Russia 'warned U.S. about Saddam'
Friday, June 18, 2004 Posted: 12:46 PM EDT (1646 GMT)
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian intelligence services warned Washington several times that Saddam Hussein's regime planned terrorist attacks against the United States, President Vladimir Putin has said.
The warnings were provided after September 11, 2001 and before the start of the Iraqi war, Putin said Friday.
The planned attacks were targeted both inside and outside the United States, said Putin, who made the remarks during a visit to Kazakhstan.
However, Putin said there was no evidence that Saddam's regime was involved in any terrorist attacks.
"I can confirm that after the events of September 11, 2001, and up to the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services and Russian intelligence several times received ... information that official organs of Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist acts on the territory of the United States and beyond its borders, at U.S. military and civilian locations," Putin said.
He said the information was given to U.S. intelligence officers and that U.S. President George W. Bush expressed his gratitude to a top Russian intelligence official.
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cnn.com
According to tejek, this warning s/h/b ignored as an obvious lie. Despite the fact that Saddam's regime had been involved in terror attacks against US targets before:
In addition to Russian intelligence's warnings, we had recent public information to support the belief that Iraq was actively working to either launch or sponsor attacks on American targets. Two examples:
1) Iraqi diplomats in the Philippines were in contact with Abu Sayyaf, the Filipino Aq Qaida affiliate just before and after Abu Sayyaf conducted a bombing which killed a US Soldier:
Hisham Z. al Hussein, aka Hisham Al Hidith and Abu Geith, second secretary at Iraq embassy in Manila, expelled by Philippine government February 13, 2003, after speaking with Abu Madja and Hamsiraji Marusi Sali, leaders of Abu Sayyaf, al-Qaeda’s de facto franchise for the Philippines, just before and after Abu Sayyaf conducted an attack in Zamboanga City. Hussein was linked by Filipino police to two bombings, including one that killed a US soldier and two Filipinos. (Hudson.org, CSMonitor Feb 26 2003)
en.wikipedia.org
2) A number of Al Qaida linked terrorists moved to Iraq in 2002, operating in both a corner of Kurdistan near the Iranian border and in Baghdad. One of these, Musab al-Zarqawi, sent assassins to Amman Jordan where they murdered an American diplomat in October 2002.
April 2007, former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet released his memoir titled At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA. In the book he reveals that in July 2001, an associate of Zarqawi had been detained and, during interrogations, linked Zarqawi with al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah.[63] Tenet also wrote in his book that Thirwat Shihata and Yussef Dardiri, "assessed by a senior al-Qa'ida detainee to be among the Egyptian Islamic Jihad's best operational planners," arrived in Baghdad in May 2002 and were engaged in "sending recruits to train in Zarqawi's camps."[64]
63^ George Tenet. "At the Center of the Storm: My years at the CIA", HarperCollins, p. 157.
64^ a b George Tenet. "At the Center of the Storm: My years at the CIA", HarperCollins, p. 351.
en.wikipedia.org
16 June 2003
Jordanian indictment reveals operations of Jund al-Shams terror network
By Alon Ben-David
In the indictment, filed to the Jordanian National Security Court and obtained by JTIC, there is no mention of Al-Qaeda involvement in the attack. However, the indictment reveals that Abu-Musab Al-Zarqawi, suspected by the USA of being the link between Al-Qaeda and the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, had met the diplomat's assassins in Syria, where they were trained. It is the first evidence that Al-Zarqawi has operated out of Syria.
Foley, executive officer of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Jordan, was shot dead last year outside his home in a western Amman neighbourhood. The 60-year-old diplomat was about to enter his car when he was hit by a volley of bullets fired from close range. Soon after, Jordan and the USA charged Al-Qaeda with responsibility for the attack. In an audio recording released several weeks later, believed to be by Osama Bin Laden, the speaker mentioned Foley's murder among a list of other attacks committed by Al-Qaeda.
However, the indictment specifies Al-Zarqawi, as the key figure behind the attack. Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian national, together with 10 other defendants - Libyans, Syrians and another Jordanian - are charged with the murder of Foley and with plotting to commit other attacks against US and Israeli targets in Jordan. Only five of the 11 suspects are in custody, among them Saad Salem Bin-Suawayed, a 40-year-old Libyan, suspected to have been the gunman.
According to the indictment, Al-Zarqawi visited Syria last year, where he met the operatives involved in the plot. They were trained in Syria, supplied with guns and grenades, and then returned to Jordan with instructions to locate a suitable target. Suawayed and his accomplices began searching the diplomatic neighbourhood of Amman for possible targets. By chance, they spotted Foley's diplomatic licensed car and followed it until he arrived at his home. The team waited outside the house until Foley emerged again and then shot him.
Saed Kheir, head of Jordanian General Intelligence, travelled to Damascus a few weeks after the attack, where intelligence sources believe he presented evidence that the assassins arrived from Syria and demanded the co-operation of the Syrian government. Syrian security services mounted an investigation and were able to present Kheir with the names of the suspects. Soon after, on 4 December 2002, four of the suspects were apprehended in Jordan. Last week, Jordanian authorities arrested the fifth suspect, Mohammed Dumos, charged with facilitating the illegal border crossing of the others from Syria and with obtaining the mini-van that was used in the attack.
janes.com
Jordan: Al Qaeda killed diplomat
From Mike Boettcher and Henry Schuster
CNN
Saturday, December 14, 2002 Posted: 6:40 PM EST (2340 GMT)
Suweid and Ibraheem received $18,000 to carry out the murder, the Jordan government says
• Diplomat remembered for 'compassion'
• Interactive: The hunt for al Qaeda
• On the scene: Killing shocks Jordan
• U.S. diplomat killed in Jordan
VIDEO
Laurence Foley shot dead near his home in Amman. CNN's Jerrold Kessel reports. (October 28)
PLAY VIDEO
AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- The Jordanian government said Saturday it had arrested two men in the assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Amman six weeks ago and said the operation "was planned and carried out by al Qaeda."
Laurence Foley was gunned down in front of his house in Amman on the morning of October 28 as he was walking to his car. He was a senior administrative officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Jordan.
U.S. State Department spokesman Louis Fintor welcomed the Jordanian announcement.
"We deeply appreciate the excellent support and cooperation the Jordanian government has provided throughout this investigation and we continue to consult closely with them regarding these arrests," he said.
A statement from the Jordanian government said the two men, identified as Salem Sa'ed Salem bin Suweid, a Libyan national, and Yasser Fathi Ibraheem, a Jordanian, confessed to their membership in al Qaeda and that they received their orders from a senior al Qaeda leader who has been accused of being an expert in chemical and biological weapons.
According to the statement, "bin Suweid and Ibraheem confessed that they are members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda Organization, and are affiliated with bin Laden's lieutenant, Ahmad Fadeel Nazal Al-Khalayleh, known as Abu Musa'ab Al-Zarqawi."
Zarqawi left Jordan in 1999 and has been convicted in absentia with a plot to bomb tourist hotels in Amman during the millennium celebrations.
Treatment in Iraq
He reportedly fled Afghanistan after U.S. operations began there, going first to Iran, then Iraq, where he was said to have received medical treatment. President Bush referred to him -- without mentioning his name -- during a speech in Cincinnati in October.
"Some al Qaeda leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq," the president said. "These include one very senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks." (Arrests may link al Qaeda, Iraq)
Reports have said that Zarqawi was linked to the planning of gas attacks in Europe.
Reports linked Zarqawi to the planning of gas attacks in Europe.
The Jordanian government said Zarqawi "had devised an operational program for the two perpetrators to carry out terrorist operations against embassies, diplomats, foreigners, security officers and other strategic targets in Jordan."
It also said the men confessed that Zarqawi had provided the men with $18,000 of a planned $50,000 to carry out the operation, along with "machine guns, a pistol with a silencer, hand grenades and teargas cylinders."
They also confessed, Jordan said, that there were plans -- never carried out -- to smuggle surface to air missiles into Jordan.
Sources also told CNN that in the course of the investigation, authorities uncovered evidence of other al Qaeda sleeper cells elsewhere in the Middle East and that evidence is being pursued by Jordanian and U.S. authorities
According the Jordanian statement, which was also read Saturday on state-run television during the evening news, the arrests were made by the Jordanian General Intelligence Department.
Training in Afghanistan
The statement says bin Suweid "underwent military training in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan" and that he entered Jordan a few months ago "using a forged Tunisian passport."
Al Qaeda "assigned these two to choose targets, embassies, diplomats, et cetera," according to Jordanian Information Minister Mohammad Affash Al-Udwan.
In this file photo, Foley, center, receives an award from Edward Gnehm, U.S. ambassador to Jordan.
"They were scanning for different targets in Jordan and they must have thought that Mr. Foley was an easier target at the time," he said.
"They were planning to do more after Mr. Foley's murder to look for other targets to hit -- this according to their confessions of course."
The statement describes a chilling scenario on the morning of October 28:
"In the morning of October 28, 2002, bin Suweid and Ibraheem drove the rented car to the area where Foley lived. When they reached his residence at 7:00 a.m, bin Suweid got out of the car and walked to Foley's garden, carrying on him a 7mm gun with a silencer and a teargas cylinder, wearing anti-bullets vest, a blue jeans and masked with a kaffieh.
"He hid behind Foley's car waiting for him to come out of his house. When Foley came out and intended to open his car's door, bin Suweid fired all the bullets in his gun at Foley and went back to the car, which was waiting for him near the house. Ibraheem, who was driving the car, and bin Suweid fled the area."
archives.cnn.com
the Senate Intelligence Report offers this interesting paragraph (p. 341):
"The CIA also looked into the possibility that the Iraqi regime was involved in the al-Zarqawi network murder of USAID official Laurence Foley in Amman, Jordan in December 2002. [Redacted] two suspects in the Foley murder, indicated that Iraqi territory may have been used to facilitate travel and the supply of weapons to the al-Zarqawi group in Jordan. But, neither of the two suspects provided any information on links between al-Zarqawi and the Iraqi regime. [Redacted] one of the two suspects in the Foley murder stated that al-Zarqawi directed and financed the operations before, during and after his stint in Baghdad between May and July 2002. The other suspect mentioned that weapons for their operations in Jordan had come from an unspecified place in Iraq. [Redacted] an associate of Foley's killer left Jordan to join al-Zarqawi in Iraq after the murder to obtain weapons and explosives for future operations. Both of the suspects [redacted] mentioned that one member of the al-Zarqawi network traveled repeatedly between regime-controlled Iraq and Syria after March 2002."
... al-Zarqawi and his network were operating both in Baghdad and in the Kurdish-controlled region of Iraq. The HUMINT reporting indicated that the Iraqi regime certainly knew that al-Zarqawi was in Baghdad because a foreign government service gave that information to Iraq. Though the intelligence reports established the presence of al-Zarqawi in Baghdad during 2002 and the activities of his network in other areas of Iraq during 2002 and 2003
globalsecurity.org
Reports of collaboration by Iraq and Al Qaida were nothing new. Recall that the Clinton administration bombed a chemical plant in Khartoum because of intelligence that Al Qaida (then in Sudan) and Iraqi intelligence were collaborating on the creation of weapopns of mass destruction. Richard Clarke testified to the 911 Commission that Abdul Rahman Yasin, the creator of the explosive used in the 1993 attempt to bring down the World Trade Center was given haven in Iraq, which is where both he and Ramzi Yousef (mastermind of the 1993 WTC attack and relative of Khalid Sheikh Muhammed of Al Qaida) entered the US from. Note that the 1993 WTC attack occurred on the Friday before the second anniversary of Saddam's defeat in the Gulf war. UN sanctions against Iraq had long been a cause celebre of Al Qaida and Osama bin Ladin cited the sanctions as one of the primary justifications for his fatwas against the US. Osama's second fatwa against the US followed by four days a threat by Bill Clinton to go to war with Iraq and Al Qaida's attack on two of America's African embassies were made on the anniversary of UN sanctions being placed on Iraq. |
