Sabah Khodada was a captain in the Iraqi army from 1982 to 1992. He worked at what he describes as a highly secret terrorist training camp at Salman Pak (see Khodada's hand-drawn map of the camp), an area south of Baghdad. In this translated interview, conducted in association with The New York Times on Oct. 14, 2001, Khodada describes what went on at Salman Pak, including details on training hijackers. He emigrated to the U.S. in May 2001. (Editor's Note: Although U.S. officials acknowledge terrorists were trained at Salman Pak, they say it is unlikely that these activities were related to the Sept. 11 attacks. It should also be noted that the two defectors interviewed for this report have been brought to FRONTLINE's attention by members of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a dissident organization seeking to overthrow Saddam Hussein.)"
SNIPPET FROM INTERVIEW:
Where is the camp located near? You could describe where it's geographically located.
Yes. It's southeast of Baghdad, about 25 kilometers from outside of Baghdad ... . I think the American government should have pictures of this camp from the air. I know for a fact that on January 1995, the United Nations came and took pictures of this camp. But they don't know -- neither the United Nations nor the American government -- what's going on inside this camp.
But they can see the 707, or the train?
On a Friday, which is equivalent to Sunday here, it's a holiday, was on January 1995. They came and the United Nations inspectors visited us. They went all the way inside the camp. They saw the plane, they saw the train, and they didn't care anything about it, because the story was, they told ... his commanders told the United Nation, "This is a camp to train police, anti-riots police."
(Editor's Note: Although U.S. officials acknowledge terrorists were trained at Salman Pak, they say it is unlikely that these activities were related to the Sept. 11 attacks.)
Nice attempt to dubunk the only thing that makes the story relevent, Mr. Editor.
Who are these officials, anyway? The terrorists were trained -- in Iraq (among other places) -- to hijack passenger jets without detectable weapons. The only place and time this tactic was ever employed was in the United States on September 11th. And Khodada specifically says that the Islamists were being trained to attack America, according to his supervisors, and that there was absolutely no doubt about that.
Any official willing to dismiss any connection between the training and the act is either partisan or plain stupid. Maybe that's why this official assessment is attributed to no one.