Posted on 11/12/2001 10:57:15 AM PST by kattracks
LONDON, Nov 12 (AFP) - An Iraqi claiming to have defected with the rank of army colonel three years ago told a news conference Monday that he worked in a terrorist training camp.
Sabah Khalifa Khodada Al-Lami, who is now living in the United States, said one of the units at the camp in southwest Iraq was for training in hijacking, suicide attacks and sabotage.
He was speaking from Washington at a video-conference arranged by the Iraqi National Congress (INC), an umbrella opposition group, at its London base.
Al-Lima, whose words were translated into English, said one of the training features was the fuselage of a plane.
He said the camp at Salman Pak, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) southwest of Baghdad, was divided into two.
One section was for Iraqi special forces, the other for Islamic militants, "special units trained for terrorist operations like plane hijackings, trains and buses, suicide activities, sabotage."
They were Arabs from different countries preparing for attacks outside Iraq and were learning English, Hebrew and Farsi, he added
Al-Lami, who was an "administrative assistant" at the camp between December 1994 to May 1995, said he had been able to speak to the men despite orders not to.
He also said the camp was run by the son of a half-brother of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
His information coincides with that given by two other Iraqi defectors in a New York Times report last week.
"We have contacts with four defectors outside Iraq who give us information about Iraqi military activities and finance network of terrorist activities," INC spokesman Sharif Ali Bin Al-Hussein told the video-conference.
Al-Lami, meanwhile, also said that near Samama, 400 kilometres southwest of Baghdad, he had seen a "totally isolated zone, contaminated by anthrax due to mishandling."
"I've seen houses burned and doctors confirm that bodies had been burned," he added.
Arriving in the United States in May this year, Al-Lami said US authorities did not contact him until after the September 11 terrorist atrocities against New York and Washington.
Osama bin Laden, a Saudi-born Islamic fundamentalist based in Afghanistan, is chief suspect for the attacks.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned last week that the United States could turn its attention to Iraq, which many in Washington allege is linked to international terrorism, after achieving the aims of its military campaign in Afghanistan.
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