Iraq prime minister ties Saddam regime to captured Al Qaida commander
BAGHDAD — The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said Al Qaida worked closely with former operatives in Saddam
Hussein regime.
Officials said leading members of the Al Qaida network have coordinated
operations with Saddam aides since 2003. They said Al Qaida and Saddam
forces attacked Shi'ites in an effort to spark a civil war in Iraq.
"They agreed that Al Qaida would carry out the suicide attacks, while
the Baathists [Saddam's ruling party] would do the remote-control bombs," Al
Maliki said.
The Al Qaida-Saddam link, asserted by then-U.S. President George Bush in
2002, came in wake of the reported capture of a leading Al Qaida commander
in Iraq.
The government has determined that an Iraqi Sunni arrested in April
2009 was Abu Omar Al Baghdadi, identified as the head of the the Islamic
State of Iraq, an umbrella group that contained Al Qaida, Middle East Newsline reported.
"This terrorist had deep ties with the former regime and created with
its followers a devil's pact reflected in bloody scenes of carnage involving
innocent children and women and the elderly," Al Maliki said.
"As someone who works at the Defense Ministry and in the security field,
I affirm that this is Abu Omar Al Baghdadi," Defense Ministry spokesman
Mohammed Al Askari said.
Nearly 200 people have been killed in wake of Al Baghdadi's arrest,
announced by the Interior Ministry on April 23. Officials said the killings
were the result of suicide bombings arranged by Al Qaida and Saddam
loyalists.
[On late April 29, Baghdad was rocked by six bombings in which 52 people
were killed. The last two attacks were comprised of car bombs detonated near
a mosque in western Baghdad.]
The United States has refused to confirm the capture of Al Baghdadi,
whose arrest was denied by Al Qaida elements. In 2007, Iraq twice announced
the death of Al Baghdadi.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf, however, said the
suicide car bombings were planned by an Al Qaida cell that had penetrated
the Baghdad police. Khalaf cited a spate of attacks in the Iraqi capital on
April 6, said to have been facilitated by an unidentified Shi'ite police
officer.
The officer was said to have been arrested three days later.
Regardless, the government has maintained that Iraqi security forces
captured Al Baghdadi alone. Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta
said Al Baghdadi was tracked and lured to eastern Baghdad, where he was
arrested.
"The arrest is a new victory for the Iraqi security agencies and a
decisive response to the remnants of the terrorist organizations," Atta
said.
The general said Al Baghdadi was the de facto successor of Abu Mussib Al
Zarqawi, slain in a U.S. air strike in 2006. He said Al Baghdadi, currently
under
investigation to determine his sources of funding, was working with the
formal head of the Al Qaida network in Iraq, Abu Ayoub Al Masri.
"The results of investigations with the terrorist leader and other
members of the affiliate cells of Al Qaida Organization in Iraq will be made
public soon," Atta told a news conference on April 28. "The terrorist acts
involving mass killings, kidnappings and expulsion along sectarian
lines. They targeted mosques, churches, Shi'ite sites, universities and
public places, and left thousands of innocent victims."
Comments
So George was correct all along. But of course nothing on this on ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC or any of those stations.
Nancy
5:33 p.m. / Thursday, May 7, 2009
Hummmm, Bush was right???? I can't wait to hear what MSNBC thinks of this news and how they will cover this revelation.
Hum, how ODD! All I get is the sound of silence. Now I understand: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki is a right wing Republican trying to shore up Bush'e legacy with hopes to garner future military support from ultra-conservative Hedge-fund capitalists.
I feel so enlightened.
