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News :: Iraq |
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Document Links Atta To Saddam, According To IGC |
Current rating: 0 |
by Telegraph (UK) via JF
(No verified email address) |
14 Dec 2003
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Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist. |
Terrorist behind September 11 strike was trained by Saddam
By Con Coughlin
(Filed: 14/12/2003)
Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.
Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively by the Telegraph, is dated July 1, 2001 and provides a short resume of a three-day "work programme" Atta had undertaken at Abu Nidal's base in Baghdad.
In the memo, Habbush reports that Atta "displayed extraordinary effort" and demonstrated his ability to lead the team that would be "responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy".
The second part of the memo, which is headed "Niger Shipment", contains a report about an unspecified shipment - believed to be uranium - that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.
Although Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document, Dr Ayad Allawi, a member of Iraq's ruling seven-man Presidential Committee, said the document was genuine.
"We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam's involvement with al-Qaeda," he said. "But this is the most compelling piece of evidence that we have found so far. It shows that not only did Saddam have contacts with al-Qaeda, he had contact with those responsible for the September 11 attacks."
Although Atta is believed to have been resident in Florida in the summer of 2001, he is known to have used more than a dozen aliases, and intelligence experts believe he could easily have slipped out of the US to visit Iraq.
Abu Nidal, who was responsible for the failed assassination of the Israeli ambassador to London in 1982, was based in Baghdad for more than two decades. |
See also:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/14/wterr14.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/12/14/ixnewstop.html
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Comments
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I'm Skeptical |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 7
15 Dec 2003
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It sure is convenient that a document should appear suddenly after Saddam's capture that seems to fix all the lies connected to the rationale behind the invasion of Iraq. Not only do we get a solid tie between 9/11 and Iraq (so far this has been shown to be nothing except politically motivated speculation by the Bush Adminstration), but we also get confirmation of Saddam's attempted procurement of uranium from Niger (when all the other documents that claim the same have been shown to be crude forgeries.)
This would make a great movie plot, but I somehow suspect that the claim by "Dr Ayad Allawi, a member of Iraq's ruling seven-man Presidential Committee, said the document was genuine..." should be subjected to the closest scrutiny before anyone accepts that there is any substance to this story. Combine this with no evidence, except for this document, that Atta was anywhere else other than the United States during the time leading up to 9/11 and I can't help but feel that something just is not right with this. Furthermore, this arises from the puppet government installed by Bush that controls almost nothing in Iraq, let alone has a credible intelligence service that could obtain such a document, I have to take this claim with a grain, no -- a block, of salt.
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Re: Document Links Atta To Saddam, According To IGC |
by JM
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2003
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I wonder, if it was in fact true that Atta was in Iraq and did train, would anyone believe it?
As for the WMD in Iraq... I have often wondered, Hussein used chemical agents on the Kurds. Does anyone trully believed he used his whole arsenal? Remember now this is the same man who also used chemical weapons against Iran. Now, I'm not suggesting that there are WMD in Iraq. Nor am I saying that Atta was in Iraq. I am saying that a certain degree of pause before passing judgement may be required. |
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Re: Document Links Atta To Saddam, According To IGC |
by Jack Ryan
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: -2
15 Dec 2003
Modified: 12:49:53 PM |
Well, Well,
ML and the rest of the lefties are skeptical. What a surprise. Although we never needed a connection in order to justify our liberation of Iraq. A link between the former Iraqi dictator and al-Qaeda would prove once and for all that the US was more than justified in the actions it took.
Moreover, it also proves that you folks are not only misinformed, but have for the past year provided aid and comfort to the enemy and thus betrayed your country.
Other than that ML, how was your weekend? What do you think of the Democrats chances of winning more than 5 states in the presidential election? What will our majority be in the Senate??? My guess is 62. That will allow us to get our judges in. Maybe you should listen to Jack next time, before you and your buddies automatically take the side of our enemies. Merry Christmas
Jack |
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Re: Document Links Atta To Saddam, According To IGC |
by JF
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 8
15 Dec 2003
Modified: 01:25:57 PM |
I'm extremely skeptical. Note that this hasn't been corroborated; only the IGC claims this document is authentic, and it's an awfully convenient document for their U.S. and British masters, since it not only links Atta to Saddam but also mentions the disputed Niger transaction. The timing is also highly suspect.
Until the authenticity of the document is corroborated, this story tells us more about the relationship between the IGC and the coalition's botched case for the war than it does about any facts on the ground about Atta, Saddam, or Iraq's alleged WMD's. What it shows is that the IGC is apparently concerned about providing support for the coalition's case for the war, and is apparently unconcerned about creating the appearance of using questionable intelligence for political purposes.
Remember folks, the IGC is a political organization, not an intelligence organization. Last time we trusted politicians to provide us with intelligence we got the WMD debacle, and unless we've learned our lesson by now we can look forward to more lies and more lives lost over them. |
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Where Iraqi Governing Coalition's Spies Come From |
by 007
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
16 Dec 2003
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If you didn't already have reason to doubt the oh-so-conveniently-timed report above...
Iraq Spy Service Planned by U.S. To Stem Attacks
CIA Said to Be Enlisting Hussein Agents
By Dana Priest and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 11, 2003; Page A41
The Bush administration has authorized creation of an Iraqi intelligence service to spy on groups and individuals inside Iraq that are targeting U.S. troops and civilians working to form a new government, according to U.S. government officials.
The new service will be trained, financed and equipped largely by the CIA with help from Jordan. Initially the agency will be headed by Iraqi Interior Minister Nouri Badran, a secular Shiite and activist in the Jordan-based Iraqi National Accord, a former exile group that includes former Baath Party military and intelligence officials.
Badran and Ayad Alawi, leader of the INA, are spending much of this week at CIA headquarters in Langley to work out the details of the new program. Both men have worked closely with the CIA over the past decade in unsuccessful efforts to incite coups against Saddam Hussein. The agency and the two men believe they can effectively screen former government officials to find agents for the service and weed out those who are unreliable or unsavory, officials said.
By contrast, some Pentagon officials and Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, vehemently oppose allowing former intelligence and military officials into the new organization for fear they cannot be trusted. Intelligence experts said Chalabi and his sponsors also fear some former government officials would use the new apparatus to undermine the influence of Chalabi, who wants to play a central role in a new Iraq.
Although no deadline has been set, officials hope to have the service running by mid-February. Congress had approved money for the effort in the classified annex of this year's budget. The service will focus largely on domestic intelligence and is seen by some administration officials as a critical step in the administration's effort to hand over the running of the country to Iraqis.
The CIA declined to comment on the program.
Establishing the service is just one of several new steps the CIA is taking to deal with an increasingly worrisome Iraqi resistance, U.S. intelligence officials said. In recent weeks, the deputy director for intelligence, Jami Miscik, has pulled together an analytical working group at CIA headquarters similar to the task force the agency used during the war. Miscik has more than doubled the number of analysts working to identify insurgents and their sources of support.
Likewise, the CIA station in Baghdad has grown significantly since major combat operations ceased, as have the number of substations around the country. "The intelligence community doesn't understand what's going on in Iraq and has decided to put a whole bunch of analytical manpower on it," one intelligence official said. "They definitely didn't think this would happen as it has," the official said, referring to the resilience of the insurgency.
Another U.S. intelligence official used the phrase "midcourse correction" to describe new efforts by the larger intelligence community, which includes military intelligence.
Two weeks ago, the U.S. occupation authority decided to form a paramilitary unit to track down insurgents. The unit, composed of Iraqi militiamen from the country's five largest political parties, will work with U.S. Special Forces soldiers, and their operations will be overseen by U.S. military commanders. Since the summer, the CIA has recruited and trained some former Iraqi intelligence agents to help identify the insurgents.
Setting up a new intelligence service is an obvious next step as U.S. forces work to thwart daily attacks that have killed and maimed Iraqis and Americans. But the challenges are daunting, especially in a country where the four secret Iraqi intelligence services acted for decades as Hussein's main apparatus of control.
Because political rivalries are acute in Iraq, some U.S. government officials with knowledge of the program said they are worried that various Sunni or Shiite factions could eventually use the service to secretly undermine their political competitors.
According to some U.S. officials, L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. governor in Iraq, has come to regret his decision to disband the Iraqi army and, similarly, has become more open to using former Iraqi intelligence officials in the new service. In the summer Bremer dissolved Iraq's four intelligence services, along with the ministries of information and defense.
To vet Iraq's former intelligence officials, the CIA has flown polygraph machines to Iraq. To help determine who is worth hiring, the CIA is relying on help from intelligence officials from Jordan and other Middle Eastern nations, from Iraqis on the Governing Council and from political leaders in the provinces.
Hussein's government kept meticulous records of its intelligence personnel and operations. Literally tons of these documents are now in U.S. hands and are being used to question new intelligence service recruits.
Still, the outstanding issue is, "to what degree you bring back former intelligence service," one U.S. intelligence expert said.
Candidates for positions in the new service will have to pledge loyalty to the goals of a free Iraq, an official said, and then provide a full accounting of what they were involved with in the past -- an honest airing of what they did for the previous government and what they did for Hussein.
"We'll try to build in enough protection," another official said.
In the past, U.S. efforts to set up or bolster foreign intelligence services have had mixed results.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, high-level CIA officials traveled to each newly independent state offering help. In Prague, for example, the CIA station tripled in size. The agency built a secure, bug-proof room in the prime minister's castle, gave the president an armor-plated fleet of cars and helped the government find secret communist sleeper cells. In Iran, the CIA helped equip and train the Iranian secret police, Savak, whose human rights abuses against its own citizens under the shah fueled the revolution that brought Shiite fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini to power.
"Intelligence services are the heart and soul of a new country," said one former CIA operative who helped several post-communist countries establish new services.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company |
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Re: Document Links Atta To Saddam, According To IGC |
by JF
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
16 Dec 2003
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"Intelligence services are the heart and soul of a new country?"
That's newspeak if I ever heard it. Hey, ignorance is strength too, right?
Also, it makes me feel really secure that they're flying polygraph machines over there. But I think they could have saved money just by flipping coins, since that works just as well as polygraph machines at detecting lying. |
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