Posted on 03/16/2008 2:49:59 PM PDT by jveritas
On February 17 2008, Al-Ekhlaas which is the largest terrorist forum on the internet published an Al Qaeda document that talks about the life of Abou Musaab Al Zarqawi and indicates that Zarqawi came to Iraq before the war to prepare the terrorist insurgency against the US troops. According to the document Zarqawi arrived to the Sunni areas in central Iraq. This document was written by one of Al Qaeda top leaders called “Saif Al Adel”.
There were many accounts about Zarqawi presence in Iraq before the war in particular in Northern Iraq with “Ansar Al Islam” an active Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group that was present in the Kurdish areas of Iraq long before the war started. The document also proves that Ansar Al Islam helped Al Qaeda members establish themselves in Iraq before the war started.
The author of the document wrote that there were no relations between Saddam regime and Al Qaeda but this does not negate at all the most important fact that Al Qaeda was in Iraq before the war for the sole purpose of preparing for its most important front to fight the U.S and it is now in Iraq where Al Qaeda is suffering its most crushing defeat since its existence.
It is very important to note that despite the author of the document denial of a relationship between Saddam regime and Al Qaeda it does not mean that Saddam regime was not aware of Al Qaeda presence in Iraq. In fact the documents clearly points out that Zarqawi went to the Sunni areas in Central Iraq before the war and these areas were totally controlled and loyal to Saddam regime and it very hard to imagine that Zarqawi stayed and prepared his terrorist sleepers cells in these Sunni areas without the approval of Saddam regime.
El-Ekhlaas terrorist forum is a password protected so you cannot access the document unless you are registered there as a member.
Below is a partial translation of Al Qaeda document written by “Saif Al Adel”.
… " We started the work and the contact with the leadership, and we began to support and help the leadership again, and this was our goal after we left Afghanistan. We began establishing the fighter groups. On one hand to return to Afghanistan and conduct planned operations there, and on the other hand we began to study the situation of the groups and bothers to find new places for them. After long discussions, brother Abou Mussab with his Palestinian and Jordanian companions decided to go to Iraq because of their dialects they can quickly mix and assimilate in the Iraqi society. Our analysis was that the Americans were going to make the mistake sooner or later to invade Iraq, that this invasion will lead to the fall of the regime, and that we should play an important role in the confrontation and resistance, and that this is our historical chance to establish the Islamic State who will have the biggest role in removing injustice and establish justice in this world allah willing. I was in agreement with brother Abou Mussab regarding this analysis. There were no relation between Al Qaeda and Saddam regime that is worth mentioning, as opposite to what the Americans are saying so they can create excuse and legal justifications according to their laws that they imposed on the world that is enslaved by the West, the Israelis and the Anglo-Saxons.
The plan was to have our brothers enter Iraq from the North, where the road is not controlled y the regime, and then go down South to the Sunni areas where we have some of our brothers. Also the brothers in “Ansar Al Islam” showed their willingness to give us any help to achieve this goal.
The Americans noticed that the Iranians were having a blind eye against our activities in Iran so they began a media attack against Iran accusing them of helping Al Qaeda and international terrorism. The steps taken by the Iranians had confused us and had caused 75% of our plans to fail. Many of our comrades were arrested. 80% of Abou Musaab Al Zarqawi group members were arrested. There should be a quick plan to arrange the escape of Zarqawi and the remaining of his group, the destination was Iraq and the route was the Northern borders between Iraq and Iran. The goal was to reach the Sunni areas in central Iraq and the beginning of the preparation to confront the US invasion and defeat it allah willing. The choice was not arbitrary but a studied one.
When he said goodbye to me leaving for Iraq, Abou Musaab has added a new dimension to his personality. This new dimension focused on punishing the Americans for the crimes that they committed in their bombing of Afghanistan and that he witnessed in his own eyes, the hate and hostility that Abou Mussab had for the Americans guaranteed to form new traits to Abou Musaab personality."
End of partial translation.
Lets have congress name these people and find out if these so called experts would still stand by that belief considering all the evidence collected.
How do we know these so called experts aren't the Valerie Plames of the CIA?
I would like to know who these experts are and why they came to that conclusion when it is clear Ansar Al Islam was getting money, training and weapons from Saddams Mukharabat?
Post #240 could only make it more clear that Congress Knew Zarqawi was working with Al Qaeda and this Kenneth Katzman report is a confirmation.
Congress would benifit by reading the Jveritas translated document between Saif Al Adel and Zarqawi working with Ansar Al Islam. "But would they ever read it?"
Ansar Al Islam terrorist group would not possibly exist without the backup and support of Saddam regime. Both Saddam and Ansar Al Islam had a common enemy: “The Kurds”.
I thought the new Pentagon report called the "Iraqi Perspective Project" stated that Saddam funded Ansar al-Islam as did Al-Zawahiri, independently of each other.
Check out this article in the Weekly Standard
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/768rwsbj.asp?pg=1
Saddam’s Ambassador to al Qaeda
From the March 1, 2004 issue: An Iraqi prisoner details Saddam’s links to Osama bin Laden’s terror network.
by Jonathan Schanzer
03/01/2004, Volume 009, Issue 24
“A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein’s fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a “smoking gun,” while the University of Michigan’s Juan Cole says that Safire “offers not even one document to prove” the Saddam-al Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in Saddam’s secret police, the Mukhabarat, from 1997 to 2002, and is currently sitting in a Kurdish prison. Al-Shamari says that he worked for a man who was Saddam’s envoy to al Qaeda.”
“In addition to weapons, al-Shamari said, the Mukhabarat also helped finance Ansar al Islam. “On one occasion we gave them ten million Swiss dinars [$700,000],” al-Shamari said, referring to the pre-1990 Iraqi currency. On other occasions, the Mukhabarat provided more than that. The assistance, he added, was furnished “every month or two months.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=5851&R=ED839E
Such current ties to al Qaeda and its allies raise the inevitable question of whether or not any existed prior to the war. According to a March 2002 New Yorker article by Jeffrey Goldberg, another Iraqi imprisoned intelligence officer named Qassem Hussein Muhammed, who had been captured by Kurdish forces en route to the Ansar al-Islam enclave, had claimed that Abu Wael was “the actual decision-maker” for the group and “an employee of the Mukhabarat,” the Arabic name for Iraqi intelligence.
While traveling through northern Iraq in 2002, Jonathan Schanzer, a specialist in radical Islamic movements at the Washington Institute for Near East policy, met a former member of Iraqi intelligence named Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who had been imprisoned by the Kurds since March 2002. Al Shamari revealed a wealth of purported information about pre-war ties between Iraq and al Qaeda, including details about the activities of Colonel Saadan Mahmoud Abdul Latif, a member of Ansar al-Islam's ruling council far better known as Abu Wael. Al-Shamari went even further than Muhammed, claiming that Abu Wael had married one of al-Douri’s cousins and had even met with Saddam Hussein “four or five times.” Claims of Iraqi assistance to Ansar al-Islam are even supported by the 9/11 Commission which—despite having been widely reported as having “debunked” claims of such a link—also noted cryptically: “There are indications that by then [2001] the Iraqi regime tolerated and may even have helped Ansar al-Islam against the common Kurdish enemy.”
Joseph
I spoke with Jonathan Schanzer on the phone when looking for the U.S. delegation that visited the Communist Party in Iraq. Mark gave me his name as a contact. He was very helpful.
“I thought the new Pentagon report called the “Iraqi Perspective Project” stated that Saddam funded Ansar al-Islam as did Al-Zawahiri, independently of each other.”
There are five volumes
http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/iraqi/index.html
Do you know which volume I could look as a quick reference?
It was from a discussion here at FR from a NRO article that stated such... I believe.
I found it in a Stephen Hayes Weekly Standard article.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=14889
Saddam’s Dangerous Friends
What a Pentagon review of 600,000 Iraqi documents tells us.
by Stephen F. Hayes
03/24/2008, Volume 013, Issue 27
“In 1998, the Iraqi regime offered “financial and moral support” to a new group of jihadists in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.”
Joeseph
is there a way we could find out from Stephen what transalted document this quote came from?
Also was Stephen Hayes looking at both Docex and the Harmony Database?
Harboring al Qaeda ( What the new Senate Intelligence Report says about Saddam's hospitality)
It always amazes me how much the Democrats and some Republicans pay no attention to any postwar intelligence that supports prewar intelligence.
It’s not accidental.
I would try, at every opportunity, to cut the legs out from under any possible argument the MSM/Dems might make for their bogus story.
Now is not the time for our leaders to be, figuratively at least, arguing the meaning of “is”!! The interminable “hairsplitting” is going to get us all killed. It might not hurt to remind Mr. McCain of that fact.
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