Claims such as this, are said in a portententious tone, but are thin:
Al-Shamari stated that Abu Wael sometimes traveled to meet with these groups. All of them, he added, visited Wael in Iraq and were provided Iraqi visas. This corroborates an interview I had with a senior PUK official in April 2003, who stated that many of the Arab fighters captured or killed during the war held passports with Iraqi visas.
All foreigners in Iraq would hold passports with Iraqi visas. Without a visa one may could enter the country (during Sadaam's time, recently, with the collapse of law and order, the borders are more open). Can't he come up with something better than that? Sheesh.
He needs - not visas on their passports - but some verified link between these men, Al-Qaida, and the Iraqi government. Otherwise, they are just Arab volunteers going to Iraq to fight.
I'll offer my view, someone can tell me if I'm off base. The key here is that they were not just Arab volunteers coming to Iraq to fight, they were Arab volunteers entering Iraq by the official port of entry and being directed up to join a Kurdish unit fighting for Saddam, rather than attaching themselves to any of a number of units around Baghdad they could have joined.