A good CSM article by Scott Peterson in Ex-smuggler describes Iraqi plot to blow up US warship on 03 APR 2002, points to al Qaeda contacts and smuggling routes for materials between Saddam’s regime and al Qaeda. The smuggler, Mohamed Mansour Shahab, gives plot details and the 9 plans that were being developed, along with cash to fund them, to go after US interests in the Middle East.
In Mr. Schanzer’s blog on 15 JAN 2003 he goes into the ties between Saddam’s regime and the al Qaeda affiliate, Ansar al-Islam, that is operating in the Kurdish regions but getting support from Saddam.
The Pentagon was worried as early as 20 AUG 2002 that there were chemical weapon’s capabilities being handed over to Ansar al-Islam from Saddam’s regime. The Kurds reported that Ansar was testing out CW capabilities on 20 JAN 2003, which was pointing up to the main worry of terrorist organizations getting support from a rogue regime with chemical weapons and being supplied with either arms or technical capability to produce same.
On 25 MAR 2003 a report that multiple terrorist groups are operating with the assent of Saddam against Coalition forces and they do include al Qaeda. The report has this lovely line in it, addressing just that question of Islam and the secular regime of Saddam: “However, it should be noted that the Iraqi government, and specifically President Hussein, has been criticized by Muslim religious leaders for decades for its secular, anti-Islamist stance. Only in recent years has the Iraqi leader attempted to make use of religious rhetoric to appeal to the Iraqi people and Muslims worldwide for support for Iraq.”
A report on 23 MAY 2003 from a member of the Saddamist inner circle, Qassem Hussein Mohamed, also points to contacts between the regime and Ansar as he was the individual doing the contact work between them. He then goes on to identify financial handlers for al Qaeda, that Mohammed Atef visited Ansar, and that ricin had been tested in water, vapor and spray aerosol form on unwitting victims.
So, forgive me for saying so, but this concept of some large amount of hatred between al Qaeda and Saddam, when Saddam was funding al Qaeda groups, supplying them with equipment, and actively cooperating with al Qaeda to go against US interests is a very strange one. Particularly as Saddam was actively wooing radical Islamic groups. I have yet to see the numerous citations of al Qaeda operations against the regime of Saddam Hussein in any way to bring down or even hinder it slightly. While numerous individuals naming names, placing contacts, supplies, money flows, knowledge dissemination and a host of other things have shown up. The proof, it appears, are on those wishing to cite a large and vast wall between al Qaeda and Saddam by giving demonstrable evidence and support of that position by showing how much al Qaeda actually worked *against* Saddam’s regime. Meanwhile we have the 1993 WTC attack, African Embassy Bombings, attempted millenia plot, attempted bombing of USS The Sullivans, bombing of the USS Cole and 9/11 to show that al Qaeda was placing a very high priority on attacking the United States. Plots in Chechnya, establishing ties with organized crime in Eastern Europe and extending outreach to anyone willing to give al Qaeda support is far more evident than this vast separation between al Qaeda and Saddam. al Qaeda wasn’t that picky about Allies in those days and worked hard to get support from anyone that would help them. I just have extreme trouble picturing them turning down aid from a tyrannical and genocidal dictator trying to make amends, even if lip service, so as to cooperate against a mutual foe.
