Iraqi opposition has no doubts about Saddam's sponsorship
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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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