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: spiritoftruth.org
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] |
