Weekly Standard: Saddam's Ambassador to al Qaeda

[Barrett808]

Saddam's Ambassador to al Qaeda
From the March 1, 2004 issue: An Iraqi prisoner details Saddam's links to Osama bin Laden's terror network.
by Jonathan Schanzer
03/01/2004, Volume 009, Issue 24

A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam-al Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in Saddam's secret police, the Mukhabarat, from 1997 to 2002, and is currently sitting in a Kurdish prison. Al-Shamari says that he worked for a man who was Saddam's envoy to al Qaeda.

Before recounting details from my January 29 interview, some caution is necessary. Al-Shamari's account was compelling and filled with specific information that would either make him a skilled and detailed liar or a man with information that the U.S. public needs to hear. My Iraqi escort informed me that al-Shamari has been in prison since March 2002, that U.S. officials have visited him several times, and that his story has remained consistent. There was little language barrier; my Arabic skills allowed me to understand much of what al-Shamari said, even before translation. Finally, subsequent conversations with U.S. government officials in Washington and Baghdad, as well as several articles written well before this one, indicate that al-Shamari's claims have been echoed by other sources throughout Iraq.

When I walked into the tiny
interrogation room, it was midmorning. I had just finished interviews with two other prisoners--both members of Ansar al Islam, the al Qaeda affiliate responsible for attacks against Kurdish and Western targets in northern Iraq. The group had been active in a small enclave near Halabja in the Kurdistan region from about September 2001 until the U.S. assault on Iraq last spring, when its Arab and Kurdish fighters fled over the Iranian border, only to return after the war. U.S. officials now suspect Ansar in some of the bloodier attacks against U.S. interests throughout Iraq.

My first question to al-Shamari was whether he was involved in the operations of Ansar al Islam. My translator asked him the question in Arabic, and al-Shamari nodded: "Yes." Al-Shamari, who appears to be in his late twenties, said that his division of the Mukhabarat provided weapons to Ansar, "mostly mortar rounds." This statement echoed an independent Kurdish report from July 2002 alleging that ordnance seized from Ansar al Islam was produced by Saddam's military and a Guardian article several weeks later alleging that truckloads of arms were shipped to Ansar from areas controlled by Saddam.

(more)

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/768rwsbj.asp

[reprehensor]

1. P-R-O-P-A-G-A-N-D-A

Blow me Kristol. You, too Murdoch.

[UpInArms]

2. you beat me to it reprehensor

PNAC Propaganda Rag

:puke:

[DemNoir]

3. The quality of LBN continues to plummet

This is breaking "news"?

[Barrett808]

6. In my defense, I did preface the headline with "Weekly Standard"

To warn the unsuspecting. Also, the story is dated 1 March.

[orwell]

4. Can o' Corn

This story has been debunked both by the original Times reporter who broke it, and by David Corn in a recent article.

It was cited yesterday in a post on DU.

O

[SOS]

5. Most accounts miss an important detail

After the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, bin Laden went back to Saudi Arabia to work in the family business.
When Hussein occupied Kuwait, bin Laden told the Saudi Royal family that since he had recently defeated the Soviet Union, he could easily use his fighters to drive out the infidel Hussein from neighboring Kuwait. He wanted Moslem fighters to destroy Saddam. A background fear was that Hussein would attack SA.
The Saudi Royal family, under tremendous US pressure, rebuffed his ideas and instead went with Bush Sr's plan. They then allowed the US to use SA as a staging area, complete with air base. This dismissal is the root cause of bin Ladens hatred of the Saudi royal family and the US. Remember that the largest covert CIA operation in history was the $3 billion in arms funneled to bin Ladens army in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Bush Sr. should have let the mujahedeen fighters handle Hussein in Kuwait. This would have kept the battles within the world of Islam. As in Afghanistan the US could have supplied military assistance without getting directly involved. But since Kuwaiti (and possibly Saudi) oil was at stake the Bushies didn't want to take a chance. A huge mistake.

[plcdude]

8. very interesting

and your source for this information is?

[SOS]

9. From Global Vision News Network

by Jamal Khashoggi

"In August 1990, Iraq occupied Kuwait and Osama Bin Laden offered his services to fight the forces of Saddam Hussein. I asked Prince Turki about a meeting between Bin Laden and a top Saudi official and about Bin Laden's offer to fight Saddam with a group of Arab volunteers. "It was not he (Bin Laden) alone who offered their services. Other personalities in the Arab world did the same, some with good and others with bad intentions. They wanted to show that there are Arabs capable of fighting and defeating Saddam, especially after the Kingdom took the bold decision to bring together an international alliance to flush out the Iraqi forces."

It was during this period, the prince said, that the first signs of changes in Bin Laden's personality were becoming evident. "Firstly, he believed that he was capable of preparing an army to challenge Saddam's forces. Secondly, he opposed the Kingdom's decision to call friendly forces. By doing so, he disobeyed the ruler and violated the fatwa of senior Islamic scholars, who had endorsed the plan as an essential move to fight injustice and aggression."


http://www.gvnews.net/demo/html/WorldReacts/alert321.html

[salin]

7. response...

if your boys hadn't diverted intel, military, int'l police cooperation, and MONEY from the efforts in Afghanistan - and perhaps had done the investment in rebuilding that had been promised... al qeada wouldn't have been regrouping and strengthening by the summer of 2002 ...

everytime these guys bring up al qeada, obl or the like... the effect of THEIR policies should be an echoing backdrop to the conversation.

e.g., saddam captured... days later: heightened alert... planes turned back... and announcments that an al qeada attack is not an if but a 'when'...

er... doesn't the presence of these stories underscore the gop's absolute, intentional (by letting policy be dictated by ideology rather than realities) ineffectiveness in 'national security' issues per al qeada?