7. Anthrax attacks in September 18, 2001 - October, 2001
In the days following September 11, anthrax letters were mailed, anthrax being a bioweapon used by Saddam;
“Speaking about the beginning of US retaliation for 9/11, Uday Hussein wrote the following in the Iraqi state media: ‘At this stage it is possible to turn to biological attack, where a small can, not bigger than the size of the hand, can be used to release viruses that affect everything.... The viruses easily spread by air, and people are affected without feeling it.’[77]” (Ryan Mauro, Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden: A Match Made Up in Propaganda?, http://www.worldthreats.com, citing Radio Free Europe, October 19, 2001.) Uday Hussein, wrote this in Babil on September 20, 2001, before any news had come out about the Anthrax-laced letters mailed on September 18, 2001. (Cf. Wall Street Journal, "Saddam and the Next 9/11", Feb. 14, 2003.)
“Britain's Guardian newspaper reported Sunday that American investigators probing anthrax outbreaks in Florida and New York believe they have all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack -- and have named Iraq as the prime suspect as the source of the deadly spores. [¶] “The Guardian notes that in liquid form, anthrax is useless - droplets would fall to the ground, rather than staying suspended in the air to be breathed by victims. [¶] ‘Making powder needs repeated washings in huge centrifuges, followed by intensive drying, which requires sealed environments. The technology would cost millions.’ [¶] The London paper quoting CIA sources as saying that ‘Iraq has the technology and supplies of anthrax suitable for terrorist use.’. . . [¶] American officials have already revealed that anthrax bacteria used in the recent attacks is the ‘Ames strain’ of anthrax originally cultivated at Iowa State University in the 1950s. Iraq is believed to have that strain.” (WorldNetDaily, December 26, 2003, linking Geostrategy-Direct, a subscription-based service produced by the publishers of WorldTribune.com.)
“But if we look at the anthrax strain, which was enhanced with bentonite and silicia, Iraq is suspected. Of the few countries suspected of having anthrax weapons, Iraq is the only believed to use bentonite. Silicia and bentonite are used to separate the tiny particles, so as to be inhaled more easily. Former UN biological weapons inspector, Timothy Trevan says that the presence of bentonite in anthrax is a trademark of Iraq’s anthrax.[78] Significantly, a former UN inspector and expert in biological warfare, Richard Spertzel, also have said that he believes Iraq sponsored the attack. He testified: “It has to be someone with an existing biological program. These are Russia, Syria, Iran, and Libya. Top of my list, though, is Iraq. There are known associations with intelligence personnel and al-Qaeda. Also they have the capability, and the know-how.”[79] Additionally, only three countries are known to have produced anthrax in the way that they were used in the attacks (where the spores are extremely small and made in such a way to minimize potential for not being inhaled). These countries are Iraq, Russia, and the United States.” (Ryan Mauro, Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden: A Match Made Up in Propaganda?, http://www.worldthreats.com, citing, [78] ABC News, October 29, 2001, [79] Sunday Telegraph, October 27, 2001.)
“There is immense evidence that ‘Waly Samar’ (not his real identity), an Iraqi associate with experience in biotechnology whom worked alongside Ramzi Yousef in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, has a role in the anthrax attacks. The contacts Samar made with Yousef were paid by Abdul Rahman Yasin, the other Iraqi involved in the 1993 plot with Ramzi Yousef who was given safety by Baghdad. Samar has been teaching in New York City (but lives in New Jersey) since receiving his Ph.D. in biology from Hunter College. His graduate and current research was in Bacillus subtilis, a stimulant used in making anthrax as a potent biological weapon. . . . [¶] In 2000, Waly Samar tried to get a job at the University of Minnesota, one of the top colleges for “agricultural aviation”, or crop dusting. This is the same college that Zacarias Moussaoui, the 20th hijacker, tried to take courses on crop dusting. Mohammed Atta, the 9/11 leader, is also known to have tried to buy a crop duster.” (Ryan Mauro, “Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden:
A Match Made Up in Propaganda?”, http://www.worldthreats.com, citing J. Adams, “Is 'Waly Samar' an Iraqi Bioterrorist on U.S. Soil?”, http://www.spiritoftruth.org/samar.htm.)
8. Assassination of Laurence Foley (Oct. 28, 2002)
On October 28, 2002, the al-Zarqawi network, a Baghdad-based al-Qaida cell, allied to Saddam, assassinated Laurence Foley, a U.S. diplomat in Jordan;
“An expert in poisons and chemical weapons, Zarqawi is believed to have been providing training to the extremist group Ansar al Islam. The group is based in northeastern Iraq in territory that is under the control of neither Baghdad nor the main Kurdish groups that have divided up most of northern Iraq. [¶] Soon after Zarqawi arrived, Powell said, "nearly two dozen extremists converged on Baghdad and established a base of operations there. [¶] "These Al Qaeda affiliates, based in Baghdad, now coordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for his network, and they are now operating freely in the capital for more than eight months," he added. Coalition officials said that no group could operate in this manner without deep engagement with Iraq's ubiquitous intelligence services. . . . [¶] The unraveling of the Qaeda story in Iraq, which is still under way, took on some of the drama of an espionage thriller when, after the murder of Foley in Amman, the Qaeda deputy to Zarqawi suffered a lapse of communications discipline. As he drove across northern Iraq to the Turkish and Syrian frontiers, he could not resist using his satellite phone to call Foley's murderers to congratulate them and tell them he was on his way to meet with them. . . . [¶] "The captured assassin says his cell received money and weapons from Zarqawi for that murder," Powell said. In December, Jordan announced that it had two men in custody who had confessed to killing Foley on the instructions of Zarqawi.. . [¶] "The captured assassin says his cell received money and weapons from Zarqawi for that murder," Powell said. In December, Jordan announced that it had two men in custody who had confessed to killing Foley on the instructions of Zarqawi.” (Patrick E. Tyler, The New York Times, February 7, 2003.)
9. Attacks on U.S. Planes Monitoring “No-fly” Zones (2002 - 2003)
Even during the U.N. inspections, before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Saddam regime continuously attacked U.S. planes monitoring the "no-fly" zones.
“The no-fly zones were established by the US, the UK and France after the Gulf War for humanitarian reasons in an attempt to stop Saddam's repression of Kurdish people in the north of Iraq, and the Shia population in the south. The aim is to prevent Iraq being able to attack these people from the air. The Secretary of State commented- [¶] Previously Saddam has used helicopter gun ships to repress the Kurdish population in the north and both fixed wing aircraft and helicopter gun ships to repress Shia muslims in the south. Coalition patrols prevent him using his air force in this way but there is no reason to suppose he would not resume the tactics if the patrols ceased.[63]” (UK Parliament, Select Committee on Defence Thirteenth Report, 27 ) “The UK and the US governments have frequently said that the basis lies in UN Security Council Resolution 688 of April 1991 which- [¶] ‘... condemns the repression of the Iraqi civilian population in many parts of Iraq ... demands that Iraq ... immediately end this repression ... requests the Secretary-General to pursue his humanitarian efforts in Iraq ... appeals to all Member States ... to contribute to these humanitarian relief efforts.[73]’ [¶] The Secretary of State told us-... the justification is essentially based on the overwhelming humanitarian necessity of protecting people on the ground, combined with the need to monitor the effect of 688; so it is the two taken in combination that provides the legal justification.[74] ” (UK Parliament, Select Committee on Defence Thirteenth Report, 30 ) In addition, the underlying legal basis was supplied by UN Security Council Resolution 678, which “ . . . 2. Authorizes Member States co-operating with the Government of Kuwait, unless Iraq on or before 15 January 1991 fully implements, as set forth in paragraph 1 above, the foregoing resolutions, to use all necessary means to uphold and implement resolution 660 (1990) and all subsequent relevant resolutions and to restore international peace and security in the area” (UNSCR 678, Nov. 29, 1990; see also UNSCR 1441, Nov. 8, 2002 [reaffirming UNSCR 678].)
“The zones were established shortly after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Kurdish and Shiite Muslim groups. Iraq, which considers the zones violations of its sovereignty, frequently trie[d] to shoot down allied planes. . . . [¶] Under the [Security Council] resolution [1441], a material breach must be reported to the Security Council for new debate and could be used as possible justification for U.S.-led military action to remove Saddam's government. [¶] A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in Washington Friday the government considers the firing a material breach, but could not say whether or when American officials would raise the issue with the United Nations. [¶] State Department spokesman Frederick Jones said the United States had the option of reporting the Iraqi firing to the Security Council but had not decided whether to do so.” (Associated Press, November 18, 2002, “Coalition planes attacked over Iraq.” )
“Military officials here at the Pentagon point out there's one sort of delicate problem in calling this a material breach and initiating military action, and that is Iraq has been doing this for over 10 years. It would be a very delicate situation for the U.S. to now suddenly stand up, they say, declare this is a material breach, and that it would be grounds for going to war. [¶] But it is very, very clear Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is becoming increasingly frustrated. He told reporters earlier today that he wanted . . . to remind people, this is the only place in the world where U.S. pilots are fired upon, and there is a measured response by the U.S. military. He pointed out in any other case, there would not be such a measured response.” (Wolf Blitzer with Barbara Starr, CNN, “No-Fly Zone Shootings”, aired November 18, 2002, http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0211/18/sdi.06.html.)
D. Conclusion
Therefore, “if reporters really want to know why Americans see ties between Baghdad and 9/11, they need look no further than their own archives, where they'll find repeated and as yet undisputed reports documenting compelling evidence of Iraq's role in the attacks.” (NewsMax.com, Sept. 17, 2003.) Not only is the evidence undisputed, but the natural conclusion from that evidence comes as no surprise to such authorities as Vice President (and former Secretary of Defense) Dick Cheney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former CIA director James Woolsey, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, FBI official Jim Fox, [t]he original lead official on the [1993 World Trade Center] case, U.S. District Judge Timothy Leonard [re Oklahoma City bombing] , Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge Harold Baer [re Iraq’s involvement in September 11], and U.N. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer.
1.
Date: Apr 5, 2003
Place: Euphrates River near Nasiriyah
Outfit: marines
Finding: mustard gas and cyanide [believed to have been dumped in the Euphrates either by Iraqi soldiers fleeing from American troops or local factories that produced weapons of mass destruction.]
Effects:
Source: [London Daily Telegraph; MSNBC, citing marine officials]
2.
Date: Apr 5, 2003
Place: Albu Muhawish on the Euphrates River about 100km south of Baghdad
Outfit: 101st Airborne
Finding: tabun and sarin, plus 55-gallon chemical drums, hundreds of gas masks and chemical suits
Effects: more than a dozen soldiers; vomiting, dizziness and skin blotches. [soldiers hosed down with water and bleach]
Source: [Knight Ridder reporter, and CNN]
3.
Date: Apr 6, 2003
Place: near airport Karbala, just south of Hindiyah
Outfit: 101st Airborne
Finding: two dozen drums that initially tested positive for Sarin and mustard gas
Effects: 11 soldiers, were treated for symptoms of low-level exposure - vomiting, dizziness and skin blotches.
Source: [Major Michael Hamlet, 101st, cited by Reuters]
4.
Date: Apr 7, 2003
Place: near Baghdad
Outfit: 1st Marine Division
Finding: 20 medium-range BM-21 missiles equipped with sarin and mustard gas
Effects:
Source: [per top marine official cited in NPR, Fox News]
6.
Date: Apr 9, 11, 2003
Place: underground tunnels at al Tawaitha facility, 18 mi. south of Baghdad
Outfit: marines
Finding: stocks of low-grade nuclear materials, uranium and possibly plutonium
Effects: radiation levels are high [many drums of highly radioactive material]
Source: [Capt. John Seegar; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review][Lt. Cmdr. Charles Owens]
7.
Date: Apr 12, 2003
Place: northern Iraqi air base in Kirkut
Outfit: army intelligence posting
Finding: chemical warhead with trace amounts of nerve gas
Effects:
Source: [military sources to CNN]
8.
Date: Apr 25, 2003
Place: site east of Bayji, Iraq
Outfit: U.S. Special Forces reconnaissance team later: experts from Army's 1-10 Cavalry
Finding: a dozen 55-gallon drums; mixture of three chemicals, including a nerve agent and blistering agent
Effects:
Source: [Lt. Col. Ted Martin of the 10th Cavalry Regiment; Lt. Valerie Phipps, cited by ABC News]
9.
Date: May 9, 2003
Place: near Mosul, Iraq
Outfit: 101st Airborne
Finding: mobile biological weapons laboratory [incomplete]
Effects:
Source: [Army Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus]
10.
Date: Oct 4, 2003
Place: Iraqi scientist’s refrigerator
Outfit: U.S. arms inspectors led by David Kay
Finding: vial of botulinum bacteria [the most poisonous substance known to man]
Effects:
Source: [Richard Boucher, State Dept. spokesman to Agence France-Presse WorldNetDaily.com]
11.
Date: May - Oct, 2003
Place: various parts of Iraq
Outfit: U.S. arms inspectors led by David Kay
Finding: a clandestine network of biological laboratories"; dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment”
Effects:
Source: [Richard Boucher, State Dept. spokesman to Agence France-Presse, WorldNetDaily.com]
12.
Date: Oct 4, 2003 [earlier in wk]
Place: smuggled from Iraq to Kuwait [destination:. a Eur. country]
Outfit: Kuwaiti security forces
Finding: biological and chemical weapons, and biological. warheads
Effects:
Source: [Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassah WorldNetDaily.com]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.
Date: January 4, 2004
Place: Al Quarnah near Basra
Outfit: Danish troops
Finding: 200 Iraqi mortar shells containing a deadly liquid blister agent
Effects: Multiple tests [conducted in Iraq by Danish and British experts] all confirm shells contain blister agent
Source: Danish official sources to Fox News Channel, Reuters and the Associated Press [find also confirmed by Ali Nimir, a former colonel in an Iraqi Republican Guard artillery unit]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.
Date: April 17, 2004
Place: Amman, Jordan, 75 miles from the Syrian border [believed derived from Iraq]
Outfit: Jordanian officials
Finding: al-Qaida car "carried explosives, a chemical bomb and poisonous gas.”
Effects: "The bomb, had it been detonated, could have affected people in a one-kilometer radius and cause the deaths of up to 20,000 people," Jordanian officials told Maariv.
Source: Jordanian officials to the London-based newspaper al-Hayat ; see also the Israeli newspaper Maariv; U.P.I.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.
Date: April 26, 2004
Place: Baghdad
Outfit: U.S. troops
Finding: workshop "suspected of producing and supplying chemical agents" to Iraqi insurgents]
Effects: [workshop exploded in flames Monday moments after U.S. troops broke in to search it]
Source: Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt; Fox News; A.P.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16.
Date: c. May 3, 2004
Place: Baghdad
Outfit: U.S. military units
Finding: artillery shell containing trace elements of mustard agent
Effects: [analysis confirmed]
Source: senior Bush Admin. official to Fox News
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.
Date: [rptd] May 17, 2004
Place: Baghdad
Outfit: U.S. military units
Finding: 155-millimeter artillery shell containing chemical weapon sarin
Effects: two American soldiers who removed the round had symptoms of low-level nerve agent exposure [analysis confirmed]
Source: Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt to Fox News
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.
Date: late June, 2004; rptd July 2, 2004
Place: South-central Iraq
Outfit: Polish troops
Finding: 16-17 warheads, containing cyclosarin, a deadly nerve agent
Effects: a very toxic gas, five times stronger than sarin and five times more durable
Source: Gen. Marek Dukaczewski and Polish Gen. Mieczyslaw Bieniek to Polish TV; A.P., Newsmax
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19.
Date: 1999 - 2000 [causes]; 2003-2004[effects]
Place: [cause] laboratories outside Iraq [per Iraqi defector quoting Saddam]; Cuba [per Cuban defectors]
Outfit: Iraqi and Cuban defectors [causes]; health officials [effects]
Finding: strain SV 141 of the West Nile virus
Effects: [initial effects] Florida Keys and eastern half of U.S., now spreading throughout U.S. and Israel
Source: Richard Preston in The New Yorker magazine, (7/12/99); Joseph Farah in WND, (6/27/04)
20.
Date: June 19 -23, 2004
Place: sprawling Tuwaitha nuclear complex, 12 miles south of Baghdad [removed to U.S.]
Outfit: U.S. nuclear authorities (U.S. National Nuclear Security Admin.)
Finding: (1) c. 1.8 tons of uranium, enriched to a level of 2.6 %, (2) 6.6 lbs. of low-enriched uranium, (3) c. 1,000 highly radioactive sources*
Effects: *[3, cont.] that could be used in so-called "dirty bombs"
Source: (1) Spencer Abraham, U.S. Energy Scty.; (2) Paul Longsworth, Dep.Admin. for def. nuclear nonprolif. in the U.S. Natl. Nuclear Secur. Admin., (A.P., 7/07/04)
Iraqi Documents Show Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties
Scott Wheeler, CNSNews.com
Monday, Oct. 4, 2004
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-Qaida, to target Americans.
The documents 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.
Story Continues Below
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-Qaida.
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 blame for a series of deadly bombings in Iraq Sept. 30. Al-Zawahiri is the top lieutenant of al-Qaida 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
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 handwriting 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 wrote the book "Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein's Unfinished War Against America," and advised Bill Clinton on Iraq during the 1992 presidential campaign, told CNSNews.com that the papers represented "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
The presidential campaign is currently dominated by debate over whether Saddam procured weapons of mass destruction and whether his government sponsored terrorism aimed at Americans before the U.S. invaded Iraq last year. Democrat 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-Qaida/September 11 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.
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.
Jaber Ibn Hayan General Co. 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.
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-Qaida, such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Ayman al-Zawahiri. The U.S. 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."
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-Qaida and bin Laden in Afghanistan prior to this period [1993]."
Tajdeed, which means Islamic Renewal, "has a Web site 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-Qaida group and Iraq."
Tefft said the documents, all of which the Iraqi Intelligence Service labeled "Top secret, personal and urgent," showed several links between Saddam's government and terror groups dedicated not only to targeting America but also U.S. allies such as 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."
Al-Zawahiri was one of the leaders of Jehad al-Islamy, also known as 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-Qaida," he added.
One of the Asian groups listed on the Iraqi intelligence memo is J.U.I., also known as Islamic Clerks Society. The group is led by Mawlana Fadhel al-Rahman, whom Tefft said is "an al-Qaida 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-Qaida 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-Qaida 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-Qaida group," Tefft said.
The Iraqi intelligence documents also refer to terrorist groups previously believed to have had links with Saddam Hussein. They include Palestine Liberation Front, a group dedicated to attacking Israel, and according to the Iraqi memo, one with "an office in Baghdad."
Abu Nidal
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
The senior government official and source of the Iraqi intelligence memos, explained that the reason the documents had not been made public before now was 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's headquarters in Alexandria, Va.
Nuclear assets 'vanish' in Iraq
BBC News
Monday, October 11, 2004
Equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear arms have been vanishing in Iraq since the invasion, the United Nations has warned.
Satellite images show entire buildings have been dismantled without any record being made, said Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog.
Iraq's US-backed leaders have not reported to the UN on the state of nuclear plants despite a duty to do so.
But they have asked the UN to help sell off unwanted nuclear material.
"The disappearance of such equipment and materials may be of proliferation significance" per Muhamed ElBaradei
Inspectors from Mr ElBaradei's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who established that Saddam Hussein had abandoned any nuclear weapons programme before the war, have not been allowed to move about Iraq freely by the US.
Apart from a couple of limited checks on the main nuclear facility at Tuwaitha last June after reports of looting - and with no teams now on the ground - the IAEA has to rely on satellite imagery and other sources.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Mr ElBaradei said buildings related to Iraq's previous nuclear programme appeared to have been systematically dismantled and equipment and material removed.
"The disappearance of such equipment and materials may be of proliferation significance," the IAEA director general warned.
No reports
Sensitive technology such as rocket engines has turned up for sale abroad, Mr ElBaradei said.
However, high-precision "dual-use" items including milling machines and electron beam welders appear to have disappeared, as has material such as high-strength aluminium.
Mr ElBaradei called on any state with information on the location of such items to inform his agency.
The US removed nearly two tonnes of low-enriched uranium from Iraq earlier this year. The IAEA has verified that 550 tonnes of nuclear material still remain at Tuwaitha.
Iraq, the agency says, has asked for help to sell the nuclear material and in dismantling and decontaminating former nuclear facilities.
Mr ElBaradei reminded the Security Council that Iraq was still obliged to "declare semi-annually changes that have occurred or are foreseen at sites deemed relevant" by the IAEA.
However, since March 2003 "the agency has received no such notifications or declarations from any state", he said.
Last week, a report from chief US weapons inspector Charles Duelfer concluded that Saddam Hussein had stopped trying to build weapons of mass destruction following the 1991 Gulf War.
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that Saddam Hussein was prepared to restart his nuclear weapons program on a moment's notice, rebutting claims by Sen. John Kerry during Thursday night's presidential debate that Iraq posed no nuclear threat.
"One of the heads of his nuclear program, Mr. Obeidi, said in the New York Times just a few days ago that Saddam Hussein could have restarted his nuclear program at the snap of a finger," Rice told ABC's "This Week."
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Last week Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, who was in charge of Saddam's uranium enrichment operation, told Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity that he turned over blueprints for centrifuges that Saddam wanted built to U.S. weapons inspectors after the war.
Obeidi worked at the al Tuwaitha nuclear weapons facility south of Baghdad, where 500 tons of yellowcake uranium ore were stored for weapons development.
Asked if he was working to obtain a nuclear bomb for Saddam "well into the late 1990s," Obeidi told Hannity, "I was."
The Iraqi nuclear scientist details his efforts to produce nuclear weapons for Iraq in his new book, "The Bomb in My Garden."
Dr. Rice cited Obeidi's account to back up the assessment of what she described as "the intelligence community as a whole," which had determined that aluminum tubes uncovered in Iraq were "certainly suitable for and likely intended for his nuclear weapons program."
"The director of central intelligence believed that these tubes were part of a reconstituted nuclear weapons program," Rice told ABC. "I would point out that the Department of Energy report also joined in the assessment that Saddam Hussein was reconstituting his nuclear weapons program."
Dr. Rice said those assessments followed other evidence, which included the importation into Iraq of balancing equipment suitable for nuclear weapons development and the fact that Iraq's nuclear weapons scientists, like Dr. Obeidi, were still in place.
dhudlud quoted: “In November [2003], the Weekly Standard reported a 16-page top secret government memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee said bin Laden and Saddam had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, as well as financial and logistical support, and may have included the bombing of the USS Cole and the Sept. 11 attacks.” (2004 WorldNetDaily.com, May 27, 2004, citing the Weekly Standard, November, 2003, citing Senate Intelligence Committee memo.)
Rumsfeld and Bush have both stated there was no connection between Hussein and Bin Laden!!
The 9/11 commmision set up by BUSH said there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden.
The final report by the weapons inspectors that BUSH sent into Iraq and spent a year looking around the country said there are no WMD in Iraq and hadn't been since 1991.
The Weekly Standard is some right-wing tabloid crap website. It would take me 5 minutes to get stuff from the web that would "prove" that Kerry was cheated out of the US election. By printing discredited stuff just weakens you argument.
THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT DOESN'T AGREE WITH YOU. PRESIDENT BUSH DOESN'T AGREE WITH YOU!
11-09-2004 08:25 AM
