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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: kumar who wrote (47019)9/26/2002 1:35:53 AM
From: maceng2  Read Replies (3) of 281500
 
US administration claims Iraq is sheltering al-Qaida members

(see emboldened text. I see no reason to disbelieve Rice either... pb)

ananova.com

President George W Bush's national security adviser says Iraq is sheltering members of al-Qaida.

Condoleezza Rice says Saddam Hussein's regime is also helping Osama bin Laden's operatives develop chemical weapons.

Her comments are by far the strongest statements yet from the US government alleging al-Qaida contacts with the Iraqi government.

Rice told PBS television: "We clearly know that there... have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of al-Qaida going back for actually quite a long time.

"We know too that several of the al-Qaida detainees, in particular some high-ranking detainees, have said that Iraq provided some training to al-Qaida in chemical weapons development."

Previously, the widely held view has been that while Saddam and bin Laden both oppose the US, their motivations are too different for them to work together.

Saddam seeks secular power; bin Laden's drive comes from religious motivations and his opposition to the US military presence in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world.

But Rice said, "There clearly are contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq that can be documented; there clearly is testimony that some of the contacts have been important contacts and that there's a relationship here."

She suggested that details of the contacts will be released later.

Previously, US intelligence officials have said that some al-Qaida members have been detected in Iraq, but that they appeared to simply be crossing the country after fleeing Afghanistan for their native countries on the Arabian peninsula or in North Africa.
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