Iraq: Former PM Reveals Secret Service Data on Birth of Al-Qaeda in Iraq

[ECH1969]

Baghdad, 23 May (AKI) - The number two of the al-Qaeda network, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited Iraq under a false name in September 1999 to take part in the ninth Popular Islamic Congress, former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi has revealed to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

In an interview, Allawi made public information discovered by the Iraqi secret service in the archives of the Saddam Hussein regime, which sheds light on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the Islamic terrorist network. He also said that both al-Zawahiri and Jordanian militant al-Zarqawi probably entered Iraq in the same period.

"Al-Zawahiri was summoned by Izza Ibrahim Al-Douri – then deputy head of the council of the leadership of the revolution - to take part in the congress, along with some 150 other Islamic figures from 50 Muslim countries," Allawi said.

snip

"The Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi entered Iraq secretly in the same period," Allawi affirmed, "and began to form a terrorist cell, even though the Iraqi services do not have precise information on his entry into the country," he said.

In Allawi's view, Saddam's government "sponsored" the birth of al-Qaeda in Iraq, coordinating with other terrorist groups, both Arab and Muslim. "The Iraqi secret services had links to these groups through a person called Faruq Hajizi, later named Iraq's ambassador to Turkey and arrested after the fall of Saddam's regime as he tried to re-enter Iraq. Iraqi secret agents helped terrorists enter the country and directed them to the Ansar al-Islam camps in the Halbija area," he said.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.169852178&par=0
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I thought Allawi would be done shilling for Bush after he didn't help him? Guess not. I wonder how long it will take before the media noise machine starts blaring about this bullshit.

[killbotfactory]

1. He's the number 2 man, now?

oh for fucks sake...

[mike_c]

2. oh my fucking gawd...

...does this hooey never stop? Hey-- how about Saddam was also the mastermind behind Abraham Lincoln's assassination?

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

3. as if

we believe "Allawi"!

gimme a break!

more ficticious history of "Z"man, the ficticious villian...
and Chimp is a "superhero" with "superpowers" to fight "EEVAL

[Al-CIAda]

4. Who Is Iraq's Iyad Allawi?

Ex-C.I.A. Aides Say Iraq Leader Helped Agency in 90's Attacks
by Joel Brinkley

WASHINGTON, June 8 — Iyad Allawi, now the designated prime minister of Iraq, ran an exile organization intent on deposing Saddam Hussein that sent agents into Baghdad in the early 1990's to plant bombs and sabotage government facilities under the direction of the C.I.A., several former intelligence officials say.

Dr. Allawi's group, the Iraqi National Accord, used car bombs and other explosive devices smuggled into Baghdad from northern Iraq, the officials said. Evaluations of the effectiveness of the bombing campaign varied, although the former officials interviewed agreed that it never threatened Saddam Hussein's rule.

No public records of the bombing campaign exist, and the former officials said their recollections were in many cases sketchy, and in some cases contradictory. They could not even recall exactly when it occurred, though the interviews made it clear it was between 1992 and 1995.

The Iraqi government at the time claimed that the bombs, including one it said exploded in a movie theater, resulted in many civilian casualties. But whether the bombings actually killed any civilians could not be confirmed because, as a former C.I.A. official said, the United States had no significant intelligence sources in Iraq then.

One former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was based in the region, Robert Baer, recalled that a bombing during that period "blew up a school bus; schoolchildren were killed." Mr. Baer, a critic of the Iraq war, said he did not recall which resistance group might have set off that bomb.

Other former intelligence officials said Dr. Allawi's organization was the only resistance group involved in bombings and sabotage at that time.

Con't-
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0609-02.htm

[TheGunslinger]

11. A lying puppet trying to help justify his master's war "after the fact"

Looks like more cooked up "intel"

[Mika]

13. Posada for president of Cuba? n/t

[magellan]

5. Hearsay evidence produced by Bush** stooge

If you believe this hooey then you have no excuse not to trust the authenticity and veracity of the British minutes.

[LynnTheDem]

6. So says the SAME MAN who claimed Iraq was "45 MINUTES FROM LAUNCHING

WMD".

Remember THAT bullshit claim???

THAT was from ALLAWI.

Allawi; former CIA-sponsored car-bombing terrorist.

I believe ya, Allawi! Just as much as I believe CHALABI and BUSH!

[annabanana]

7. Aw hell.. You know all them furrin names sound alike..

Allawi, Balaka, Wikiwulla....

The stupids won't know it's the same guy

[LynnTheDem]

8. BULLSHIT says bush's own Cartel members and others:

NO ties between Iraq and international terrorists, al-Qaeda or otherwise:

Zarqawi is Ansar-al Islam:

Ansar al-Islam, a radical Kurdish group, whose leader lives a free man in Norway, after 2 FBI interrogations found nothing to even declare him an "enemy combatant".

Of course there's that other pesky little fact, that Ansar al & Zarqawi lived in the Kurdish north of Iraq, out of Saddam's control and under Kurdish AND AMERICAN control for the past 13 years.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO302B.html

Brent Scowcroft, one of the Republican Party’s most respected foreign policy advisors;

"Don't Attack Saddam. It would undermine our antiterror efforts. There is scant evidence to tie Saddam to terrorist organizations, and even less to the Sept. 11 attacks."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110002133

Allies Find No Links Between Iraq, Al Qaeda

"What I'm asked is if I've seen any evidence of that. (Iraq links to al Qaeda) And the answer is: I haven't.” -British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who supports U.S. invasion & occupation of Iraq.]
http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-noqaeda4nov04,0,4538810.story

British Intelligence agencies, MI6 and MI5

A dossier prepared by the two agencies “showed no discernible links between Iraq and al-Qaida,”
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=375403

Richard Kerr, a former deputy CIA director who lead an internal review of the CIA's prewar intelligence;

“the CIA has not found any proof of operational ties between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime.”
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?pid=800

The White House’s own publication, A Decade of Defiance and Deception, makes no mention of Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/iraq/decade/sect5.html

The 2002 congressional joint intelligence committee’s report on the Sept. 11 attacks revealed that the Bush administration had no evidence to support its claim that Saddam’s government was supporting al-Qaeda.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030723-064812-9491r

MSNBC - No proof links Iraq, al-Qaida, Powell says
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ID/3909150

According to a "top secret British document", quoted by the BBC "there is nothing but enmity between Iraq and Al Qaeda." The BBC said the leak came from intelligence officials upset that their work was being used to justify war." (quoted in Daily News, New York, 6 February 2003).
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO303D.html

Iraq-al Qaeda links weak, say former Bush officials

Three former Bush administration officials who worked on intelligence and national security issues have told National Journal that the prewar evidence tying al Qaeda to Iraq was tenuous, exaggerated, and often at odds with the conclusions of key intelligence agencies.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0803/080803nj2.htm

Split with bush at C.I.A. and F.B.I. On Iraqi Ties to Al Qaeda

"…analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency have complained that senior administration officials have exaggerated the significance of some intelligence reports about Iraq, particularly about its possible links to terrorism, in order to strengthen their political argument for war, government officials said."

and…

"At the Federal Bureau of Investigation, some investigators said they were baffled by the Bush administration's insistence on a solid link between Iraq and Osama bin Laden|s network. "We've been looking at this hard for more than a year and you know what, we just don't think it's there," a government official said."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70D1EF83E5C0C718CDDAB0894DB404482

This is consistent with what they were saying back in October 2002.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A14056-2002Oct24

Richard Clarke, former terrorism chief under bush.

"There's absolutely no evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda, ever."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml

Iraq-al Qaeda ties have not been found

Bush administration hyped sketchy and false evidence to push for war
The Bush administration’s claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda — one of the administration’s central arguments for a pre-emptive war — appears to have been based on even less solid intelligence than the administration’s claims that Iraq had hidden stocks of chemical and biological weapons.

Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam’s links with al Qaeda, and several key parts of the administration’s case have either proved false or seem increasingly doubtful.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/2004/03/04/news/nation/8101079.htm

Iraq and al Qaeda: What Evidence?
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=23816

bush's own hand-picked Republican weapons hunter ISG, Dr. David Kay;

David Kay was on the ground for months investigating the activities of Hussein's regime. He concluded "But we simply did not find any evidence of extensive links with Al Qaeda, or for that matter any real links at all."

He called a speech where Cheney made the claim there was a link, as being "evidence free."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/06/16/bush_backs_cheney_on_assertion_linking_hussein_al_qaeda

Israeli intelligence (the Moussad)

“According to Israeli intelligence, Palestinians are still not connected to the global terror network, and neither is Iraq.”
http://www.haaretz.com /

*******

After a year of looking, bush's own inspectors found NO TIES WHATSOEVER. EVERY intell agency on the planet have said there are NO TIES WHATSOEVER. POWELL has said NO TIES. And the CIA-sponsored former car-bombing terrorist who also claimed "Iraq could launch wmd in 45 minutes" now claims he's found evidence of ties to al Qaeda...

I DON'T THINK SO.

[LynnTheDem]

9. And let's not forget BUSH'S REFUSAL 3 times, to take out Ansar al Islam

whrn the US military had "windows of opportunity".

WHO allowed Zarqawi to carry on in AMERICAN-CONTROLLED Kurdistan???

WHO allowed Zarqawi to then travel into Iraq and attack & kill our troops???

Hmmm...let's see....that would be BUSH.

Why Didn't Bush Take Out Zarqawi?

The question Americans should be asking about Zarqawi (is)...why the President refused to take him out when the CIA and military presented him the opportunity. Some sources believe it was because it would have weakened the case for was with Iraq. ... Most importantly, the Wall Street Journal today is addressing the issue and others are likely to follow. Combine this poor decision with the loss of over 350 tons of high-explosive from a secure area in Iraq and you have to wonder who the Bush administration is trying to kid on the subject of being tough on terrorism.

The Pragmatist:

http://pragmatist.measuredvoices.com/index.cgi/Campaigns/zarqawi_bush_lies.html

WSJ:

http://users2.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?a=t&d=wsj&sd=users2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2F0%2C%2CSB109866031609354178%2C00.html%3Fpublicf%3Dyes


The US$25 million bounty on his head makes Zarqawi an equal of bin Laden on America’s most-wanted list. Soon Zarqawi started being characterized simultaneously as al-Qaeda’s top operative in Iraq, and the number one promoter of civil war in that country. His organization, al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Unity and Holy War), cornered the global market of gory videos showing hostages chained, caged and beheaded. The Bush administration went into full gear, wanting the world to believe that petty criminal Zarqawi was holding the world hostage.

What had he actually done until 2004? Not much. Unlike bin Laden in 1998, he never issued a declaration of war against Jews and Crusaders. Because Zarqawi may have been in northern Iraq at the time - training Ansar al-Islam fighters - and because he may have traveled to Baghdad in May 2002 to treat his injured, or amputated leg, was evidence enough for Powell to speak of “a sinister nexus between Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist network”. Powell of course never mentioned two crucial facts: even if Zarqawi was really in northern Iraq, he was in a safe heaven for Iraqi Kurds; and Ansar al-Islam was a mortal enemy of Saddam’s Ba’athists. Not to mention the fact that the Pentagon always refused to take out Ansar’s base: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was not interested in obliterating a perfect pretext for the war. Moreover, Ansar could also be used as an ally against Saddam.

http://www.world-crisis.com/analysis_comments/922_0_15_0_C

[hector459]

10. And we are to believe this crap to help Bush? PALEEEZZE!!!

I bet the media give more coverage and credibility than the Downing memo.

[Frederik]

12. Allawi, that old CIA/Mukhabarat thug and murderer

that most unimpeachable of sources.