'Bring em on' Bush is al Qaeda's new recruiter.
NotBush2004
By REUTERS
Published: January 25, 2004
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The top U.S. military commander in Iraq said Sunday
there was evidence ties might be growing between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein
loyalists waging a bloody insurgency in the country.
``What you see is a lot of fingerprints in terms of the tactics and
techniques and procedures that are being employed. We are working very hard
to establish whether there are today positive links,'' Lt. Gen. Ricardo
Sanchez said in an interview.
``We believe that those links may be growing.''
Sanchez said the devastating car bombings against Western troops had raised
fears that the al Qaeda network had a hand in the bloodshed.
``It is the frequency of the attacks and the types of attacks that are being
conducted. You have Nassiriya, you have Karbala, quite complex attacks with
car bombs,'' he said.
``Those are typically tactics al Qaeda has been using. That causes us to
look with a little bit more focus, trying to establish what their operating
capability is in the country.''
Violence has gripped Iraq since U.S.-led troops toppled Saddam in April and
then set out to stabilize the country. Guerrillas have killed 240 American
soldiers since major combat was declared over on May 1.
The lethal bombings against the United Nations and U.S.-backed Iraqi police,
as well as the grenade and roadside bomb attacks on U.S. troops, have fueled
suspicions that Islamist foreign fighters have joined forces with Iraqi
guerrillas.
Such an alliance would be a new one. The secular nature of Saddam's Iraq ran
counter to the radical Muslim views of groups like Osama bin Laden's al
Qaeda.
U.S. military officials say foreign fighters have crossed over the Syrian
border into Iraq.
``There are some. We are still finding them and killing them here in the
country. We know they are operating in small numbers here in the country.
That continues at a steady pace,'' said Sanchez.
Speaking after bombings killed six U.S. soldiers over the weekend, he said
he was concentrating on ``a terrorist extremist element that may be
beginning to get a foothold'' in Iraq. ``That's what we have to work very
hard to eliminate,'' he said.
TOP BAATHIST STILL AT LARGE
After arresting most of the Iraqi officials on a list of the 55 most wanted,
U.S. troops are eager to track down Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a top Baath
Party hard-liner believed to be directing some of the guerrilla attacks on
the occupying forces.
``He is hiding just like Saddam was. We are hot on his trail. We are hot on
the trail of all the former regime element leadership that is still out
there,'' said Sanchez.
``I am sure there are still former regime elements out there that are
involved in this.''
Security issues have acquired added urgency to the U.S. preparations to hand
over power to Iraqis by July. Their plans for regional caucuses to select a
transitional assembly have met strong opposition from Iraq's most powerful
Shi'ite cleric, who insists on direct elections.
Asked if he thought Iraq was stable enough to handle a power handover,
Sanchez said engagements with guerrillas had eased off.
``When you are talking about less than 20 engagements across this entire
country on any given day, that's the average that we are experiencing right
now. We are focused on providing a security that will be necessary to have
either the caucus method or elections,'' he said.
``We will be working very hard with the Coalition Provisional Authority and
the Iraqi people to make sure that security is there for this democratic
process to evolve.''
--
"From the brief time that we did spend occupying Iraqi territory
after the war, I am certain that had we taken all of Iraq, we would
have been like the dinosaur in the tar pit - we would still be there,
and we, not the United Nations, would be bearing the costs of
the occupation. This is a burden I am sure the beleaguered
American taxpayer would not have been happy to take on."
- Norman Schwarzkopf, from his 1993 autobiography, "It Doesn't
Take a Hero."