anti-American sentiment in the Arab world.
And where they couldn't sway clerics, they created fake religious leaders to preach a moderate message.
The revelation is made in an upcoming book by investigative reporter Ronald Kessler titled "The CIA at War."
"In Islam, as in many other religions, anyone can call himself a religious leader," Kessler writes, according to the Reuters News Agency. "So, besides paying mullahs, the CIA created fake mullahs – recruited agents who would proclaim themselves clerics and take a more moderate position about non-believers."
According to Reuters, a CIA source is quoted in the book as saying: "We are taking over radio stations and supporting clerics. It's back to propaganda. We are creating moderate Muslims."
The propaganda tool was used in the run-up to the coalition invasion in Iraq, Kessler says, where CIA-paid mullahs issued fatwas, or religious edicts, urging Iraqis not to resist American forces.
Kessler, who has written extensively about the CIA and the FBI, interviewed CIA director George Tenet and other senior officials for his latest book and incorporates photographs supplied by the agency.
In addition to the PR offensive, Kessler describes espionage activity in Iraq which laid the groundwork for the military action. Agents planted tiny video cameras, electronic beacons and radar-imaging sensors to track Saddam, his sons and other officials, and monitor the position of Iraqi troops and suspected weapons of mass destruction.
The CIA and Special Forces also paid Iraqi guards who averted sabotage at oil wells by snipping wires to explosive devices rigged after the war began.
According to Kessler, Iraqi agents disguised their communications to the CIA by writing over innocuous letters to family members using paper treated with chemicals that reveal the hidden message in a special light.
"The CIA at War" is due out next month.
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