Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden:
A Match Made Up in Propaganda?

Compiled By: Ryan Mauro
tdcanalyst@optonline.net

http://www.worldthreats.com  

This is to serve as a semi-chronological guide to Iraq’s sponsorship of terrorism throughout the years beginning with 1990. I personally have not taken a firm position as to if Saddam personally supported any anti-American terrorist attack, but the information is presented here for you to make up your mind. Some may say that Wahhabists like Bin Laden, Shiites like the Iranians, and Sunnis like the Iraqis won’t work together do to theological differences. This argument has obviously been disproved, as today we see Saddam’s loyalists, Wahhabists and all sorts of terrorists today cooperating in the war against Coalition forces.

Compare the theory to Christianity. This is like saying Catholics and Protestants don’t work together. They may not attend the same churches, but as we see today in the disputes in Alabama over the display of the Ten Commandments, they unite against a common threat. Please read this article with an open mind, and perhaps it will become as obvious to you as it is to myself, that Saddam’s regime was a state sponsor of terrorism.



1990

Early 1990 saw the first major acceleration in Saddam’s interest in terrorist groups. Iraqi intelligence helped set up a command headquarters, recruitment program and training program in Amman, Jordan for various Palestinian terrorist organizations. From here, assistance to Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian intelligence apparatus and security forces including Force 17; the 15th of May Organization; the Organization of the Survivors of Hammah (sect of Syrian Muslim Brotherhood); Hamas; Palestine Liberation Front; Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other groups was provided.[1]

Iraq also began creating front groups including the Front for the Islamic Army for the Liberation of Palestine, and took responsibility for turning Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization forces into the Palestinian Liberation Army. Iraq directed the transformation. The Iraqi front group, FIALP, then formed an alliance with the PLA, Hamas, and the Islamic Unification Movement and was used to provide covert Iraqi support.[2] Under the joint Arafat-Hussein efforts, PLO units began moving from Algeria, Jordan, Sudan and Yemen to Iraq to be trained and transformed into PLA units in late March.[3]

1991

The Gulf War saw Iraq’s first try at terrorist attacks. They completely failed, but Saddam Hussein’s links to terrorists, particularly Palestinian ones, was shown. Among the attacks attempted, was a bomb attack against the Thomas Jefferson Library in Manila, Philippines by two intelligence operatives. Attacks on Western interests by the Iraqis were foiled in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and Thailand.

In the summer of 1991, the Arafat-Hussein transformation of the PLO was still in the process. Half-way through June, Arafat ordered the movement of 10,000 PLO militants to Iraq to assist in the creation of a special, elite terrorist force under Iraqi command.[4]



1992

This is the first year that contact between Saddam Hussein’s regime and Osama Bin Laden’s organization was established. According to CIA reports, the first meeting between a Bin Laden representative and an Iraqi representative occurred. By the end of 2002, nearly 100 direct meetings of the kind would be recorded by the CIA.[5]

One of the first meetings was between Ayman Al-Zawahiri, head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad which later merged with Al-Qaeda, making Zawahiri second only to Bin Laden. This has been confirmed by a former Iraqi intelligence officer and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan forces.[6]



1993

On February 26, 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed. Strangely, few cared to notice that this was near the second anniversary of the beginning of the ground war in the Gulf War, which began February 23. Logically, that day is a Sunday, so moving the attack ahead up by two days to cause maximum casualties and damage, can explain the inaccurate timing.

Laurie Mylroie, a former advisor to Clinton on Iraq, and author of “Study of Revenge”, needs to be praised for her expert research about the attack. I encourage readers to purchase her book. She believes Iraq got involved in radical Islamic terror plots in New York after the regime learned of the activity from a terrorist they harbored who was uncle to one of the Muslim ringleaders.

The ringleader of the bombers, Ramzi Yousef, arrived in America on an Iraqi passport, and was nicknamed “Rashid the Iraqi” by the radical terrorists he joined in New York. The moment Yousef arrived; he directed the group to target the World Trade Center and how to do it. After the bombing, the second ringleader, an Iraqi, Abdul Rahman Yasin (whose expertise was essential for mixing the sophisticated chemicals we discussed) fled to, and was protected by, Saddam’s regime in Iraq. ABC News spotted him in Baghdad in 1994 and learned he was being paid by the regime. 

Mylroie shows compelling evidence that Iraq provided the intelligence and false passports for Ramzi Yousef and the terrorists, and possibly funding. The hydrogen-cyanide gas that was planned to be spread by the explosion is remarkably similar to the hydrogen-cyanide gas technology Iraq had perfected. After the bombing Yousef fled the country under a false identity, Abdul Basit Karim, a Pakistani national originally born in Kuwait. Upon investigation of the name, Mylroie learned that the real Abdul Basit Karim has been missing since the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. During this time, Iraq seized Kuwait’s files from the Interior Ministry, allowing Iraq to steal hundreds or possibly thousands of identities. Karim is one such identity that has been stolen.

How do we know that Abdul Basit and Ramzi Yousef are the same person? Mylroie shows the obvious signs that the passport of Abdul Basit was tampered and explains that fingerprints matching Yousef’s was found in Abdul Basit’s police file. The altered passport was used by Yousef in 1992 to receive another passport to Pakistan in Abdul Basit’s name. The differences between the real Abdul Basit and Ramzi Yousef are also obvious physically and personality-wise, as explained in Mylroie’s book.

Also convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was the “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel al-Rahman, believed to be the spiritual mentor for Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden. It is suspicious that such a figure would work with an alleged Iraqi intelligence agent, although al-Rahman himself may not have known the fact. Another conspirator, Mohammed Salameh is suspected of working alongside Iraqi intelligence—in fact, the brother of Abu Halima, another conspirator, confirmed this. Salameh is known to have made nearly fifty phone calls to Iraq between June 10th and the day of the bombing attack. His uncle, Kadri Abu Bakr, is known to have worked in Baghdad since 1986 for a Palestinian terrorist unit.

After the bombing, Ramzi Yousef fled to Manila, harbored by Mohamed Jamal Khalifia, the brother-in-law of Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden, through Khalifia, paid Yousef to train members of Abu Sayyaf, an Al-Qaeda branch in the Philippines, about bomb production.[7]
Mylroie says that many senior US government officials believe Iraq was involved in the bombing, as well as those involved in the investigation. She quotes Jim Fox, the leader of the FBI investigation as saying, “The majority of senior law-enforcement officers in New York believe that Iraq was involved.” She also claims that Egyptian and Saudi intelligence sources concurred with the view.

Later on, as evidence came out that Iraq was linked to the World Trade Center bombing, newspapers would express denial, alarm or others, dire warning. As the Boston Globe wrote: “If Saddam’s operatives manipulated simple-minded Islamic zealots to bomb the World Trade Center, it is only prudent to assume his agents are capable of striking again.”[8]

Another highlight of 1993 was the attack on American soldiers in Somalia, and the following retreat out of the country. This was the first time that Bin Laden’s forces would loosely work with Iraqi intelligence, which had been recruiting militants in Sudan and Somalia. Bin Laden’s militants in Somalia would fight alongside these recruits and even members of Iraq’s special forces. It is unknown the level of direct contact Iraq and Bin Laden had in coordinating the events.[9]

Of course, also in 1993, was Iraqi intelligence’s attempted assassination of former President Bush in Kuwait. The attack to be carried out with a truck bomb and armed assassins was foiled, but this was significant as the first proven Iraqi-sponsored attack. I also suggest reading Laurie Mylroie’s book, “Study of Revenge”, which has evidence that Iraq was also involved in a plot to be carried out in late 1993 to destroy the United Nations building in New York, the federal building, and the Holland and Lincoln tunnels.



1994

The beginning of cooperation with Al-Qaeda began in 1994. Farouq Hijazi, a high-ranking Iraqi intelligence officer, had his first meeting with Osama Bin Laden in Sudan.[10] It is believed they discussed cooperation in handling Islamic terrorists and insurgents, and Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons facilities in Sudan.

The beginnings of the Oklahoma City plot may also be rooted in events in 1994. Edwin Angeles, a co-founder of Abu Sayyaf on the Philippines (an Al-Qaeda branch), began his meetings with Ramzi Yousef (whom he met in 1989), Ahmad Hassin (Yousef’s half-brother), an American named Terry (possibly Terry Nichols?) and another unidentified American, possibly a man that goes by the name of “John Lepney’. It was at these meetings in 1994 that plots to bomb US government buildings in Oklahoma City, St. Louis and San Francisco were discussed.[11]

Iraq is believed to have upgraded its terrorist force in the United States mainland (specifically New York City) with its first professional biological weapons scientist—complete with expertise in genetic engineering and access to local scientific labs. This is in addition to “Waly Samar”, whom we will discuss.[12]



1995

1995 was highlighted by the attack on the Murrah building in Oklahoma City, led by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, anti-government, right-wing terrorists. But should this mean a link to Middle Eastern terrorists should be ruled out? In the minds of most investigators, yes. But they are wrong.

The reporting of Jayna Davis (investigative reporter); Larry Johnson (former deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism); and Patricia Long (former Middle East expert for the DIA) is sure to one day prove them all wrong. As former CIA director James Woolsey said, one day we will be indebted to Davis and her coworkers.[13] Apparently, the evidence of a connection to the Middle East was at one point in the mind of the police. Immediately after the attack, the FBI launched an intense search for men of Middle Eastern origin that reportedly fled the building after the explosion. Later, the search was cancelled.

Davis’ research shows that there a multiple people who saw Middle Easterners with Timothy McVeigh, and the descriptions were so clear that a government sketch was produced. 24 witnesses say they saw about eight Middle Easterners with Nichols and McVeigh during the attack. She records that several employees at the Oklahoma City Property-Management Company claim to have seen a brown Chevy truck being chased by the police outside the office just days prior to the terrorist attack. The owner of the company is Palestinian, with suspected ties to the Palestinian Authority.

Approximately six months prior to the attack, the Palestinian had hired a group of former Iraqi soldiers from the Republican Guard to work at the rental houses. Eyewitnesses reported that on the day of the attack, they were seen in a disturbingly good mood. On April 17th, 1995, the day McVeigh rented the Ryder truck, all the employees were absent from work. In Davis’ investigation, the Iraqi with the most focus is a man named Amad Hussain Hashem al-Hussaini, one of the former Republican Guard members, whose picture is nearly identical to the police sketch made from eyewitness reports of one of the Middle Easterners at the attack. Al-Hussaini has attempted to sue Davis for these allegations, but the case was dismissed.

Al-Hussaini’s left arm has a traditional Republican Guard tattoo symbolizing service during the Gulf War, when Iraq began sponsoring anti-American terrorism. Five witnesses report seeing several of al-Hussaini’s Iraqi workers frequently visiting a motel in Oklahoma City in the months, days and hours before the attack. During the visits, they were often seen with either Nichols or McVeigh. Four days before the attack, two eyewitnesses say they saw McVeigh drinking with al-Hussaini.

On the day of the attack, just hours before the incident, two witnesses say they saw al-Hussaini one block from the Murrah building. Around the same time in the hours up to the attack, one of al-Hussaini’s co-workers was seen in the driver’s seat of a Chevy pickup at an apartment complex near the Murrah building. When police officers found the abandoned truck, it was tripped of identification numbers and body molding used for identification purposes. The owner of the motel frequently visited and an employee both confirm seeing Middle Easterners on the day of the attack, within feet of a large Ryder truck in the parking lot, just hours before the explosion. They described the truck as having an unusual odor of diesel fuel coming from the rear. Minutes after the odor came about, McVeigh returned the room key and drove off with a man—apparently al-Hussaini.



Seven witnesses reported to Jayna Davis that they saw a man similar to al-Hussaini riding with Timothy McVeigh in the Ryder truck directly in front of the Murrah building, just minutes before the fertilizer bomb went off. Al-Hussaini then sped away in a brown Chevrolet pickup truck; precisely matching the FBI’s description of a vehicle that wanted Middle Easterners may be using that day.

After the attack, Al-Hussaini moved from Oklahoma City to work at Boston’s Logan International Airport, where several 9/11 hijackers would meet to seize airliners, including Mohammed Atta.

During the follow-up investigation, it was discovered that Timothy McVeigh had a large collection of phone numbers of Iraqis that he hid. Jayna Davis’ follow-up investigation reveals that 22 witnesses saw an Arab-looking man alongside Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh in the minutes and seconds before the bomb detonated. There has been no testimony by a witness that contradicts these claims—the people that saw McVeigh and Nichols alone either had a view that would not allow the viewing of the Iraqi—or they saw the Americans after the bomb detonated. By that time, al-Hussaini had driven off in a different truck. Two local officials say they saw an Arab with a backpack running from the Murrah building as fast as they could, while looking at a watch, in the seconds before the blast.

Davis also says that a source on Capitol Hill gave her a copy of a government warning that a terrorist attack sponsored by either Iran or Iraq was imminent against the mainland, but the warning listed government facilities in Washington DC as the primary target. Although the warning was incorrect in that detail, it does appear that there is classified intelligence linking the Oklahoma City bombing to Middle Eastern terrorists.[14]

Terry Nichols also had a suspicious connection to international terrorists besides his meetings with the Iraqis led by al-Hussaini. Davis is now claiming to have irrefutable evidence that Nichols got the bomb-making expertise from Iraqi intelligence officers in the Philippines, when he met Ramzi Yousef, the suspected Iraqi intelligence agent whom led the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Both lived amongst Al-Qaeda-associated operatives while they were in the Philippines.

Insight Magazine had a great interview with the widow of Edwin Angeles, a co-founder of the Abu Sayyaf group and agent of the Philippines’ Defense Intelligence Group. Elimina Abdul in the March 10, 2002 interview said that her husband finally told her all he knew, because he knew he would soon be killed. Since talking, she claims, several shots have been fired at her.

Beginning in 1994, her husband met with Ramzi Yousef, Ahmad Hassim, an American whose first name is Terry—known as “The Farmer”, and another American whose name she does not know. Everyday for one full week, they talked about bombing US government buildings in Oklahoma City, St. Louis and San Francisco. The Americans were also taught how to make the bombs needed for the operations. Ramzi Yousef also contributed funding to the Americans for the attacks. Elimina Abdul confirms that Yousef was an Iraqi agent, and she says that her husband had a private meeting with a Filipino soldier who said that the Iraqi role could never be exposed.

According to Insight’s investigation, Edwin Angeles had a videotaped interrogation with the Filipino police. He confirmed that an American named “John Lepney” was involved, as was another American named Terry. The first meeting, he said occurred just prior to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and meetings continued later in 1994. At the meetings was Ramzi Yousef’s half-brother, Ahmad Hassim. Angeles says that he first met Yousef in July, 1989 as a “personal envoy” of Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden’s brother-in-law, Muhammed Khalifia, was at the time establishing the Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines using front companies. However, Yousef is suspected of being paid by Iraq to carry out the June 20, 1994 bombing of a Muslim shrine in Iran. Yousef’s father and brother also worked with Iraqi intelligence in the Iranian dissident terrorist group, the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran.[15] In another testimony, that of Abdul Hakim Murrad, arrested for working with Yousef in the first World Trade Center bombing, also says that Ramzi Yousef and his co-workers in the Philippines were responsible for the attack in Oklahoma City. Yousef’s role throughout the years as an Iraqi-sponsored terrorist may be the key to understanding the role of Saddam Hussein in terrorism.



1995 brought Iraqi assistance to Al-Qaeda as well. Saddam Hussein sent Farouq Hijaz, a former Iraqi intelligence general, and Habib Ma’muri, chief of special operations, to meet with Bin Laden representatives at Salman Pak, Iraq’s top terrorist training camp.[16] According to Iraqi defectors, these meetings resulted in the revival of the plot to hijack airliners in the US to attack prominent US buildings including the World Trade Center, which had already survived the first Iraqi attack. Al-Qaeda was also disappointed by similar airliner plots foiled by the seizure of documents by Filipino police. Al-Qaeda forces were eager to succeed in their plans.[17]

To fulfill these plans, Iraq began training its first foreign terrorists in hijacking techniques using a Boeing-747 from Kuwait. The Iraqis trained the Muslims at a camp in Baghdad.[18]

State-sponsored terrorism may also have had a role in the bombing attack on US forces at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The day after UNSCOM’s report was released which revealed Iraq’s massive, covert biological weapons program, a terrorist group claiming to be in Saudi Arabia gave Western forces in the country until June 28th to leave. The threat was broadcasted on Iraqi state radio after it was published. On November 13th, a powerful bomb killed 5 Americans and 2 Indians in Riyadh. The Iraqi media hailed the attack, and warned that the attack should serve as a message to the US and Saudi Arabia. Kuwaiti officials immediately blamed it on Iraq[19], as did many senior Saudi intelligence officials. One told Laurie Mylroie, “”Of course that was Iraq. That was a professional bomb. It was not made by a bunch of Saudis sitting in a tent in the middle of the desert.”[20] The famous high-ranking Iraqi defector, Hussein Kamil, said: “[Saddam is] determined to beat the US and ‘topple the White House into the dust.’ That’s one of his favorite expressions. You can judge how sly he is: He wants everybody to think it’s the Iranians behind the attack. He is using them as a smokescreen, hoping to fool the world. He will go on trying to seek revenge against his enemies. Top of his list are Saudi Arabia and the US.”[21] When members of Saudi Hezbollah were found involved in the attack, many blamed Iran. It is entirely possible Iran had a role, but that does not mean Iraq did not either. As I’ll explain when I discuss the year 2001 issues, Imad Mughniyah, the head of Iran’s Hezbollah, often works with Ayman Al-Zawahiri of Al-Qaeda.



1996

Harbored in Sudan, Osama Bin Laden again met with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer. The meeting established how they would maintain ties once Bin Laden moved to Afghanistan.[22] This was the same year that Ramzi Yousef was captured in Pakistan, living less than a block away from the Iraqi ambassador to the country.[23]

In June, the Arab League held an important summit, and on the table for discussion were the UN sanctions on Iraq. Pro-American Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, expressed support for the sanctions, which greatly angered Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi state press then issued a warning to the Arab countries that if they “sin” against Iraq, they would only be hurting themselves. Two days after the Iraqi state press issued the warning; suspected Al-Qaeda operatives bombed the Khobar Towers installation in Saudi Arabia, killing nearly 20 Americans. An Iraqi defector, General Wafiq Samarai, claims Saddam asked him to join a secret organization to attack US interests during the Gulf War, and that the Khobar Towers attack was an exact copy of some of the plans for attacks.[24] As I said before, just because Saudi Hezbollah members was involved, this does not mean Iraq did not have a role.

Over the summer, UN inspectors also discovered that Directorate M-21 of Iraqi intelligence was responsible for directing a huge terrorist training and recruitment program. The inspectors testified saying, “Document after document outlined an international program of terror.”[25]

On September 5th, Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali-Khan Amin Shah were convicted for the plot to hijack airliners and crash them into American buildings including the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Murad appears to have been one of the designated pilots for the plot, as he admitted to being trained at flight schools in America. Information from the arrest and later, the trial of terrorists involved in the 1998 embassy bombings would become vital to the 9/11 connection. It appears that several of the 9/11 hijackers trained at the same school in Norman, Oklahoma (near Oklahoma City) as operatives involved in Yousef’s plot. Why was the Iraqi special agent, Yousef, cooperating with Al-Qaeda’s plot if there was no cooperation between Saddam and Bin Laden?[26]

It also appears that Al-Qaeda learned the shoe-bombing tactic from Iraqi agents. The information taken from the apartment used by Ramzi Yousef showed Yousef was teaching Murad, an Al-Qaeda operative, how to sneak chemicals and explosives onto airliners, and how to hide explosives in shoes to be detonated while the airliner was in-flight. When the Oklahoma City bombing occurred, Murad told the prison guard that the “Liberation Army” was responsible. According to the aforementioned Edwin Angeles, involved in the airliner plot and with the joint Yousef-Al-Qaeda plots, this was the term used when referring to the Palestine Liberation Army, a terrorist group directly sponsored by Saddam Hussein (this is openly known) and used to carry out attacks and cooperate with allied terrorists, leaving no trace directly back to Iraq.[27]

Between December 28th and 29th, the D-8 group, which included Syria, blamed Saddam Hussein’s regime for the poor conditions on the Iraqi people and to comply with UN resolutions. Two days later, the Islamic Change Movement (believed by many to be an Iraqi front group) claimed credit for a terrorist attack killing 9 people in Damascus on a bus. The Islamic Change Movement also claimed credit for the Riyadh and Khobar Towers bombings.



1997

This year, the first Al-Qaeda camps in Iraq opened up. Saddam Hussein’s regime increased the flow of small arms and money to Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist organization.[28] In springtime, Iraq’s support for Palestinian terrorists took a new turn. Smuggling routes were established through Jordan, for Iraqi weapons including shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and anti-armor RPGs to be delivered to Arafat’s Palestinian militants.[29]

Beginning in 1997, and continuing through the beginning of the Iraq War, between 1,200 and 1,500 Iraqi special forces would infiltrate Jordan to reach areas of Islamic radicalism as well as Palestinian refugee camps to deliver arms and ammunition to Arafat’s militants and Hamas in the West Bank and Jordan.[30]



1998

According to captured Iraqi documents, in March of this year, Osama Bin Laden sent an envoy to meet with Iraqi officials in Baghdad’s al-Mansour Hotel to create an alliance to fight a common enemy. Iraq paid for the trip by the envoy, and the meeting was so successful; it was extended for a week, and ended in arrangements for Bin Laden to travel to Baghdad himself. The envoy was asked by Iraq to become a personal liaison between Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden.[31]

This year Farouq Hijazi was promoted to ambassador to Turkey by Saddam Hussein. Not long after his appointment, Hijazi traveled to Afghanistan and met with Osama Bin Laden. The meeting resulted in an official invitation to Bin Laden to travel to Baghdad for a meeting.[32] Between April 25th and May 1, 1998, two Al-Qaeda senior military advisors, Muhammed Abu-Islam and Abdullah Qassim met with Qusay Hussein, Saddam’s youngest son, in Baghdad.[33] Plans were made for the first group of Saudis belonging to Al-Qaeda to be trained in Iraq, whom crossed over in mid-June using secret infiltration routes that Iraqi intelligence had used. Upon arrival at the al-Nasariya terrorist camp, one group of Saudis was taught how to prepare for attacks and conduct surveillance, and the other group was integrated into a network to smuggle weapons and explosives into Saudi Arabia from Iraq.[34]

On May 1, Iraq warned of “dire consequences” if UN inspectors did not leave, and sanctions were not lifted. Eight days later, Bin Laden issued a declaration of war on the USA, with the main themes citing US “aggression” in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The Iraqi situation dominated much of his speech, calling for revenge on behalf of the Iraqi Muslims. Throughout the rest of the year, Saddam’s and Bin Laden’s threats appeared to be synchronized. On August 5th, Saddam finally expelled UN inspectors and demanded sanctions be lifted. The state press warned of “consequences” yet again, and two days later, Al-Qaeda attacked the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.[35]

In mid-July, Ayman Al-Zawahiri was sent by Bin Laden to meet with senior Iraqi officials in Iraq, including vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan.[36] During the July visit, Zawahiri was taken to a suspected site used for nuclear and/or chemical weapons production near al-Fallujah, and oversaw the training of Al-Qaeda operatives at the al-Nasiriyah military and chemical weapons facility.

The summer brought the first evidence of planned Iraqi bio-terrorism. Iraqi women were caught trying to smuggle vials of biological agents, specifically anthrax and botulinum toxin, into the United States and United Kingdom by trying to hide them inside their bodies.[37]

In December, Bin Laden was seen at Baghdad’s al-Rashid Hotel by Giovanni Di Stefano, a famous lawyer who was working to strike a deal with Iraqi Airlines in Italy and Yugoslavia. The meeting was also confirmed by defectors and the intelligence communities of the region. At the meeting, Saddam offered Bin Laden safety (which Bin Laden turned down), and a deal was made for Al-Qaeda operatives to receive special weapons training in Iraq.[38] Hijazi was put in charge of supervising the movement of the first 60 Al-Qaeda operatives to Iraq for training, whom would then begin a new Al-Qaeda branch in northern Iraq known as Ansar al-Islam. The group, which serves as Saddam’s link to Bin Laden, is paid by Saddam to persecute the rebellious Kurds and to conduct assassinations.[39]

Outraged by US and British airstrikes on Iraq, the Iraqi trade minister issued this warning in the state media: “When the United States is helping terrorist activities against Iraq, then this will enhance terrorist activities against the United States. It is not a threat; it is a consequence of their policy.” The day the airstrikes ended, Farouq Hijazi was sent by Saddam Hussein to meet with Bin Laden at Kandahar, Afghanistan. Yemeni diplomatic passports were delivered, as well as further assurances of support for attacks on the West. Soon after the meeting, several Iraqi military-intelligence officers arrived in Afghanistan via Pakistan, including members of the elite Unit 999. In Afghanistan, 4 teams of 12 veteran terrorists were chosen for the elite training Unit 999 could provide in Iraq.[40]

Support for other terrorists in 1998 also increased. Baghdad began giving safe harbor to the terrorist mastermind, Abu Nidal, whom often was solicited for support by groups including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and various state sponsors. An Iraqi defector (a top official in Mukhabarat) has described Iraq’s support for these groups and others, whose testimony is here described by Vanity Fair’s David Rose: “The first was the Iranian opposition force...which during the 1980s maintained at least 20,000 fighters inside Iraq, where it helped suppress the 1991 Shi’a uprising. The second was the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which carried out a long string of murders and hijackings...However, by the early 90s, the Popular Front’s place in the terrorist pantheon was usurped by...Hamas, perfectors of suicide bombing...The defector’s testimony reveals the true depth of the Iraq-Hamas connection.”[41]

Michael Ledeen, commenting on the defector’s testimony in his book, War Against the Terror Masters, writes: “The defector painted a detailed picture of the close working relationship. Hamas had its own office in Baghdad, and its own subdepartment within the structure of Mukhabarat. Hamas killers were trained in Iraq, both at the infamous Salman Pak terrorist camp and another in the northeast. And of course there were weapons, ‘guns, ammunition both heavy and light, detonators and explosives. It was Iraq which trained Hamas in how to make bombs.’ There are good reasons to believe that Saddam continues to seek ways to take revenge on us, and we know for a certainty that his people are working feverishly to develop several weapons of mass destruction.”[42]

1999

This year began Iraq’s more direct support for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups that target Israeli civilians. It is also around this time Saddam Hussein began sending $25,000 checks to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

Of course, links to Al-Qaeda did not die out either. An Iraqi defector, now an official in the Iraqi National Congress, declared, “There is a long history of contacts between the Mukhabarat (Iraqi secret service) and Osama Bin Laden.”[43] Iraqi opposition forces also warned that they had information that Saddam was hoping to use Bin Laden to carry out terrorist attacks on Western interests, specifically in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.[44]The beginning of warnings about an Iraqi-Bin Laden plot began surfacing. A senior Arab intelligence officer who knew Saddam Hussein personally, told Newsweek, “Very soon you will be witnessing large-scale terrorist activity by the Iraqis”, and said it would be conducted under “false flags”.[45]

By early January, the aforementioned four teams of a dozen terrorists were training in the outskirts of Baghdad. By the end of the month, hundreds of “Arab Afghans” (the nickname for Arabs that joined the forces in Afghanistan) were training at the al-Nasariya camp, and according to opposition sources, talking about attacking the United States and our allies.[46] Between January 25th and 27th, Abu Ayab al-Masri, senior Al-Qaeda member, met with Farouq Hijazi in Dubai and Turkey, where he was given Yemeni passports. In Ankara, al-Masri met Hijazi and a member of Unit 999, to discuss plans to train four more terrorist teams and coordinating their transportation through Istanbul.[47]

In December, Abu Jaffer al-Jaziri was accused by the US of a role in the Al-Qaeda plot to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport. Al-Jaziri is believed to have been one of Bin Laden’s long-time Iraqi representatives. He was killed in Afghanistan in January, 2002.



2000

On February 2, the ringleader of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohammed Atta met with Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, an Iraqi intelligence officer posing as a diplomat at the Iraqi embassy in Prague, Czech Republic. The next day, Atta went to Florida to begin flight school.[48] Although this meeting was denied by US intelligence, and then the Czechs, a near majority of Czech intelligence workers believe the meeting now did occur, and according to rumors, the Czechs or the Americans have a photo of the two meeting.

In February 2000, according to an Iraqi defector whom claims to have shipped arms for Iraq to Al-Qaeda, senior Iraqi officials began planning at least nine operations against the United States in the Middle East and Gulf. The defector says he was told of a plot he was to take part in involving a trade ship packed with explosives to be used by suicide bombers to attack a US ship in the Gulf. The plan was revealed to the defector approximately one month after an Al-Qaeda attempt to attack the USS Sullivans, an American destroyer, in Yemen. In October 2000, Al-Qaeda successfully attacked and badly damaged the USS Cole in Yemen. Could this all be connected, as the defector’s testimony appears to indicate?[49]

The defector, Mohamed Mansour Shahab, says there was evidence of an Al-Qaeda role in the Iraqi plots. After he was captured by Kurdish forces in March of 2000, he testified that in early 2000 he was called by an Afghan whom he had known do to his previous arms smuggling operations. The Afghan, named Othman, told him to attend a meeting in Iraq. In February, Shahab was taken to Ouija, near Tikrit. There he met Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as “Chemical Ali”, and former defense minister Luai Khairallah whom was close to Uday Hussein. They told him the nine operations were to begin a year or so later, around early 2001, after he delivered refrigerator motors to the Taliban. Each motor contained a liquid, but Shahab says he does not know what it was. After delivering the motors, Shahab was arrested by the Kurds.[50]

Meanwhile, Qusay Hussein began creating the Al-Nida terrorist force that Iraq would use for joint operations with international terrorists. Iraqi intelligence would choose the best qualified for training others in, and participating in, operations involving guerilla warfare, sabotage, surveillance, and other terrorist activities. In mid-March, Hamoud Abaid al-Anezi, a senior Al-Qaeda commander, arrived in Australia where he made contact with a group of four Iraqi nationals, “defectors” that had lived there since 1991. Together, they recruited Muslims for jihad around the world, until the authorities caught them in the act. Later on, this same Iraqi network would be suspected of a role in an Al-Qaeda plot to attack on the day of the Syndey Olympic Games.[51]

In spring 2000, Iraqi intelligence officers also met with two 9/11 hijackers, Zeid Samir Jarrah and Marawan al-Shehhi in the United Arab Emirates. As of now, we are unsure if this is the same meeting that will be referred to when we talk about 2001, or if there were two meetings. It is possible there is debate about the timing of the meeting. But nevertheless, such a meeting is believed to have occurred.[52]

On October 14, 2000, two days after the USS Cole bombing, radical Saudis hijacked a Boeing-777 from Saudi Arabia, and after releasing the hostages, received safe haven in Baghdad.[53] This year also brought new defector testimony that non-Iraqis were being trained at Salman Pak, which has a Boeing-707, as well as a biological weapons research center.[54]

In late December, Iraq began allowing over-flights by Iranian aircraft carrying weapons, personnel and other essentials to Palestinian terrorists, Hezbollah, and Syria.[55]



2001

In January, Arab sources revealed that a high-ranking Al-Qaeda lieutenant, Abu Khabab al-Masri, had created cells to specialize in weapons of mass destruction. Suicide bombers were being taught about conducting attacks with agents including mustard gas, sarin gas and anthrax—in Iraq.[56] Meanwhile, on January 22, Saddam Hussein and his sons using the state media called for an Arab alliance to launch a global war of jihad on the United States, Israel and our allies.[57]

According to defector testimony, as of early 2001, Saddam Hussein was actively preparing terrorist attacks against US ships in the Persian Gulf. Mohamed Mansour Shahab, an Iranian smuggler whom says he was paid by Iraq to smuggle arms to Al-Qaeda through Iranian territory, was recruited for terrorist operations by Saddam’s inner circle. The first task they wanted him to take part in, was a plot where a trade ship sailing under Iranian flag, with a half-ton of explosives, would be used by suicide bombers to destroy an American ship in the Gulf. The attack apparently was foiled or cancelled, but the defector warns that he was told by the senior Iraqi officials that $16 million was to be used in nine planned operations against the United States, including attacks in Kuwait.[58]

In April, Mohammed Atta again met with the Iraqi intelligence officer, Al-Ani in the Czech Republic. Immediately after, the Czechs expelled Al-Ani for activity outside his work as a diplomat, but the Czechs refused to specify what activity this was.[59] The Czechs also believe Mohammed Atta met with Farouq Hijazi around the same time, Iraq’s ambassador to Turkey and a former general in Iraqi intelligence. At the time, Atta was living with Marwav Jussuf al-Shehhi, another 9/11 hijacker. It is believed Hijazi is Saddam’s representative to Bin Laden, and has been alleged to have helped develop the 1995 plot to crash airliners into prominent American buildings including the World Trade Center.[60]

According to some sources, it was at these meetings that Mohammed Atta was given at least one forged passport among other documents, and according to some German investigators, at least one vial of anthrax.[61] Atta would later be seen at a pharmacy trying to get medication for his hands, which had anthrax-like symptoms. Although we will not get too far into the subject here, there is a great amount of evidence that at least some of the 9/11 hijackers were involved in the anthrax attacks. Anyway, less than two weeks after the meeting, Mohammed Atta received $100,000 from an untraceable person using a bank in the United Arab Emirates.[62]

In May, an Iraqi physician and kidney specialist, Dr. Mohammed Khagal visited Afghanistan for three days. Rumors immediately came out that he treated Bin Laden’s kidney problems. At the same time, Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service was accused of helping deliver the necessary equipment. No confirmation of Khagal’s assistance to Bin Laden can be given.

On July 21, six weeks before 9/11, an Iraqi columnist wrote in the state newspaper that Bin Laden had plans to destroy the Pentagon after he destroyed the White House. The same columnist said that Bin Laden would “hit the arm that is already hurting” (a hint at a second attack on the World Trade Center?), which would make Frank Sinatra not have good memories when he sang some of his songs. Of course, we know that Sintra wrote, “New York, New York”. Nae-em Abd Mulhalhal continued to say, “The wings of a dove and bullet are but the same in the heart of a believer.” The editor-in-chief of the newspaper is a secretary for Uday Hussein’s Syndicate of Journalism.[63] On September 1, Saddam Hussein and other officials praised Mulhalhal for his work in Al-Nasariya.

Here is the text of the column in Al-Nasariya in its July 21, 2001 issue:



"In this man's heart (Osama bin Laden) you'll find an insistence,
a strange determination that he will reach one day the tunnels of the White House
and will bomb it with everything that is in it.....with the seriousness of the Bedouin
of the desert about the way he will try to bomb the Pentagon after he destroys the White House.
...the revolutionary bin Laden is insisting very convincingly that he will strike America on the arm that is already hurting.
That the man....will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra every time he hears his songs."[64]

In July, al-Mamouri, a general in the Iraqi secret service, was last seen. According to Italy’s security services, he used the Iraqi embassy in Rome to communicate with the Saddam regime, to report on his mission—supervising the links with Islamic militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is also suspected of meeting with Mohammed Atta.[65]

Approximately six months before 9/11, according to a “very senior CIA” official, two other 9/11 hijackers—Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah—met with a Mukhabarat (Iraqi intelligence) officer in the United Arab Emirates. The meeting was also confirmed by Iraqi defectors in the Iraqi National Congress.[66] By mid-August, Israel warned the United States that it had intelligence of an imminent, large-scale terrorist plot against the US mainland. The threat was so imminent, that two Mossad officials were sent to Washington DC to personally deliver the warning that Osama Bin Laden’s organization was using a team of up to 200 operatives to carry out the operation. The warning also stated that there was “strong grounds” that Saddam Hussein was involved.[67]

Between August 19-21, Saddam Hussein opened his fifth forum of guerilla and terrorist groups in Baghdad. The meetings at the “festival” consisted of at least 100 prominent terrorist “officials” from groups including Islamic Jihad, Ansar al-Islam, Hamas, Egyptian Gamaa al-Islamiya and Al-Qaeda.[68] Saddam Hussein, Vice President Taha Ramadan, and Vice President Izzet Douri and senior intelligence officials all attended the conference. At least a hundred terrorists that attended the meeting were chosen for advanced training courses under Iraqi intelligence, and after the meeting ended, senior Iraqi intelligence officers were sent to meet with members of al-Qaeda under Saddam’s orders.[69]

In the first week of September, an Iraqi named Ahmad Shakir, a worker for the Iraqi embassy in Malaysia, met with Khalid al-Nidhar, a 9/11 hijacker who participated in the attack on the Pentagon. Nidhar was reportedly in Malaysia to have a final meeting with senior Al-Qaeda operatives before his mission.[70] In the days leading up to 9/11, there is evidence that Iraqi intelligence officers were in contact with Bin Laden.[71]

In the first and second week of September, a group of Al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan traveled to Iraq to link up with Ansar al-Islam forces to make a new safe harbor for the forces that would later flee Afghanistan. In the second and third weeks of September, these new forces attacked the anti-Saddam Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, killing over 20.[72] For the first two weeks before September 11th, Saddam Hussein hid in one of his safety bunkers in Tikrit. His two wives, Sajida and Samira were hidden in another bunker. The Iraqi armed forces went on high alert.[73]

The world changed on September 11, 2001. It was so horrifying that the rush to war on the Taliban in Afghanistan may have been the cause to overlook a strange coincidence. September 11, 2001, was the fifth anniversary of the conviction of Ramzi Yousef, leader of the first World Trade Center attack, and suspected Iraqi intelligence agent. Evidence of Iraqi involvement is substantial. Mohammed Atta and many of the other 9/11 hijackers also used Logan International Airport in Boston to get onto the airliners they would hijack—the same airport an Iraqi, the earlier mentioned al-Hussaini (former Republican Guard soldier), would get a job after finishing his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.[74] In the aftermath, Iraq and Afghanistan were the only countries to not offer any aid to the Americans, and to not send their condolences. No condemnation of Bin Laden or the hijackers occurred.

The immediate details as to the orchestrators of 9/11 were the most alarming. According to Jane’s Foreign Report, Israeli military intelligence believed that the attack was conducted by terrorists supported by Iraq. Among the evidence released was that senior Iraqi intelligence officers were having suspicious meetings with Al-Qaeda operatives. The Iraqis were also traveling to Afghanistan to meet with Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri, as well as Imad Mughniyah, the head of Hezbollah, in Lebanon. The report quoted Israel’s Arutz 7 as saying: “We’ve only got scraps of information, not the full picture—but it was good enough for us to send a warning six weeks ago to our allies that an unprecedented massive terror attack was expected...We believe that the operational brains behind the New York attack were Mughniyah and Zawahiri, who were probably financed and got some logistical support from the Iraqi Intelligence Service.”[75]

On September 20th, Mohammed Nouri, an Iraqi intelligence colonel was sent to meet with a high-ranking terrorist associated with Al-Qaeda in Bangkok, Thailand. The terrorist helped run operations by radical Islamists in Southeast Asia. His organization was allied to Osama Bin Laden and worked alongside Al-Qaeda. On September 24th, Abdul Khader Majid, an Iraqi intelligence brigadier, and several other senior intelligence officers attended a meeting with representatives of Al-Qaeda in Bangladesh.[76]



2001 Part Two: Anthrax Attacks

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]

In October, the anthrax attack occurred. While there is substantial evidence linking some of the Al-Qaeda hijackers to the anthrax outbreaks, there is no conclusive proof. 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.

On July 17, 2002, David Tell wrote in The Weekly Standard that a Pakistani named Syed Athar Abbas had pleaded guilty to check-kiting. In the second week of June, managed to steal $100,000 from a bank in California and a bank in New Jersey. He conducted the scam by opening three bank accounts for a bogus online company, based in Fort Lee. When the FBI when to the location, they found out that it was at one point, the home of Nawaq and Salem Alhamzi, two of the 9/11 hijackers who attacked the Pentagon. In late August, Syed Athar Abbas left the home and never came back.

On December 27, Rocco Parascandola (a writer for Newsday) discovered that Abbas used a false identity and using the $100,000 he stole, bought a “fine-food particulate mixer” used to mix chemicals. The machine was moved out of the home right before he fled to Pakistan. Newsmax.com quotes Parascandola as writing: “The $100,000 particulate mixer Parascandola describes, incidentally, is the exact same technology commonly employed by major food and pharmaceutical manufacturers to process fluid-form organic and inorganic compounds into powder: first to dry those compounds; next to grind the resulting mixture into tiny specks of dust, as small as a single micron in diameter; then to coat those dust specks with a chemical additive, if necessary, to maximize their motility or 'floatiness'; and finally to aerate the stuff for end-use packaging. In other words, this is how you'd put Aunt Jemima pancake mix in its box. Or place concentrations of individual anthrax spores into letters addressed to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy.”[80] Why would the US cover-up potential links from Iraq to the anthrax? It is possible it is because the Ames strain of anthrax, which was used in the attacks, was obtained by Iraq—from the United States in the 1980s.

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.

Kathy Mugyen, the anthrax victim who had no exposure to the bio-weapon, worked less than 1,000 feet from Hunter College and the school laboratories “Waly Samar” had access to, which according to the report I am citing, can be used to produce anthrax. 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. Even before Waly Samar became interested in crop dusting, Laurie Mylroie attempted to get the FBI to arrest him. To read more about “Waly Samar”, his connection to Iraq, Ramzi Yousef and the anthrax attacks, I highly suggest going to the following website: http://www.spiritoftruth.org/samar.htm

Replying to allegations that the anthrax was stolen from a US facility, and was not used by an Islamic terrorist, Saddam Hussein said the following on October 29th on Baghdad Radio: "...American officials think that the source of anthrax is probably the U.S. itself. Is this conclusion or information just a tactic to divert the attention of those who were terrorized to hear that bin Laden is the source of anthrax, and to hear insinuations to other accusations, that many Americans think that they should not persist in harming the people he cares for, because that would push him to a stronger reaction in this way or by other means?"[81]

An Iraqi defector from Saddam’s intelligence service began talking to the press about 9/11. He urgently warned that he knew about a terrorist training camp in the Baghdad suburbs used to train radical Muslims from around the region in assassination, guerilla warfare, and hijacking.[82] An investigation by Frontline confirmed that Iraqi intelligence had trained at least forty Islamic terrorists between 1995 and 2000 in how to hijacking airliners using a Boeing-747 that was originally Kuwaiti property.[83]

As the US-backed Northern Alliance forced the Taliban and Al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan in October, and the majority of the forces fled to Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Georgia and other countries, suspicion was brought up by Bin Laden’s disappearance. According to Bin Laden’s former personal chef, says that Bin Laden was offered temporary haven by several countries and organizations, including Saddam’s regime in Iraq. Bin Laden respectively decided to go elsewhere.[84] According to Pakistani sources, Saddam Hussein dispatched a senior diplomat named Taha Husseyn to Kandahar to meet with the Taliban’s Mavlana Jalal ud-Din Haqqani to deliver a message from Saddam. The Iraqi regime was offering sanctuary for Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar (the head of the Taliban) and financial and military assistance.[85] Not surprisingly, as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda fled Afghanistan in October, Salah Suleiman, an Iraqi intelligence officer was captured by Pakistan on the border. Reports indicate that over the summer, at least three high-ranking Iraqi intelligence officials traveled to Pakistan to meet with Al-Qaeda representatives.[86]

On December 3, 2001, a poem was recited by Sheikh Ali Bin Shallal, head of the al-Sharji tribes, at a meeting with the tribal chiefs of Basra and Maysan—and Saddam Hussein. It is highly likely this will startle you, here is the text:



“We love you as much as a bird loves its nest when it rains.
Your gold is pure, the gold of others is copper whose engravings are false.

But fatigue and injustice are over. They remain engraved letters.
You triumphed over injustice; you will not be blamed should you beat them.

You are fastened with a bullet-belt for the one fooled by his troops.
You are the guard, you are the guard, Saddam, and we are the watchful eyes.

Just order us to proceed and repel the attacks,
just order us to proceed and repel the attacks [line chanted repeatedly by the audience].

From inside America, how five planes flew.
Such a mishap never happened in the past!
And nothing similar will happen.
Six thousand infidels died.
Bin Ladin did not do it; the luck of the president [Saddam] did it.”[87]



2002

The beginning of 2002 also brought testimony by Iraqi defectors as to Saddam’s role in 9/11. Abu Zeinab al-Qurairy, a former Iraqi brigadier-general in Mukhabarat, and close aide to Uday Hussein, told the West that Uday was the leader of a specialized terrorist force. The top-secret force consisting of 1,200 Iraqi killers, which he named “The Strikers”, have disappeared and their location is unknown. The defector said that 30 of the best were given false identities and dispatched abroad. The organization’s specialties were in assassination, guerilla warfare, sabotage, and hijackings.[88] Al-Qurairy also said that he had no doubt that Iraq had a role in 9/11.

The early part of the year also brought new developments to Iraqi sponsorship of Palestinian terror. Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein had finished their plans to unleash a new wave of terrorism upon Israel for the years ahead. With heavy assistance from Iraqi and Iranian intelligence units and Al-Qaeda forces relocated to Lebanon, Palestinian refugee camps, and Palestinian territory, the deadliest terrorism yet would occur. Using the mentioned sophisticated resources to back them up, Arafat (in conjunction with Hussein and elements of the Iranian and Syrian governments) would direct coordination between the worst of the worst terrorists. His personal Fatah forces, Tanzim, Palestinian security forces, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda forces would have a semi-coordinated effort to intensify the war on Israel, and once the Iraq War began, against Allied interests in the region.[89]

In April, the Ansar forces in Iraq attempted to kill the prime minister in eastern Kurdistan. The assassination plot failed, at the cost of five of the minister’s bodyguards. This year, Ansar’s capabilities had already been enhanced. Testing of chemical weapons had begun, particularly on farm animals. Between 35 and 100 Al-Qaeda operatives from Afghanistan which had joined their brethren in Iraq took part in the activity, boosting the power of Ansar’s forces numbering between 600 and 700.[90] Meanwhile, Arafat’s Palestinian suicide bombers and Iraqi intelligence attempted to fulfill another one of their plans. During a trip to the Middle East, they attempted to assassinate Colin Powell, Secretary of State and numerous other high-ranking officials using suicide bombers and assassins. Luckily, they failed.[91]

Around June-July 2002, it is believed that Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the leading Al-Qaeda figure in carrying out attacks with chemical and biological weapons, arrived in Baghdad and established an operational base worked by nearly two dozen operatives. From the summer until the Iraq War began, this base was used to coordinate the movement of money, operatives and supply in and out of Iraq in support of Al-Qaeda operations. Not long after, Saudi authorities captured two Al-Qaeda operatives trying to infiltrate Saudi Arabia from Iraq, one of which had trained in the use of cyanide. From this operational base, the attempted WMD attacks in 2003 on Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain were prepared.

On September 27, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that intelligence indicated Al-Qaeda had a presence in Baghdad, resulting from a decade-long series of senior contacts which increased in 1998. The contact involved discussion of cooperation, and non-aggression agreements, and according to one Al-Qaeda detainee, Iraqi training of certain operatives in bio-chemical warfare.[92] Coincidentally, this same day it was reported that two Iraqi nationals with a Russian national (a non-Chechen) were captured in a raid in Afghanistan.[93] National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice followed up Rumsfeld’s accusations, confirming that high-ranking detainees confirmed a history of meetings between senior Iraqi and Al-Qaeda figures, and confirmed assistance from Iraq to Al-Qaeda in chemical weapons development.[94]

According to a CIA report, in late October, the Al-Qaeda-linked forces of Ansar al-Islam received their first confirmed shipment of chemical weapons. According to two government officials with access to the classified report, the transaction included the deadly VX weapon, and that the operatives on the receiving end either had already, or planned to, smuggle it into Turkey.[95] As the heat turned on Saddam Hussein in November, he took desperate measures in an attempt to destroy the dissident alliance rising up in the West. Press reports say that he ordered his intelligence network to assassinate key dissident leaders in Great Britain (an activity he had long been doing), and tried to team up with Libya to activate terrorist cells to attack British and American sites in the Middle East.[96]

By August, a Whitehall dossier on Iraq’s programs for weapons of mass destruction was written. In it, according to reporter Michael Evans, there was evidence Saddam Hussein may be planning to arm Palestinian terrorists with biological weapons.[97] The British also released a dossier on Iraq which claimed that at least two key Al-Qaeda lieutenants underwent training in Iraq. The dossier also confirmed that Iraq was paying Al-Qaeda to use its Ansar forces based in northern Iraq to attack the Kurdish forces.[98]

In the August-September timeframe we discussed, Parisoula Lampos, Saddam’s former mistress finally revealed to the press what she knew. As Saddam’s favorite mistress, she saw him on a daily basis. Among the information she provided, was that Uday Hussein, Saddam’s oldest son, told her that Saddam had met with Osama Bin Laden in the mid-1990s and gave him money.[99] As all this information came out we have talked about, Richard Pearle, an advisor to Rumsfeld, claimed that Mohammed Atta met with Saddam Hussein at least once, and that proof had been obtained of the meeting.[100]

On September 16th, Iraq’s The Economist, owned by Uday Hussein, compared the United States to Nazi Germany, and criticized America as a state sponsor of terrorism. The newspaper then called for sabotage (terrorist) attacks on US interests around the world, and for Arabs and Muslims to unite against the West. The paper finished with calling for attacks on the US; boycotts; closing airports and seaports to US shipping; targeting “everything American” including embassies and companies; using suicide bombers against US military and naval bases; and the mining of waterways to stop US shipping.[101]

The later part of 2002 also would bring confirmation of Iraqi assistance to other terrorists. In a CBS investigation, a direct link between Palestinian militants under Yasser Arafat, Iran, and Iraq was drawn. Iraq took part in financing and directing some attacks on Israeli civilians, which was proven by captured documents in Arafat’s compound in early 2002. A 3-man Palestinian terrorist cell was captured by Israel in 2002, and the operatives claimed to have been trained by Iraqi officials in the use of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to bring down airplanes.[102]

In the last month of the year, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Shiite council in Iraq in opposition to Saddam Hussein, accused the Iraqi regime of ordering elements of the Fedayeen Saddam militia under Uday to begin joint training with Ansar al-Islam (Al-Qaeda branch in northern Iraq) for attacks on US interests.[103]

By the end of 2002, at least 6,000 people from terrorist groups all around the world were currently involved in Iraq’s training programs. Camps like Salman Pak, al-Safar and al-Habaniya were often used to train suicide bombers. Training in everything from communications, surveillance, document forgery, infiltration, and spying to explosives creation, work with small arms, to work with poisons and toxins was offered.[104] Shipments outside the country to terrorists did not stop either. In December, according to Israeli intelligence, Iraq sent rockets with 100-150 kilometer range to Syria to be delivered to the Hezbollah forces.[105]





2003

On February 5th, Colin Powell presented the case for war with Iraq at the United Nations. Powell mentioned that Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was in Baghdad, after receiving medical treatment after losing a leg in Afghanistan, and Saddam’s regime was refusing to arrest him or provide information. Powell also mentioned that a former Iraqi intelligence chief testified that Saddam’s agents went to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s to provide training in document forgery to Al-Qaeda. From the late 1990s to 2001, the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan served as Saddam’s liaison to the terrorist organization.[106]

In February, 2003, Israel captured a junior officer in Palestinian intelligence in charge of suicide attacks on Israel, named Mohamed Farouq Abu Roub. During interrogation, he admitted that his activities resulted from Iraqi instructions and funding (in thousands of dollars) to poison Israeli water pipelines, and possibly the Lake of Galilee or the Jordan River. When Abu Roub was captured after helping suicide bombers infiltrate the targeted area, he said his present mission was sending out operatives to target school buses, which he was trained to do by Iraq.[107]

The same month, the Western European countries stopped mega-terrorist attacks with chemical and biological weapons by Al-Qaeda operatives and terrorists associated with Al-Qaeda branches (particularly ones based in Algeria). While some doubted the Israeli intelligence claim that the effort was done in conjunction with Iraqi intelligence (to frighten Europe into not helping the US in the coming war against Saddam Hussein), it was confirmed that the operatives were trained in their skills by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a senior Al-Qaeda figure harbored by Iraq.[108] The USA accuses Zarqawi of being Iraq’s link to Al-Qaeda forces in northern Iraq.

Iraq also began preparing its war against the Coalition invaders. Uday Hussein was dispatched to Lebanon to recruit Palestinian suicide squads, while hundreds of Palestinians began arriving in Iraq under Yasser Arafat’s authority. Iraq also began training and recruiting “holy warriors”—extremist Muslims—that were traveling from around the world to fight alongside Saddam’s forces.[109]

The Philippines also accused Iraq of assisting the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf terrorists there in terrorist operations. A Filipino intelligence report released on February 11 said that an Iraqi diplomat in Manila named Hushann Husain received a phone call from an Abu Sayyaf operative shortly after his bombing attack.[110] A local commander of Abu Sayyaf forces on Basilan, Hamisraji Sali, has confirmed allegations of Iraqi support, saying that they receive $20,000 a year from Iraqi sponsors. The funding is used for transportation of bomb supplies and personnel. To cover their tracks, the Iraqis sent the money through Vietnam and Cambodia to Malaysia and finally to the Philippines.[111]As war came closer and closer, in early March, the CIA was already warning that an Al-Qaeda cell of 24 led by between four and eight mid-level operatives in Baghdad was planning attacks against Coalition forces. There were other cells in Mosul and Erbil, in addition to the 100-200 Al-Qaeda forces formerly based in Afghanistan that joined with Ansar al-Islam in Kurdistan.[112]

On March 12th, former CIA director James Woolsey testified in court in a lawsuit that was filed on behalf of the 9/11 victims, that he was certain that Iraq had a role in 9/11, particularly in the training of hijackers. Five witnesses reported that Al-Qaeda operatives were being trained at Iraq camps, specifically Salman Pak. At the trial, Spanish evidence was also presented that the 9/11 co-conspirator, Yusaf Galem, was at a party (under this same Al-Qaeda identity) thrown by the Iraqi ambassador to Spain. Why was such a person invited?[113]

In Jordan, a plot to blow up a hotel frequently used by Westerners was stopped. In Yemen, plots to blow up the British and American embassies were foiled. An attack in Pakistan was also foiled. Attacks in a total of at least 10 countries by the Iraqis were planned.[114] According to some reports, Iraqi intelligence plotted to attack Western interests in the United Kingdom, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Turkey, Thailand, India and Pakistan.[115] A later plot to poison the drinking water of US air bases in eastern Jordan was stopped.[116]

Iraq also planned to use terrorism as retaliation for the invasion led by the United States and the United Kingdom. Of course, the targets were not limited to just those two countries. Spain expelled 6 Iraqi diplomats when they were found with 14 handguns, 5 shotguns, 1 rifle, 1 carbine and 800 rounds of ammunition.[117] The United States arrested the son of a former diplomat, saying he was cooperating with Iraqi spies to assassinate Iraqi defectors in New York.[118] Also in New York, at the United Nations, two Iraqi diplomats were caught videotaping bridges and tunnels.[119]

Near Baghdad, Coalition forces captured Abu Abbas, leader of the terrorist group known as the Palestine Liberation Front, and mastermind of the 1986 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, where he murdered a disabled American in a wheelchair and threw the body overboard.[120] Iraq had been supporting Abu Abbas and his terrorists since 1991.

In April, documents captured from the headquarters of Iraqi intelligence was found detailing discussions between Iraq and an African terrorist leader, Sheikh Jamil Makulu, whom was allied to Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda since the early 1990s. The African group known as the Allied Democratic Forces said in the discussion their goal was to smuggle arms worldwide to “holy warriors” fighting US, British and Israeli influences in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Far East. The Iraqi affairs agent in Nairobi, Fallah Hassen al-Rubdie, led the discussions with the terrorist group based in Uganda.

The documents also had a copy of a letter sent from a senior Allied Democratic Forces’ member to the boss of Iraqi intelligence describing his efforts to set up an “international mujahideen team”. The letter, sent in April of 2001, was written by the ADF’s diplomacy chief, Bekkah Abdul Nassir, whom offered to recruit Muslims to be sent for training at a Baghdad terrorist camp, which he described as “the headquarters for international holy warrior network”.[121] Around the same time, Coalition forces also captured an Al-Qaeda terrorist in western Baghdad under the authority of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.[122]

On April 18th, Coalition forces attacked and destroyed a terrorist training camp near Baghdad used by the Palestine Liberation Front (and probably others too), with 20 buildings, complete with guidebooks about carrying out terrorist attacks, the use of gas masks and other equipment for chemical attacks, and even in how to resist interrogation. As of right now, there is no way to know if Al-Qaeda used the camp or not.[123] The Salman Pak terrorist camp was also destroyed around the same time, which according to three defectors, was used to train terrorists from around the world. Captain Sabah Khodad, a former intelligence officer who worked there from 1994 to 1995, has questioned the camp’s role in 9/11. He told the London Observer that after the attack happened, he immediately thought: “This has been done by graduates of Salman Pak.”[124] It is interesting to note that participants at the Salman Pak site, whose existence has been confirmed by UN inspectors, are taught how to hijack aircraft and trains with all kinds of blades, knives, and even bare hands. Salman Pak was also considered a suspected biological weapons research and training site by the USA, as it is believed the camp also conducts research on anthrax, botulinum toxin, aflatoxin, gas gangrene, clostridium and ricin. Ricin and anthrax have been involved in terrorist plots in the past by Al-Qaeda.

For more on Salman Pak, training of hijackers and Iraq’s possible connections to 9/11, readers are encouraged to read the following interviews with Iraqi defectors:



A PBS interview with a former Iraqi lieutenant-general whom remains anonymous, available at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gunning/interviews/general.html



A PBS interview with Sabah Khodada, a former Iraqi Army captain whom worked at Salman Pak. Available at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gunning/interviews/khodada.html



A PBS interview with Khidhir Hamza, former head of Iraq’s nuclear program. Available at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gunning/interviews/hamza.html



On April 26th, reporters found documents in the Iraqi intelligence headquarters proving a direct link between the Saddam regime and Al-Qaeda. It reveals that an Al-Qaeda “delegation” met with Iraqi officials in Baghdad in March 1998, to establish an alliance based on the mutual hatred of Saudi Arabia and the United States. The document says the meeting went so well that it was extended by a week and ended with plans for Bin Laden to visit Baghdad. A three-page file was also found, with all references to Bin Laden blotted out with white-out, which was removed to see the contents. A file marked “top secret and urgent”, dated February 19th, referred to a trip from Sudan of an unidentified close aide to Bin Laden. The document was signed by “MDA”, the code-name for the director of Iraqi intelligence. The file suggested that Iraq pay for the costs of the trip in exchange for a favor by the aide. The favor was to have the aide personally pass messages to Bin Laden from the Iraqi officials.[125]

On May 7th, a federal judge awarded $104 million in damages to the families of 9/11, to be taken from Iraqi government assets. Judge Harold Baer says the case proved, “albeit barely”, that Iraq provided material support that contributed to 9/11. The case proved that Iraq did indeed have links to Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.[126]

[1] “High Cost of Peace” by Yossef Bodansky. Page 23.

[2] “High Cost of Peace” by Yossef Bodansky. Page 26.

[3] “High Cost of Peace” by Yossef Bodansky. Page 34.

[4] “High Cost of Peace” by Yossef Bodansky. Page 73.

[5] Worldnetdaily.com, December 11, 2002.

[6] Washington Post, March 18, 2002.

[7] Far Eastern Economic Review, September 27, 2001.

[8] Boston Globe, January 18, 1995.

[9] “Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America” by Yossef Bodansky. Pages 323-324.

[10] Radio Free Europe, October 19, 2001.

[11] Insight Magazine, April 22, 2002.

[12] Yediot Aharont, Israel, October 10, 1994.

[13] Philadelphia Daily News, October 3, 2000.

[14] US News, October 29, 2001.

[15] Insight Magazine, April 22, 2002.

[16] Radio Free Europe, October 19, 2001.

[17] Radio Free Europe, October 19, 2001.

[18] Frontline, PBS, November 14, 2001.

[19] New York Times, November 16, 1995.

[20] “Study of Revenge” by Laurie Mylroie. Page 215.

[21] Jerusalem Post, November 23, 1995.

[22] UPI, February 5, 2003.

[23] UPI, February 5, 2003.

[24] Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2002.

[25] “Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem—Once and for All” by Scott Ritter. Page 121.

[26] The New American, July 1, 2002.

[27] The New American, July 1, 2002.

[28] Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2002.

[29] “High Cost of Peace” by Yossef Bodansky. Page 167.

[30] “High Cost of Peace” by Yossef Bodansky. Page 488-489.

[31] Sunday Telegraph, April 26, 2003.

[32] Daily Telegraph, October 28, 2001.

[33] Times of London, October 10, 2001; “Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America” by Yossef Bodansky. Pages 323-324.

[34] “Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America” by Yossef Bodansky. Pages 323-324.

[35] Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2002.

[36] Times of London, October 10, 2001.

[37] Ma’ariv, February 22, 1998.

[38] Independent (London) October 14, 2001

[39] Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, September 19, 2001.

[40] “Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America” by Yossef Bodansky. Pages 360-361.

[41] “The War Against the Terror Masters” by Michael Ledeen. Pages 181-182..

[42] “The War Against the Terror Masters” by Michael Ledeen. Page 182..

[43] Iraq News, February 10, 1999.

[44] Agence France Presse, February 17, 1999.

[45] Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2002.

[46] “Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America” by Yossef Bodansky. Pages 360-361.

[47] “Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America” by Yossef Bodansky. Pages 380.

[48] ABC News, October 29, 2001.

[49] Christian Science Monitor, April 3, 2002.

[50] Christian Science Monitor, April 3, 2002.

[51] “Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America” by Yossef Bodansky. Pages 401-402.

[52] Times of London, October 10, 2001.

[53] Times of London, October 10, 2001.

[54] New York Times, October 22, 2001.

[55] “The High Cost of Peace”, by Yossef Bodansky, page 411.

[56] Sunday Telegraph, September 30, 2001.

[57] Al-Watan al-Arabi, January 22, 2001.

[58] Christian Science Monitor, April 3, 2002.

[59] Daily Telegraph (London), October 27, 2001.

[60] Die Welt, September 19, 2001; Radio Free Europe, October 19, 2001.

[61] AFP (Berlin) October 25, 2001

[62] “The War Against the Terror Masters” by Michael Ledeen. Page 179.

[63] Times of London, October 27, 2001.

[64] Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2003.

[65] Times of London, October 27, 2001.

[66] Worldnetdaily.com, December 11, 2002.

[67] Middle East Newsline, September 16, 2001.

[68] Daily Telegraph, October 28, 2001.

[69] Sunday Telegraph, October 28, 2001.

[70] CBS News, October 1, 2002.

[71] Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2002, Washington Times, September 21, 2001.

[72] Los Angeles Times, December 9, 2002.

[73] According to high-ranking defectors, as reported in Con Couglin’s “Saddam: King of Terror”

[74] Philadelphia Daily News, October 3, 2000.

[75] Arutz 7, September 20, 2001.

[76] Sunday Telegraph, October 28, 2001.

[77] Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2003.

[78] ABC News, October 29, 2001.

[79] Sunday Telegraph, October 27, 2001.

[80] Newsmax.com, August 17, 2002. Phil Brennan.

[81] Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2003.

[82] Sunday Telegraph, October 28, 2001.

[83] Frontline, PBS, November 14, 2001.

[84] BBC, December 31, 2001.

[85] The National Review citing Ummat, an Urdu-language paper in Karachi, Pakistan. Stephen F. Hayes.

[86] Sunday Telegraph, September 23, 2001.

[87] December 3, 2001, cited on Iraqi television. As reported on http://www.spiritoftruth.org/iraqlinks.htm

[88] Vanity Fair, January 9, 2002.

[89] “High Cost of Peace” by Yossef Bodansky. Page 521.

[90] Los Angeles Times, December 9, 2002.

[91] “High Cost of Peace” by Yossef Bodansky. Pages 536-538.

[92] Newsmax.com, September 27, 2002.

[93] Worldnetdaily.com, September 27, 2002.

[94] Fox News, September 27, 2002.

[95] Washington Post, December 12, 2002.

[96] London Telegraph, November 3, 2002.

[97] World News, August 3, 2002.

[98] Reuters, September 14, 2002.

[99] ABC News, September 8, 2002.

[100] Agence France Presse, September 8, 2002.

[101] Newsmax.com, September 16, 2002.

[102] Ha’aretz, September 30, 2002.

[103] Reuters, December 1, 2002.

[104] Daily Telegraph, October 28, 2001.

[105] Ha’aretz, December 27, 2002.

[106] UPI, February 5, 2003 reporting on Powell’s UN presentation.

[107] New York Post, February 2, 2003.

[108] CNN, February 7, 2003.

[109] World Tribune, March 31, 2003.

[110] Yahoo! News, February 11, 2003.

[111] Washington Times, March 4, 2003.

[112] New York Times, March 8, 2003.

[113] Worldnetdaily.com, March 16, 2003.

[114] Washington Post, March 28, 2003.

[115] Worldnetdaily.com, March 28, 2003.

[116] Washington Times, April 2, 2003.

[117] New York Times, April 14, 2003.

[118] New York Post, April 15, 2003.

[119] MSNBC, March 6, 2003.

[120] Worldnetdaily.com, April 15, 2003.

[121] London Telegraph, April 17, 2003.

[122] CNN, April 30, 2003.

[123] World Tribune, April 18, 2003.

[124] Newsmax.com, April 6, 2003.

[125] Sunday Telegraph, April 26, 2003.

[126] Associated Press, May 7, 2003.

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