Saddam's al-Qa'ida link 'revealed'
The Australian: DOCUMENTS seized in Iraq immediately after the US invasion in 2003 point to the presence of al-Qa'ida members in the country before the war, and show there had been moves to hide traces of "chemical or biological materials" from UN weapons inspectors.
The documents have been posted on the internet as part of a rolling program by the US Government to make public the contents of 48,000 boxes of untranslated papers and tapes relating to the workings of Saddam Hussein's regime. Saddam is said to have routinely taped talks with cabinet members and intelligence chiefs.
US director of national intelligence John Negroponte was ordered by President George W. Bush to release the material. Hundreds of thousands of previously unseen documents and hundreds of hours of tapes will be placed on the web in the coming weeks.
The first documents to be released offer tantalising clues to possible Iraqi contacts with al-Qa'ida. An Iraqi intelligence report dated September 15, 2001 -- four days after the attacks on the US -- says Osama bin Laden and the Taliban were in contact with Iraq, and al-Qa'ida members had visited the country.
It claims the US had proof that the Iraqi government and "bin Laden's group" had agreed to co-operate to attack targets in the US and that the Americans might strike Iraq and Afghanistan in retaliation.
However, the information comes from an unidentified Afghan informant who states merely that he heard it from an Afghan consul, also unnamed. According to ABC News, which translated the tapes, the claims are "sensational" but the sourcing is "questionable".
Another document from a "trustworthy" source and dated August 2002 claims people with links to al-Qa'ida were in Iraq. There is a picture a few pages later of the Jordanian terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But the papers suggest Saddam's agents were trying to verify the presence of al-Qa'ida rather than colluding with it.
Documents from 1997 confirm that Saddam was giving UN weapons inspectors the runaround by removing correspondence concerned with "prohibited weapons" and clearing "labs and storages of any traces of chemical or biological materials".
The transcript of one tape recording shows an official named as Comrade Husayn expressing concern to Saddam that outsiders would find out about imported material, including some from the US, apparently for chemical weapons.
"They have a bigger problem with the chemical program than the biological program," he tells Saddam. "We have not told them that we used it on Iran, nor have we told them about the size or kind of chemical weapons that we produced and we have not told them the truth about the imported material."
In another taped conversation from the mid-1990s, a man called al-Sahhaf -- possibly a former information minister -- says: "On the nuclear file, sir, are we saying we disclosed everything? No, we have uncleared problems in the nuclear field."
Apparently confirming that the nuclear program had been abandoned, he adds: "Everything is over. but did they know? No, sir, they did not know, not all the methods, not all the means, not all the scientists and not all the places."
Saddam expelled the UN inspectors from Iraq in 1998. Mr Bush intervened personally to secure the release of the documents after Bill Tierney, an Arabic-speaking former UN weapons inspector hired by the Government to translate 12 hours of Saddam's tapes, revealed their contents at a private intelligence conference near Washington last month.
On one tape, recorded in the mid-1990s, the Iraqi dictator is heard to say: "Terrorism is coming. I told the Americans ... and told the British as well ... that in future there will be terrorism with weapons of mass destruction."
Mr Tierney believes Saddam went on to say: "What if we consider this technique, with smuggling?" Although he said Iraq would not carry out such attacks, Saddam hinted at the use of proxy groups.
Mr Tierney also translated a tape of Iraqi scientists telling Saddam in 2000 that attempts to enrich uranium using a technique known as plasma separation were progressing. The program was "totally unknown" to UN weapons inspectors, according to Mr Tierney.
The Iraq Survey Group, which hunted for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction after the war, believed the plasma program had been abandoned in the late 1980s.
The release of the documents came as Iraq's former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi said the country was in the grip of civil war.
Mr Allawi warned that the violence was reaching the point of no return and Europe and the US would not be spared the consequences.
"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day, as an average, 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is," he said.
"Iraq is in the middle of a crisis. Maybe we have not reached the point of no return yet. But we are moving towards this point. We are in a terrible civil conflict now."
Dr Allawi said Iraq would fall apart if the bloodshed reached the point of no return.
"It will not only fall apart, but sectarianism will spread throughout the region, and even Europe and the United States would not be spared all the violence that may occur as a result of sectarian problems in this region."
The Sunday Times and agencies
The documents have been posted on the internet as part of a rolling program by the US Government to make public the contents of 48,000 boxes of untranslated papers and tapes relating to the workings of Saddam Hussein's regime. Saddam is said to have routinely taped talks with cabinet members and intelligence chiefs.
US director of national intelligence John Negroponte was ordered by President George W. Bush to release the material. Hundreds of thousands of previously unseen documents and hundreds of hours of tapes will be placed on the web in the coming weeks.
The first documents to be released offer tantalising clues to possible Iraqi contacts with al-Qa'ida. An Iraqi intelligence report dated September 15, 2001 -- four days after the attacks on the US -- says Osama bin Laden and the Taliban were in contact with Iraq, and al-Qa'ida members had visited the country.
It claims the US had proof that the Iraqi government and "bin Laden's group" had agreed to co-operate to attack targets in the US and that the Americans might strike Iraq and Afghanistan in retaliation.
However, the information comes from an unidentified Afghan informant who states merely that he heard it from an Afghan consul, also unnamed. According to ABC News, which translated the tapes, the claims are "sensational" but the sourcing is "questionable".
Another document from a "trustworthy" source and dated August 2002 claims people with links to al-Qa'ida were in Iraq. There is a picture a few pages later of the Jordanian terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But the papers suggest Saddam's agents were trying to verify the presence of al-Qa'ida rather than colluding with it.
Documents from 1997 confirm that Saddam was giving UN weapons inspectors the runaround by removing correspondence concerned with "prohibited weapons" and clearing "labs and storages of any traces of chemical or biological materials".
The transcript of one tape recording shows an official named as Comrade Husayn expressing concern to Saddam that outsiders would find out about imported material, including some from the US, apparently for chemical weapons.
"They have a bigger problem with the chemical program than the biological program," he tells Saddam. "We have not told them that we used it on Iran, nor have we told them about the size or kind of chemical weapons that we produced and we have not told them the truth about the imported material."
In another taped conversation from the mid-1990s, a man called al-Sahhaf -- possibly a former information minister -- says: "On the nuclear file, sir, are we saying we disclosed everything? No, we have uncleared problems in the nuclear field."
Apparently confirming that the nuclear program had been abandoned, he adds: "Everything is over. but did they know? No, sir, they did not know, not all the methods, not all the means, not all the scientists and not all the places."
Saddam expelled the UN inspectors from Iraq in 1998. Mr Bush intervened personally to secure the release of the documents after Bill Tierney, an Arabic-speaking former UN weapons inspector hired by the Government to translate 12 hours of Saddam's tapes, revealed their contents at a private intelligence conference near Washington last month.
On one tape, recorded in the mid-1990s, the Iraqi dictator is heard to say: "Terrorism is coming. I told the Americans ... and told the British as well ... that in future there will be terrorism with weapons of mass destruction."
Mr Tierney believes Saddam went on to say: "What if we consider this technique, with smuggling?" Although he said Iraq would not carry out such attacks, Saddam hinted at the use of proxy groups.
Mr Tierney also translated a tape of Iraqi scientists telling Saddam in 2000 that attempts to enrich uranium using a technique known as plasma separation were progressing. The program was "totally unknown" to UN weapons inspectors, according to Mr Tierney.
The Iraq Survey Group, which hunted for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction after the war, believed the plasma program had been abandoned in the late 1980s.
The release of the documents came as Iraq's former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi said the country was in the grip of civil war.
Mr Allawi warned that the violence was reaching the point of no return and Europe and the US would not be spared the consequences.
"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day, as an average, 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is," he said.
"Iraq is in the middle of a crisis. Maybe we have not reached the point of no return yet. But we are moving towards this point. We are in a terrible civil conflict now."
Dr Allawi said Iraq would fall apart if the bloodshed reached the point of no return.
"It will not only fall apart, but sectarianism will spread throughout the region, and even Europe and the United States would not be spared all the violence that may occur as a result of sectarian problems in this region."
The Sunday Times and agencies
posted by Marko at 3/20/2006 08:47:00 AM
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