The New Yorker's chief Arab demonizer Jeff Goldberg tells the latest tall tale about Saddam. I'd never have thought the day would come that I'd be thankful for the CIA but whatever his reasons may be, George Tenet is still steadfastly resisting the Sharonista loonies long after Powell's surrendered, to Woolsey's unending rage:
Hakki
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42471-2002Mar17?language=printer Report: Iraq, Al Qaeda Run Extremist Group In Kurdish Territory Guerrillas Linked to Bin Laden Camps
By John Mintz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, March 18, 2002; Page A12
A new report in the New Yorker magazine suggests that Iraqi intelligence has been in close touch with top officials in Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group for years, and that the two organizations jointly run a terrorist organization that operates in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq.
The thrust of the article could be news to some U.S. officials, because the CIA has largely discounted the proposition that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has maintained links with al Qaeda.
A hawkish faction within the Bush administration that favors military action against Iraq, centered mostly in the top ranks of the Defense Department, has scoured the world for such Hussein-al Qaeda connections. Yesterday some people in this camp hailed the New Yorker article as significant new evidence for their viewpoint.
The article focuses in part on a Muslim extremist guerrilla group in the Kurdish zone of Iraq. The group, Ansar al-Islam, is made up of Iraqi Kurds and Arabs trained in bin Laden's camps, according to the article.
The article's author, Jeffrey Goldberg, wrote that he interviewed several operatives of the group who had been captured by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a pro-American Kurdish group that controls one province in northern Iraq. The captives said that Hussein and al Qaeda run Ansar, that a number of al Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan have escaped to Iraqi Kurdish territory controlled by Ansar, and that Iraq hosted a top Egyptian leader of al Qaeda in Baghdad in 1992.
U.S. officials said the PUK has an interest in making this case because it could help justify an American incursion to topple its enemy, Hussein.
The article also asserted that U.S. intelligence agencies apparently had not adequately looked into what the Ansar captives have to say and haven't completely debriefed PUK leaders who have assembled a dossier on the alleged Iraq-al Qaeda ties in Kurdistan.
A CIA spokesman declined to comment, citing complications in responding to such complex assertions over a weekend.
James Woolsey, a former CIA director who favors military action against Iraq and is critical of the CIA's performance on Middle Eastern terrorism, called the article "a blockbuster."
"The CIA has, over recent years, not been real enthusiastic about the Iraqi resistance, and I think that's a shame," Woolsey said on CNN's "Late Edition." "If they got beat on this story by the New Yorker and Jeff Goldberg, three cheers for the fourth estate."
"This is clearly a very important story," said a former senior U.S. official with extensive experience in U.S. policy toward Iraq. "It's likely that Saddam Hussein would try to destabilize the Kurdish areas" by using Ansar al-Islam, and it's possible al Qaeda also could have ties to the group, he said.
But he was skeptical about the idea that U.S. intelligence agencies don't know what these Ansar captives are saying, given the high priority the Bush administration has placed on finding any Hussein-bin Laden connections. "I'd be surprised if our intelligence people haven't picked up on this, if in fact these guys have been held by the PUK for months."
Under an 11-year-old arrangement after the Persian Gulf War, the PUK and a rival Kurdish faction control three semi-autonomous provinces in northern Iraq. The Kurds are protected from Iraqi attack by U.S. and British jets.
A senior administration official disposed toward U.S. military confrontation with Iraq said the thrust of the New Yorker report "doesn't strike me as incredible, and may fill in gaps in our knowledge."
"I'll be interested in what our intelligence people say," the official said.
Richard Perle, another hard-liner on Iraq who is chairman of the Pentagon's advisory Defense Policy Board, said the CIA has shown "no desire to inquire into this area [of alliances between Iraq and al Qaeda] because to admit now that there are links, after saying there weren't, would be embarrassing."
Advocates of the supposed Hussein-bin Laden axis cite a supposed meeting between Mohamed Atta, a leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and an Iraqi agent in the Czech Republic in 2000 or 2001. Some U.S. and European officials say that even if the meeting occurred, Iraq may not have played a role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The New Yorker quoted a PUK captive, a veteran Iraqi intelligence officer named Qassem Hussein Muhammad, as saying that Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian who is bin Laden's top aide, visited Saddam Hussein and other top Iraqi officials during a lengthy stay in Baghdad in 1992.
PUK officials assert the top leaders of Ansar are operatives of Hussein's intelligence service and that some received training in bin Laden camps in Afghanistan, the magazine said.