Posted on 04/20/2003 10:53:02 PM PDT by miltonim
Papers connect Iraqi spies to African terrorist group
BAGHDAD--Saddam Hussein's regime was linked to an African Islamist terrorist group, according to intelligence papers. The documents provide the first hard evidence of ties between Iraq and religious terrorism.
Secret dossiers detailing the group's discussions with the Iraqi Intelligence Service were found in the spies' Baghdad headquarters, among the detritus of shredding.
The papers show how an Iraqi diplomat in Nairobi, Fallah Hassan Al Rubdie, was in discussion with the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan guerrilla group with ties to other anti-Western Islamist organizations.
While the United States has long argued that Saddam's regime was aiding Islamist groups, it has struggled until now to provide evidence.
In a letter to the head of the Iraqi spy agency, a senior ADF operative outlined his group's efforts to set up an "international mujaheddin team."
Its mission, he said, "will be to smuggle arms on a global scale to holy warriors fighting against U.S., British and Israeli influences in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Far East."
The letter, dated April 2001, was signed: "Your Brother, Bekkah Abdul Nassir, Chief of Diplomacy ADF Forces."
Nassir offered to "vet, recruit and send youth to train for the jihad" at a center in Baghdad, which he described as a "headquarters for international Holy Warrior network." It was not clear whether the center was established.
"We should not allow the enemy to focus on Afghanistan and Iraq, but we should attack their international criminal forces inside every base," the letters said.
The authenticity of the letters, however, could not be verified.
The ADF emerged in 1996, when it launched a rebellion against President Yoweri Museveni's government. In December 2001, the movement was placed on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.
Throughout its campaign, the ADF has been provided with weapons and funding by the Islamist government in Sudan, one of several states Washington accuses of sponsoring terrorism.
The key figure behind the ADF is widely acknowledged to be a fundamentalist Islamic cleric, Sheikh Jamil Makulu.
According to the Ugandan government and Western intelligence sources, Sheikh Makulu became friendly with Osama bin Laden when the al-Qaida chief was living in Khartoum, Sudan.
Saddam Hussein's regime was linked to an African Islamist terrorist group, according to intelligence papers seen by The Telegraph. The documents provide the first hard evidence of ties between Iraq and religious terrorism.
Secret dossiers detailing the group's discussions with the Iraqi Intelligence Service were found in the spies' Baghdad headquarters, among the detritus of shredding.
The papers show how Iraq's charge d'affaires in Nairobi, Fallah Hassan Al Rubdie, was in discussion with the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan guerrilla group with ties to other anti-western Islamist organisations.
While the United States has long argued that Saddam's regime was aiding Islamist groups, it has struggled until now to provide compelling evidence.
In a letter to the head of the Iraqi spy agency, a senior ADF operative outlined his group's efforts to set up an "international mujahideen team".
Its mission, he said, "will be to smuggle arms on a global scale to holy warriors fighting against US, British and Israeli influences in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Far East".
The letter, dated April 2001, was signed: "Your Brother, Bekkah Abdul Nassir, Chief of Diplomacy ADF Forces".
Nassir offered to "vet, recruit and send youth to train for the jihad" at a centre in Baghdad, which he described as a "headquarters for international holy warrior network". It was not clear whether the centre was established.
"We should not allow the enemy to focus on Afghanistan and Iraq, but we should attack their international criminal forces inside every base," the letters said.
The ADF emerged in 1996, when it launched a rebellion against President Yoweri Museveni's government. In December 2001 the movement was placed on the US list of terrorist organisations.
Throughout its campaign the ADF has been provided with weapons and funding by the Islamist government in Sudan, one of more than half a dozen states Washington accuses of sponsoring terrorism.
The key figure behind the ADF is widely acknowledged to be a fundamentalist Islamic cleric, Sheikh Jamil Makulu.
According to the Ugandan government and western intelligence sources, Sheikh Makulu became friendly with Osama bin Laden in the early to mid-Nineties, when the al-Qa'eda chief was living in Khartoum.
The IIS's headquarters were only loosely guarded by US special forces yesterday. The Telegraph entered the building through one of the many holes left by devastating bombing.
For the first time in many years, armoured personnel carriers, commonly known as Mambas were seen patrolling the streets of Kampala.
Mean looking gunners, manning 12.5 mm machine guns surveyed the city environs, as the feared Mambas moved around. The patrols were not as a result of Kony's activities but a terror alert.
Late last week, reports came through indicating that Uganda was one of the countries in the world, that was a "clear terrorist threat". Other countries included Saudi Arabia which has already been attacked, Kenya, where Britain has stopped its flights, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Tanzania.
Perhaps, the warning would have been taken lightly. However, the savage attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco make them more serious. The mangled wrecks of vehicles and the scattered human body parts might be in Kampala.
Can Uganda handle the threat of attacks, especially when bigger and more powerful countries like the USA, Indonesia, Morocco and Saudi Arabia have failed?
While addressing the press last week, the Ugandan spy chief, Colonel Noble Mayombo exuded confidence. Whether this was real, or concocted to please the prying eyes of the press is another matter.
"We have information that there is a clear threat of terrorism attacks now. But we assure the population that the situation is under control," Mayombo said.
Of the six named countries facing threats of terrorism, only Uganda does not have a known active al-Qaeda cell. A cell is a local group of people who co-ordinate the activities of al-Qaeda.
Ugandan intelligence is aware that terrorists of the Al-qaeda tried to create a cell in Uganda, between 1997 and 2000. But they failed, partly because of the efforts and intelligence capabilities of Uganda, and secondly, Uganda has no natural suicide bombers.
"We are aware that they tried to use local people, but we were able to arrest many of them before they could establish themselves," Mayombo says. The Kenyan al-Qaeda cell was much easier to set up because Kenya has got a sizeable number of people of Arabic origin in its population, compared to Uganda.
The Arabs are the natural suicide bombers. Actually, no blacks or Westerners have been reported in suicide bombings. First, they tried to connect up with Kony's Lord's Resistance Army.
However, Kony had other ideas and turned out to be difficult to deal with. Although, he was given initial funding, and some of his men were trained in al-Qaeda camps.
The formation of the Allied Democratic Forces in 1996 gave the al-Qaeda a better ally. Several ADF commanders were taken for training in the Sudan and Afghanistan, while several junior ones were trained in the Nairobi cell. This group included Jamil Mukulu, the de facto leader of ADF and one Rashid Kawaawa, currently on remand. "We have information that most of the bombers were trained in al-Qaeda cells in Afghanistan, the Sudan and even Iraq.
We have information that these people planned to kill as many people as possible and try and create a cell here in Uganda," Mayombo says. Documents recovered from Iraq and Afghanistan after both wars qualify Mayombo's statements.
The "martyrs", as they are known, were supposed to come back and cause serious havoc in the country. They were supposed to organise and develop the local al-Quaeda. But because they lacked the zeal of their Arab mentors and trainers, Rashid Kawaawa and his group turned to using small time bombs, rather than blow themselves up in suicide attacks. None of them was willing to commit "martyrdom" as their Arab mentors do.
Worthy noting however is that the funding of the operations was guaranteed from al-Quaeda and supporting nations like Iraq and the Taliban of Afghanistan. To them, the ADF was an organisation fighting for the right to Islam.
A few Arabs tried to come to Uganda to reinforce members of the local cells, but did not succeed mainly because Uganda was in a state of war and intelligence was very vigilant.
Secondly, since Uganda has a very small Arab population, people bent on causing havoc could easily be identified and arrested. Actually, the Ugandan cell, led by the likes of Rashid Kawaawa was supposed to co-ordinate ADF rebels to stage an attack similar to the one in Nairobi and Tanzania in 1998.
However, intelligence got wind of these moves. Rather than coming, getting arrested and exposed, they chose to back off and wait for some future openings. Otherwise, August 1998 would have been a disastrous month.
Intelligence believes that the various bomb attacks around the country, were carried out just for accountability purposes to the Arab masters, after big hits on Western installations in Kampala had failed.
After the arrest of most of the group leaders, plans for a cell went dormant. It is not clear whether the terrorists are trying to reactivate the old cell, or are using new people. "We have identified several people and we are following them up," he said. He does not give any names. The increased threat is a result of intelligence reports that a wanted terrorist was seen in the region.
The terrorist, Fazul Abdalla was recently seem in Somalia, a country that has got one of the largest cells in the horn of Africa.
Fazul is accused of master minding the attacks on the two embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania in 1998.
There was a belief that terrorism, especially after the Iraq war would target countries that supported the USA and coalition forces. Actually, this is the belief among many Ugandans.
However, the attacks on Morocco and Saudi Arabia, two countries that opposed the war dymstify this belief.
Very few terror attacks take place without a hint. Right from the World Trade Centre bombings last year to the attacks in Bali-Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, there were hints that the terrorists were planning to attack. However, it is not easy to identify which target they are going to attack, because they don't disclose it.
This remains the missing link, that leaves intelligence to guess and fumble. To stop terrorism is no easy task. However, increased human intelligence networks can stop some of these attacks.
Mayombo says he has one big weapon that many other countries lack. This is a security system embedded in the population.
Since it is mass-ased, local councils should work with the public to detect suspicious people.
Original Telegraph article:
While the United States has long argued that Saddam's regime was aiding Islamist groups, it has struggled until now to provide compelling evidence.
The Sun Times morphed this statement into this by changing one word:
While the United States has long argued that Saddam's regime was aiding Islamist groups, it has struggled until now to provide evidence.
The original Telegraph version is of course more accurate, since there is all kinds of evidence out there and this has been the case for years- it just implies that this is the first compelling evidence of all the evidence known so far. The Sun Times version drops the word compelling and implies that up until now there's hardly been evidence at all.
***
The earlier Telegraph version :
Nassir offered to "vet, recruit and send youth to train for the jihad" at a centre in Baghdad, which he described as a "headquarters for international holy warrior network". It was not clear whether the centre was established. "We should not allow the enemy to focus on Afghanistan and Iraq, but we should attack their international criminal forces inside every base," the letters said.
Compare to thelater Sun Times:
Nassir offered to "vet, recruit and send youth to train for the jihad" at a center in Baghdad, which he described as a "headquarters for international Holy Warrior network." It was not clear whether the center was established. "We should not allow the enemy to focus on Afghanistan and Iraq, but we should attack their international criminal forces inside every base," the letters said. The authenticity of the letters, however, could not be verified.
The last sentence was added to the original- did the authors really include that or was this the work of a Sun Times editor- or should I say, editorialist who never saw the docs in question?
Then the Telegraph has this :
According to the Ugandan government and western intelligence sources, Sheikh Makulu became friendly with Osama bin Laden in the early to mid-Nineties, when the al-Qa'eda chief was living in Khartoum.
And the Sun Times writes it this way, omiting the dreaded 1990s:
According to the Ugandan government and Western intelligence sources, Sheikh Makulu became friendly with Osama bin Laden when the al-Qaida chief was living in Khartoum, Sudan.
The Telegraph has additional information on where the docs were found which the Sun Times article doesn't mention at all:
The IIS's headquarters were only loosely guarded by US special forces yesterday. The Telegraph entered the building through one of the many holes left by devastating bombing.
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