The Truth About Saddam and Terrorism - Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents
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Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had extensive ties to terrorist organizations,
including Al Qaeda, according to an official report published by the
Pentagon’s Institute for Defense Analyses and released through the Joint
Forces Command.
That report, Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi
Documents, came up with some startling revelations in its 59 pages:
• Saddam’s Iraq trained terrorists for use inside and outside Iraq and
in 1999 sent 10 terrorist-training graduates to London to carry out
attacks throughout Europe. (Page 1)
• Saddam’s Iraq stockpiled munitions (including explosives, missile
launchers and silencer-equipped small arms) at its embassies in the
Middle East, Asia and parts of Europe. (Pages 3-4)
• In September of 2001, Saddam’s Iraq sought out and compiled a list of
43 suicide-bomb volunteers in a “Martyrdom Project.” (Pages 7-8)
• The report contains language from a captured Iraqi document which
references an attempted assassination of Danielle Mitterand, wife of
French President Francois Mitterand, by car bomb. (Page 11)
• The report’s authors describe Saddam’s Iraq as a “long-standing
supporter of international terrorism” including several organizations
designated as international terrorist organizations by the US State
Department. (Page 13)
• Among the organizations that captured Iraqi documents indicate were
supported by Saddam’s Iraq were: (Pages 13-15).
> Fatah-Revolutionary Council (Abu Nidal Organization). (Author’s note:
Abu Nidal was generally considered the world’s most dangerous terrorist
in the late 1980s.)
> Palestine Liberation Front (led by Abu al-Abbas). (Author’s note:
Abbas was the mastermind of the Achille Lauro hijacking and the murderer
of American Leon Klinghoffer.)
> Renewal and Jihad Organization, which the Iraqi documents describe as
a “Secret Islamic Palestinian Organization” that “believes in armed
jihad against the Americans and Western interests.”
> Islamic Ulama Group, a radical Islamist group in northern Pakistan.
> The Afghani Islamic Party, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. (Author’s
note: Hekmatyar is an Afghan mujahideen warlord who is worked with Osama
Bin Laden during the 1990s. US intelligence agencies have lost track of
Hekmatyar, but believe that he was trying to join Al Qaeda in 2002 when
he released a video message calling for armed jihad against the United
States. Reports from BBC-TV and CNN claim that Hekmatyar helped Osama
Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora in 2002.
> Islamic Jihad Organization (Egyptian Islamic Jihad). This is perhaps
the most startling revelation in the report. Egyptian Islamic Jihad was
founded and led by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, now Al Qaeda’s co-leader. The
group is most infamous for the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar
Sadat. Zawahiri is known to have worked in the Al Qaeda organization
since its inception, while he was still leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad
in fact. Al Qaeda was started around 1989 and Zawahiri is said to have
been a senior member from its earliest days. He was present in
Afghanistan with Bin Laden at the time and later he was in Sudan with
Bin Laden until being expelled in 1996 and eventually returning to
Afghanistan. In 1998, Zawahiri formally merged Egyptian Islamic Jihad
with Al Qaeda and has served as co-leader of Al Qaeda ever since. Iraq’s
relationship with Egyptian Islamic Jihad was so close that captured
documents indicate that Iraq was able to request that the group hold off
on operations against the regime in Egypt in 1993.
In other words, Saddam’s Iraq had a longstanding relationship with the
co-leader of Al Qaeda.
• Captured documents show that Saddam’s Iraq was training non-Iraqis in
Iraqi training camps a decade before Operation Desert Storm, including
fighters from the following nations: Palestinian territories, Lebanon,
Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Eritrea, and Morroco. (Pages 15-16)
• A captured memorandum shows that Saddam’s Iraq had an agreement with
an Islamist terrorist group to conduct operations against Egypt during
the first Gulf War. (Page 16)
• A detailed, captured document from 1993 “illuminated how the outwardly
secular Saddam regime found common cause with terrorist groups who drew
their inspiration from radical Islam.” (Page 17)
• In January 1993, as the American military’s humanitarian mission was
begun in Somalia, Saddam directed that Iraq “form a group to start
hunting Americans present on Arab soil, especially Somalia.” (Page 18)
Interestingly, Osama Bin Laden was setting up identical operations at
the same time.
• Saddam’s secret intelligence service (IIS) hosted 13 conferences in
2002 for various terrorist groups. (Page 19)
• Captured Iraqi documents say that the IIS issued passports to known
members of terrorist groups. (Page 19)
• Saddam’s Iraq had close ties and provided funding to Hamas, the
Palestinian jihadist organization. Captured documents indicate that
Hamas offered to carry out attacks for Saddam’s Iraq in return for his
support. In fact, Hamas representatives informed the Iraqis that the
organization had 35 armed cells around the world hidden among refugees,
including in France, Sweden and Denmark. (Pages 24-25).
• Saddam’s IIS manufactured bombs in the early 1990s for terrorist Abu
Abbas to conduct attacks against American and other interests. Three
instances of these bombs failing are evidently the only thing that
prevented terrorist attacks against these interests: (Page 30)
“A bomb intended to destroy the American ambassador’s residence in
Jakarta, Indonesia failed.”
“Bombs designed to destroy the American Airlines office and Japanese
embassy in the Philippines exploded prematurely and damaged only the
front of the office, while killing one and wounding another of the
terrorists transporting the explosives.”
• Saddam’s Iraq carried out terrorist attacks on members of humanitarian
organizations operating in the Kurdish areas of Northern Iraq, including
Doctors Without Borders, Handicap International and UN-affiliated
organizations. (Pages 31-33)
• The IIS was willing to reach out to jihadist terrorist groups,
including those known to be affiliated with Al Qaeda. This includes the
“Army of Muhammad” in Bahrain, which had threatened Kuwaiti authorities
and had plans to attack American and Western interests. (Pages 35-36)
• The report concludes with the following question: “Is there anything
in the captured archives to indicate that Saddam had the will to use his
terrorist capabilities directly against the United States?” The
Institute for Defense Analyses then provides the answer:
Yes.
Conclusion
Those who claim that Saddam had no “direct, operational ties” to Al
Qaeda are attempting to narrow the definition of “terrorist-sponsoring
nation” to an impossible scope. By this definition, a nation, like
Saddam’s Iraq, can provide money, arms, safe haven and cooperation to
jihadist terrorist groups and not have “direct, operational ties” to
terrorists.
This was never the standard by which a nation found itself on the US
State Department’s list of terrorist-sponsoring nations and implies
that, unless a dictator is found directly ordering a terrorist attack,
that dictator cannot be considered as linked to a terrorist group.
The “direct, operational ties” standard was invented after the overthrow
of Saddam and is a ridiculous standard that can never be met.
Five years after United States forces overthrew Saddam Hussein, the
Pentagon has produced a blockbuster report that has been both
misrepresented and ignored. That report shows that Saddam’s Iraq had
extensive ties to international terrorist groups, both Islamist and
secular, including organizations that were part of Al Qaeda. No ginned
up definition invented for domestic political consumption can change the
truth.
"Just the facts Ma'am!"
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