Documents show Saddam Hussein's ties to al-Qaeda
By Seth Mandel
March 28, 2008
A new Pentagon review of captured Saddam-era Iraqi documents, audio recordings, and video recordings details Saddam Hussein's connections to al-Qaeda, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and other terror organizations that targeted the
The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) report by the Iraqi Perspectives Project (IPP) is titled Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents. The findings are based on the review, conducted by the IDA's Joint Advanced Warfighting Program (JAWP), of more than 600,000 original documents and several thousand hours of audio and video recordings.
The report was recently released days after an initial leak of the executive summary, reported on by the McClatchy News Service, touched off a series of erroneous stories about its contents.
Saddam and al-Qaeda
In one document, part of a report by Saddam's Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) to Saddam, the IIS states, "we agreed to renew our relations with the Islamic Jihad Organization in
Egyptian Islamic Jihad was led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the ideological leader of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's deputy. Zawahiri was one of the founders of al-Qaeda, and later officially merged al-Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
Another document, a January 1993 communique from Saddam to the IIS, details Saddam's order to "form a group to start hunting Americans present on Arab soil; especially
The IPP report states: "The overlap between bin Laden's and Saddam's interests in Somalia provides a tactical example of the parallel between Iraq and radical Islam; at the same time Saddam was ordering action in Somalia aimed at the American presence, Osama bin Laden was doing the same thing."
Later that year, al-Zawahiri had joined forces with bin Laden in
A July 2001 memo shows Saddam's IIS outreach to a Bahraini organization calling itself the Army of Muhammad.
"Information available to us is that the group is under the wings of bin Laden," the July 9, 2001 memo states. "They receive their directions from
* "Striking the embassies and other Jewish and American interests anywhere in the world.
* Attacking the American and British military bases in the Arab land.
* Striking American embassies and interests unless the Americans pull out their forces from the Arab lands and discontinue their support for
* Disrupting oil exports [to] the Americans from Arab countries and threatening tankers carrying oil to them."
Another memo, from an IIS agent to the IIS director, reveals Saddam's instructions to the IIS to assist the Army of Muhammad. The report states: "The IIS agent goes on to inform the Director that 'this organization is an offshoot of bin Laden, but that their objectives are similar but with different names that can be a way of camouflaging the organization'."
Later in the report, the authors outline what was, essentially, a business model for Saddam's terror activities. The section describes how Saddam's support for non-Iraqi terrorist groups ranged from the revolutionary to the liberation-focused groups to non-state nationalist groups to Islamic terrorist organizations.
Saddam and bin Laden are described as "venture capitalists" in regard to their terrorism funding and cooperation; the two are considered as competing drug cartels with near-identical targets and recruiting pools. The report details that, although Saddam was a secular Arab socialist and bin Laden was an Islamist supporter of a caliphate, the two often found common cause and worked together when the need arose.
"For years, Saddam maintained training camps for foreign 'fighters' drawn from these diverse groups," the report states, referring to the aforementioned non-Iraqi terrorist groups supported by Saddam. "In some cases, particularly for Palestinians, Saddam was also a strong financial supporter. Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al-Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri) or that generally shared al-Qaeda's stated goals and objectives."
Saddam, the Palestinians, and a shared bid to destroy
Early in the report, an IIS memo lists the organizations it works with. The first one mentioned is the Fatah Revolutionary Council, a.k.a. Abu Nidal Organization. Abu Nidal, whose real name is Sabri al-Bana, established this organization in 1973, after splitting with the PLO's Fatah faction. Nidal was at one time the head of the Fatah office in
Nidal was believed to have been involved in the planning of the Munich massacre in 1972; the attempted assassination of Shlomo Argov, Israeli ambassador to London; a deadly attack on a restaurant in the Jewish quarter of Paris; the bombing of a civilian bus in Ashdod, Israel; attacks on El Al airport counters; and many others.
The second organization listed in the memo is the Palestine Liberation Front, established in 1983 by Abu al-Abbas and famous for its 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship. Palestine Liberation Front later merged with the PLO, and al-Abbas was captured by
The third terrorist agency listed is Force 17, the group dedicated to protecting Yasser Arafat and assassinating Israeli leaders. The fourth organization is the Renewal and Jihad Organization, described in the memo as a "secret Islamic Palestinian Organization established after the war. It believes in armed jihad against the Americans and Western interests. They also believe our leader [Saddam Hussein]... is the true leader in the war against the infidels."
The Pentagon report states that according to the IIS M8 Directorate of Liberation Movements annual report, in 2002 the IIS hosted 13 conferences for Palestinian and other organizations. The same report discusses the almost 700 passports -- many to known terrorists -- supplied by the IIS in that year.
"Moreover, it states that the IIS took four million dinars from its own budget to finance Palestinian terrorist groups," the report states.
The M8 report also lists some "exemplary events" that took place that year, including "Re-equipping and training Palestinian fighters in al-Quds training camps" in
Further, according to the report, while Saddam's financial support for Palestinian terrorists is well documented, Saddam took an even more active role in anti-Israel terror than simply signing checks.
"For example," the report states, "in a 2002 document, the Chief of Staff of Saddam's al Quds Army orders each brigade to build a replica of an Israeli settlement in its headquarters area so that fighters can train in a realistic environment."
In another communique, a Palestinian agent told Saddam's regime after the 9/11 terror attacks that Hamas had "35 armed terror cells" around the world. These cells, the agent boasted, would force the
A 1998 memo from the Iraqi embassy in
Other documents show that al-Abbas often served as Saddam and Arafat's go-between, and that al-Abbas held meetings on Saddam's behalf with Mahmoud Abbas.
Here is an excerpt from an IIS profile of al-Abbas: "Abu al-Abbas stated that he is willing to fully work, in any area, which will serve
Finally, some answers
The report covers a lot more ground, and details Saddam's other numerous terrorist connections as well. Some questions are answered, such as whether Saddam cooperated with al-Qaeda prior to 9/11, and whether Sunni and Shi'ite groups would work together (yes and yes), but other unknowns -- such as the extent to which Saddam worked with these groups and what the connections were between all these other organizations -- remain so.
But the report's conclusion states that the captured documents and tapes at least answer one of the more pressing questions since Operation Iraqi Freedom began.
"One question remains regarding