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Iraqi opposition has no doubts about Saddam's sponsorship

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Tuesday, September 25, 2001

LONDON Ñ Iraqi opposition souces said one of the leading suspects in the World Trade Center attack, Mohammed Atta, met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Europe earlier this year. They added that Bin Laden is believed to have acted for Iraq in the bombing of the USS Cole in Aden last October.

Opposition spokespeople, particularly in the London-based Iraqi National Congress, said Saddam is much closer to Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden than widely thought. They said Saddam has been involved in several terrorist attacks against the United States during the last decade.

The sources agree that the man behind the suicide attacks in New York and Washington was Saddam Hussein.

The sources said Iraq has also used Bin Laden agents to intimidate Kurdish separatists in the autonomous northern zone of Kurdistan.

They said that about 100 agents or supporters of Bin Laden have made their way from Afghanistan to Kurdistan and are establishing a new base.

"In the Middle East, only one man has access to the necessary networks to organize such attacks: Saddam Hussein," Chidhir Hamsa, the former head of Iraq's nuclear program, said.

Hamsa told the German daily Bild on Sunday that Saddam maintained intelligence contacts with Bin Laden and used Iraq to train terrorists. The training included that of pilots.

The attack on the USS Cole came after several unsuccessful attempts by Iraqi intelligence to attack U.S. installations in Europe, such as Radio Free Europe in Prague.

"The Iraqi intelligence focused primarily on the antiregime opposition groups both at home and abroad these days and is also busy building a network of bogus companies to import parts and electronic components for the state run military industries," Saad Farage, an Iraqi opposition activist said.

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