U.S. intelligence agencies (CIA and FBI) were unable to find information supporting the Bush position that Iraq supported terrorists, including Al Qaida.
Despite administration assertions to the contrary, all reports from sources within these agencies failed to show such a connection. For example, a report on NPR from sources within the CIA reported that evidence for Iraqi support for terrorists was "weak to nonexistent". A New York Times article on February 3, 2003, said
"At the FBI, some investigators said they were baffled by the Bush administration's insistance on a solid link between Iraq and Osama bin Laden's network. 'We've been looking at this hard for more than a year and you know what, we just don't think it's there,' a government official said."
So what intelligence did the Bush administration use as evidence for Iraqi support for terrorists and al-Qaida? The answer is basically bad information and selecting only what they wanted to believe. For a fairly length article describing this see
Selective Intelligance, by Seymour M. Hersh.
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The case of Abu Nidal
Abu Nidal died in Baghdad in August, 2002. He had headed a major Palestinian terrorist organization, and two versions of how he died were reported.
The original Iraqi government statement was that Nidal was seriously ill with leukemia and committed suicide by shooting himself. A slightly later statement, as quoted by CNN, said "While under house arrest, Iraqi authorities determined Abu Nidal was conspiring against the Iraqi government in working with forces outside of Iraq, anti-Iraqi forces".
Reports from Palestinian sources (prior to the second Iraqi statement) said that Nidal was assassinated by Iraqi security forces. Tariq Aziz acknowledged immediately after Nidal's death that he was "violating the Iraqi National Interest" but did not admit Iraqi government culpability, holding to the leukemia/suicide explanation. Aziz also said that Nidal had entered Iraq secretly from Iran and was not being given sanctuary by Iraq.
There is a strong chance that Nidal's death was in fact another example of Saddam Hussein eliminating anyne who could possibly challenge his authority. In any case no evidence has been presented for Iraqi support of Abu Nidal's organization other than Nidal's personal presence in Baghdad.
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The case of Abu (Muhammed) Abbas:
Abu Abbas was captured in Iraq in April, 2003. The Bush administration claims this proves that Saddam Hussein's government harbored terrorists. Make that "terrorist", singular -- Abbas is only one person.
Abbas led the faction of the Palestine Liberation Front which seized the Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship, in 1985. In this act of terrorism the PLF hijackers killed disabled American tourist Leon Klinghoffer by pushing his wheelchair overboard. The PLF attempted several raids on Israel from across the Lebanon border and one Tel Aviv landing from the sea; all except one of these raids failed. Following the Oslo accords in 1993 Abbas renounced terrorism. News in 1996 reported that he had apologized for the Achille Lauro hijacking and was now working to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine.
footnote: Can a terrorist become a peace advocate?
Abbas has a clear record as a terrorist in the 1980's. Regardless of whether or not we believe that he has actually converted to being a peace advocate, the documented history of PLF terrorism ended in 1990. This is consistent with a possibility, perhaps a high probability, that Abu Abbas has not been a terrorist for a at least several years to more than a decade.
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The case of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi
Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi is believed to have been active in al-Qaida terrorist activities. He is a Jordanian of Palestinian descent, who was wounded in Afghanistan in fighting following he September 11th attacks. He avoided capture and fled to Iran. Most reports indicate that after a stay in Iran he went to Iraq for medical treatment, where one of his legs was amputated and replaced with a prosthesis. His next reported location was in a terrorist camp in southern Lebanon. Following that he was variously reported to have travelled to northern Iraq to visit Ansar al-Islam and to the Pankisi gorge in Georgia.
The Bush administration has asserted that al-Zarqawi is the number 3 man in al-Qaida, runs a terrorist network, and operates a training center in northern Iraq (the Ansar al-Islam camp). Other sources have been unable to locate hard evidence for any of these claims. Most of the Bush administration's inferences seem to be based purely on Zarqawi's association with known al-Qaida operatives, but the same associations are equally valid as signs that he was simply another low level operative.
Evidence of support for al-Zarqawi by the government of Iran is lacking. Ironically, it is known that Abdul Karim al-Thani hosted and apparently supported al-Zarqawi in Qatar, but the Bush administration ignores this association. Al-Thani is a member of the Qatari royal family.
One of the web-based articles with additional information on al-Zarqawi is Al Qaeda-Iraq Connection Tenuous at Best.
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Al-Ansar al-Islam
Al-Ansar al-Islam was a militant Sunni Islamic organization in the Kurdish territory of northern Iraq, with about 700 men under arms. Its affiliations and its opponents differ somewhat among different reports: Some reports say that it involved a coalition of al-Qaida, Iran, and Saddam Hussein's Iraqi government, united in opposition to the Kurds. Other reports say that Kurds were a main component of its membership and that it opposed Saddam Hussein.
Synthesizing from various sources produces an impression that Al-Asar al-Islam was its own entity, not part of any other organization or government, but that it was able to draw support from some combination of al-Qaida and from some combination of the Iraqi and Iranian governments. One point that casts doubt on the extent of alliance with the Iraqi government is the fact that the group's leader, Mullah Krekar, lives in Norway. He sought asylum there after claiming Saddam Hussein tried to kill him.
The full truth remains unclear, but the best information currently available suggests that even if al-Ansar al-Islam drew support from both al-Qaida and Iraq it served to isolate the two, not to join them in order to funnel Iraqi support to al-Qaida. |
