More on Wael from previous reports:
* Sa'adoon Mohammed Abdul Latif, aka Abu-Wa'il : The suspected al Qaeda members of interest to the US include Sa'adoon Mohammed Abdul Latif, or Abu-Wa'il, an Iraqi intelligence officer who first visited Afghanistan in 1999 and is believed to be an intermediary between Osama bin Laden and Iraq's intelligence ministry. - "U.S. negotiates trade of terror suspects," By Eli J. Lake, UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL via The Washington Times, May 9, 2003, http://washingtontimes.com/world/20030509-22822443.htm
* Abou Wa'el : A member of Ansar al Islam's ruling council, Abou Wa'el, has been identified by al Qaeda captives as a present or former Iraqi intelligence agent, said the sources. The sources said the group has been making ricin - the deadly toxin cops found in London when they busted an Islamic terror cell last month. But the United States has not destroyed the [Ansar al Islam] "camp," partly because communications to and from it have provided useful data on al Qaeda. - "MUCH MORE TO SADDAM-QAEDA TIE," by NILES LATHEM, New York Post , 2/07/03
* Abu Wahil : "Former" Iraqi intelligence agent and a leader of Ansar al Islam.-"Canadian man called key in Iraq terror cell Iraq terror cell links Al Qaeda, Saddam," Sandro Contenta in Sulaymania, Iraq Toronto Star NEWS; Pg. A01 February 26, 2003 Wednesday Ontario Edition (it was abridged) see also The Hamilton Spectator for the unabridged version
* Abu Wa'il : Reportedly an al-Qaeda operative on Saddam's payroll. Kurdish explosives experts also claim that TNT seized from Ansar was produced by the Iraqi military, and that arms are sent to the group from areas controlled by Saddam. Iraqi officials deny all such ties, yet Saddam clearly profits from Ansar's activities, which keep Kurdish opposition forces tied up on the border and away from Saddam. Indeed, support for Ansar is not unlike the money Saddam gives to families of Palestinian suicide bombers; turning up the heat in Kurdistan and the Palestinian territories takes heat off Saddam as a crisis looms. Currently, Kurdish and international sources are accumulating evidence they say could soon present a clearer picture of Saddam's cooperation with al-Qaeda.- "Ansar Al-Islam: Iraq's Al-Qaeda Connection, " By Jonathan Schanzer, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, via FrontPageMagazine.com , Friday, January 17, 2003 *
* Much of Ansar's stock of chemicals was smuggled in by Abu Wa-il, a former agent of the Iraqi secret service, Mukhabarat; his present whereabouts are unknown. He provided the logistics for smuggling from Saddam-controlled areas, and the funding to acquire weapons and materials, almost certainly with Baghdad's approval. - "Chemical war threat by Iraq's 'Taliban' ," By Damien McElroy in Nicosia, UK Telegraph , Filed: 12/01/2003 (jan 12, 2003)*
JUNE 2002 : (KURDS REPORT THAT IRAQI INTELLIGENCE FUNDS JUND AL ISLAM :CAPTURED IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER SAYS THE LEADING FIGURE OF JUND AL ISLAM WAS A SENIOR IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER BY THE NAME OF ABU WA'IL) Earlier this year, Kurdish media sources reported that Iraqi intelligence services are involved in guiding Jund al-Islam, through its agents, who operate secretly in the region. An Iraqi intelligence officer, who was arrested by PUK forces, and interviewed last June in a PUK prison in Suleimaniya, told “Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch” that a leading figure of Jund al-Islam was actually a senior Iraqi intelligent officer. He said, “following the fighting between the PUK and Jund al-Islam, the Mukhabarat [Iraqi intelligent Service] instructed me to search for someone. I don’t know his full name, but they said that he is called Abu Wa’il, an Iraqi national, and that he is a high-ranking officer, who belongs to our service; and that in addition to your usual mission, we want you to let us know what has happened to him, has he been able to escape, has he been killed, or has he been captured [by the Kurds] and handed over to the Americans? … Through my network I could discover that he escaped. I passed the information to the Mukhabarat. It seemed that the liaison network between Abu Wa’il and Baghdad was cut. Abu Wa’il’s case was dealt with by Mukhabarat at the highest level [in Baghdad]. His case was not like an ordinary agent getting missed … The general director of Mukhabarat was personally following the issue”. Another prisoner, a Kurdish member of Ansar al-Islam, arrested by PUK last spring, also signalled the presence of Abu Wa’il among the group. He told “Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch” that Abu Wa’il, “was a leading figure of Jund al-Islam, and was, among other missions, in charge of organizing the Afghan Arabs of the group who came from Afghanistan. As far as I know, Abu Wa’il, along with Abdullah al-Shaf’i [leader of Jund al-Islam before the merger with Mala Krekar’s group] travelled at least twice to Afghanistan”.- "Ansar al-Islam’s leader arrested - Jordan asks his extradition," Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002
2002 : (UK TELEGRAPH REPORTS THAT REPUBLICAN GUARD WAS SPOTTED IN ANSAR AL ISLAM TOWNS BY WESTERN INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS) The Telegraph reports that members of his Republican Guard had been seen in two Ansar-run villages by Western intelligence officials on a reconnaissance mission. - "Chemical war threat by Iraq's 'Taliban' ," By Damien McElroy in Nicosia, UK Telegraph , Filed: 12/01/2003 (jan 12, 2003)
OCTOBER 2002 : (JORDAN : MURDER OF US OFFICIAL FOLEY : LINKED TO AL QAEDA / ANSAR AL ISLAM) Fazel Inzal al-Khalayleh (a.k.a. Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi) , who had sought refuge with Ansar in Iraq, . had ordered the October 2002 murder of U.S. Agency for International Development officer Laurence Foley in Amman. - "Ansar Al-Islam: Iraq's Al-Qaeda Connection, " By Jonathan Schanzer, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, via FrontPageMagazine.com , Friday, January 17, 2003
DECEMBER 2002 - JANUARY 2003 : (IRAQ : ANSAR AL-ISLAM BOASTS OF HAVING CHEMICAL WEAPONS) The group has told recent visitors to its enclave that it holds stocks of the deadly chemical agents ricin, cyanide gas and aflatoxin. Some of its weapons are what the group calls "spoils of war" - stocks captured as it has expanded the territory under its control - while others, thought to include chemical agents, have been smuggled into the enclave from Iraq, almost certainly with Saddam's blessing. Its threat last week to use this arsenal against American-led invasion forces fighting the Saddam regime could seriously disrupt the Pentagon's plan for a battle front pushing south from the Turkish border - either by direct chemical attack on American troops or by diverting Kurdish fighters, hostile to the Iraqi dictator, into a backyard battle against an Islamic enemy. Kurdish officials say that Ansar is experimenting with chemical weapons on animals and humans. - "Chemical war threat by Iraq's 'Taliban' ," By Damien McElroy in Nicosia, UK Telegraph , Filed: 12/01/2003 (jan 12, 2003)
FEBRUARY 5, 2003 : (AT UN, POWELL CITES ANSAR AL ISLAM AS LINK BETWEEN HUSSEIN REGIME & AL QAEDA) Secretary of State Colin L. Powell cited Ansar al-Islam as a link between Saddam Hussein and bin Laden on Feb. 5 in a speech indicting Iraq before the U.N. Security Council. - "U.S. negotiates trade of terror suspects," By Eli J. Lake, UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL via The Washington Times, May 9, 2003, http://washingtontimes.com/world/20030509-22822443.htm
MARCH 22, 2003 : (OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM : US BOMBS AL ANSAR CAMP, LATIF aka WA'IL & AFGHANI ESCAPE TO IRAN) Both men (Sa'adoon Mohammed Abdul Latif, aka Abu-Wa'il & Ayub Afghani) escaped to Iran after U.S. planes bombed the Ansar al-Islam encampment in Biyara on March 22. While the Iranians allowed some of the Ansar fighters to return to Iraq after Kurdish peshmerga fighters overran the camp, senior leaders associated with the group remain in Iran, U.S. and Kurdish officials say. - "U.S. negotiates trade of terror suspects," By Eli J. Lake, UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL via The Washington Times, May 9, 2003, http://washingtontimes.com/world/20030509-22822443.htm