rlb says no links?

[rob <rob@xxxxxx>]

RLB said no links between Irag and al quaida.  wrong, as usual.




WND Exclusive Naming names: The Saddam-al Qaida connection
Captured Baathists reveal alliance with Islamo-terrorists
Posted: June 6, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON ? It has been denied, downplayed, overlooked, forgotten,
disregarded and omitted from the public record.

But a thorough review of open-source material demonstrates conclusive
and widespread cooperation between former members of Saddam Hussein's
Baathist regime and terrorists from the Iraqi al-Qaida network.

Dozens of former Saddam Hussein loyalists captured by U.S.-led coalition
forces in Iraq were found to be working with al-Qaida or linked to their
operations.


Here are some notable players in that alliance:


Muhammed Hila Hammad Ubaydi

     * Muhammed Hila Hammad Ubaydi, aka Abu Ayman, was the former aide
to the chief of staff of intelligence during the Saddam regime for 30
years. Ubaydi later led the Secret Islamic Army in the Northern Babil
Province and was said to have had strong ties to the former terror
leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. He was captured April 6, 2006, in southern
Baghdad.


       Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri

     * Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri is "the former vice chairman of Saddam's
Baathist Revolutionary Command Council who swore fealty to Zarqawi and
provided funding for al-Qaida and significant element of the
Baathist/al-Qaida converts and collaborators.

     * Abdel Faith Isa is a former Iraqi army officer who was later
identified as an al-Qaida emir. He was captured May 6, 2004.

     * Abu Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi is "believed to be a former
officer in Saddam's army, or its elite Republican Guard, who (has)
worked closely with al-Zarqawi since the overthrow of the Iraqi dictator
in April 2003." Al-Baghdadi was among the candidates nominated as
potential Abu Musab al Zarqawi's leadership position in al-Qaida in Iraq.

     * Ahmad Hasan Kaka al-'Ubaydi was a former Iraqi Intelligence
Service officer, and believed to have later become associated with
al-Qaida affiliate Ansar al-Islam.

     * Abu Aseel is a "former high ranking Saddam official" who was
working with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi after 2002.

     * Abu Asim was a Special Republican Guard officer under Saddam
Hussein and is said to have been active within the insurgency after the
fall of the former regime, including association with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

     * Abu Maysira al-Iraqi was reportedly a "minister of information"
for al-Qaida in Iraq and formerly an expert in information technology
for Saddam's army. "He was an expert in information technology in
Saddam's army and was entrusted with the additional task of waging the
jihad through the Internet" for Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq."

     * Abdul-Hadi al-Iraqi is being held in Guantanamo Bay and was
called "a top leader with al-Qaida in Iraq and the Mujahedeen Shura
Council and originally comes from Nineveh province. He was a major in
Saddam's army but left to travel to Iraq to fight against the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan in the 1990s" and was later identified as a
"liaison between bin Laden and al-Qaida's leadership in Afghanistan, and
the al-Qaida network formerly headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq."
Al-Iraqi has also been cited as one of bin Laden's top al-Qaida commanders.

     * Unnamed former air force officer ? a man who was killed in a
coalition raid in Iraq "was later identified as a retired officer in the
Iraqi air force serving under the Saddam regime. The male who initiated
the gunfire is a suspected al-Qaida terrorist for whom the troops were
searching, as well as the retired officer's son. The former officer was
killed April 14, 2006.

     * Abed Dawood Suleiman and son Raed Abed Dawood ? Suleiman was a
former Iraqi general believed to have become Zarqawi's "military
adviser." Raed was a former army captain in the Iraqi army and was
caught April 15, 2005.

     * Mohammed Khalaf Shkarah al-Hamadani, aka Abu Talha, was a key
facilitator and financier for al-Qaida in Iraq. He reportedly was the
head of a Zarqawi's terror cell. Al-Hamadani previously was a member of
the Baath Party and a warrant officer in the former Iraqi army. He was
captured June 5, 2005.

     * "Al-Hajji" Thamer Mubarak was an Iraqi military officer who
became a key aide to Zarqawi. Mubarak reportedly was involved in the
August 2003 al-Qaida attack on U.N. headquarters in Iraq.

     * Hasayn Ali Muzabir, a former Iraqi Intelligence (Mukhabarat)
officer for Saddam's regime, was later identified as al-Qaida's emir of
Samarra. Muzabir was killed in Balad, Iraq, on June 2, 2006.

     * Muhammad Hamza Zubaydi was a "Baath Party official in charge of
security in central Iraq and had helped put down an uprising by Shiite
Muslims in southern Iraq in 1991." Zubaydi was later found to be an
associate of Zarqawi's al-Qaida branch in Iraq.

     * Abdul Hamid Mustafa al-Douri was a relative of Saddam's former
aide Izzat al-Douri. As an aide to Zarqawi, and head of the Salaheddin
province al Qaida branch and car-bombing network, he was captured in a
joint Iraqi police and army operation in a village in northern Tikrit.

     * Haitham al-Badri ? "Before joining al-Qaida in Iraq, Badri was a
warrant officer in the Special Republican Guard under Saddam. After the
invasion, he joined the insurgent group Ansar al-Sunna, where he trained
recruits and carried out attacks."

     * Salas Khabbas is "a former member of the Baath party and (was)
closely linked with al-Qaida." Khabbas "specialized in attacking convoys
and kidnapping." He was captured July 12, 2006, by Polish intelligence
agents.

     * Abu Zubair was trained in Iraq and was reportedly sent by
Saddam's government to lead "supporters of Islam" into northern Iraq to
assassinate leading Kurds and to assist in building chemical warfare
facilities.

     * Rafid Fatah "also known as Abu Omer al-Kurdi, was also trained by
Saddam and worked with (Abu) Zubair against the Kurds. It is not known
when he left Iraq, but he too became a leading member of al-Qaida . His
whereabouts are not known."

     * Mohammed Hanoun Hamoud al-Mozani is a former Iraqi intelligence
officer who was captured by police after bombings in Baghdad and
Karbala. It was later revealed he was paid by al-Qaida to carry out
attacks on civilians.

     * Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi is a former member of Saddam
Hussein's intelligence services who rose to No. 2 in al-Qaida's Iraq
wing. Al-Saeedi reportedly "told interrogators that al-Qaida in Iraq
exchanges logistical support and information with supporters of Saddam
Hussein."

     * Muharib Abdullah Latif al-Juburi was a military intelligence
officer in Saddam's army and later rose to a leading position for
al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Juburi also served as the "Information Minister"
for the Islamic state of Iraq.

     * Abu Mustafa was a Saddam-era military officer who told Time
magazine he spent his time in jail (post-invasion) "studying Salafi
Islam and receiving lessons in jihad from bearded Iraqis and detainees
who came from places like Syria and Saudi Arabia" before joining the
jihadist fighters in Iraq.

     * Abu Ali was "among those who have thrown their support behind the
jihad. ... A ballistic-missile specialist in Saddam's Fedayeen militia,
he fought U.S. troops during the invasion and has served as a resistance
commander ever since, organizing rocket attacks on the Green Zone, the
headquarters of the U.S. administration in Baghdad. When interviewed by
Time last fall, he spoke of a vain hope that Saddam would return and
re-establish a Baathist regime."

     * Omar Hadid, according to Middle East news outlets cited by
Powerlineblog.com, was a former personal body guard of Saddam and had
trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan before fighting against coalition
forces in Fallujah and elsewhere. Hadid, according to an al-Qaida
biography after his death, also had a relative who was an official for
Iraq's intelligence services and worked with Hadid on postwar operations.

     * A former Saddam Hussein officer was appointed as an al-Qaida
leader to set up attacks on Iraqi oil sites in early 2007.

     * An unnamed former Saddam Fedayeen leader as an insurgent leader
responsible for al- Qaida/foreign fighter camps in Syria.

     * Abu Raja hails from a family who was "well-connected" during
Saddam Hussein's rule and later joined forces with al-Qaeda.

     * Abu Haydr had an "important government job" before the invasion
and later enlisted with al-Qaida.

     * A group of former Iraqi Republican Guard officers reportedly has
been "giving ground-to-ground missiles, including Scud-B and Hossein
missiles" and collaborating with al-Qaida to launch attacks on key
targets in Iraq.

     * Adullah Rahman al-Shamary "was an officer in [Iraq's] feared
Mukhabarat General, an intelligence service run by Saddam's son, Qusay."
Al-Shamary told Richard Miniter, from a prison cell, that Qusay Hussein
"oversaw the Mukhabarat's relationship with Jund al-Islam, an al-Qaida
wing operating in northern Iraq before the 2003 American invasion" and
he was involved in the Jund al-Islam-Mukhabarat relationship.

     * Yasser al-Sabawi is Saddam's nephew and reportedly was linked to
a Saddam Fedayeen cell arrested for being involved in the
al-Qaida/al-Zarqawi beheading of Nicholas Berg. The video of the
beheading was posted on al-Qaida-linked website, and Berg may have been
kidnapped by the al-Sabawi's cell and then sold to Zarqawi's group.

     * A former colonel in Saddam's army was said to have later become
the leader of al-Qaida's branch in the Diyala province of Iraq.

     * Haydar al-Shammari (may be the same person as Adullah Rahman
al-Shamary) is a former Iraqi intelligence officer who claimed his
commander, Abu Wa'il, ordered him to aid al-Qaida members fleeing
Afghanistan to enter Iraq through Jordan and Syria. Al-Shammari then
assisted their mission in joining up with Ansar al Islam.

     * Abu Iman al-Baghdadi told BBC news that Saddam's intelligence
services were assisting al-Qaida affiliate Ansar al Islam with arms to
counter the PUK, and al-Baghdadi was checking on Abu Wa'il status in
assisting the group.

       Eighty-five fighters were killed, though many escaped, when a
joint Baath/al-Qaida camp was confronted by Iraqi forces in March 2005.
Gen. Adnan Thabet said the camp was "frequented by members of Saddam
Hussein's Baath Party and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's branch of al-Qaida
[and] was built after the U.S. offensive to retake the rebel enclave of
Fallujah in November. "They were Zarqawi followers and Baathists from
the old military because they knew how to fight. They fought like old
soldiers."

     * The Islamic Army in Iraq is an insurgent group that includes
former members of Saddam's Baath Party, Muslim Brotherhood members and
worked with al-Qaida in the past until a recent spilt in which an IAI
spokesman told al Jazeera "the Islamic Army in Iraq had decided to
disunite from al-Qaida in Iraq. ... In the beginning we were dealing
with Tawhid and Jihad organization, which turned into al-Qaida in Iraq."

     * Mohammad's Army, also known as Jaish-e-Mohammed, is a group that
includes pro-Saddam members of the former regime's Intelligence,
Security and Police services. Responsibility for the 2003 attack on the
U.N. building in Iraq was claimed both by members of al-Qaida in Iraq
(including Zarqawi) and Mohammed's Army. The material for the bomb was
from the former regime's stock, for which members would have had
superior access, though observers said insurgents could have acquired it
on their own. Abu Omar al-Kurdi, an al-Qaida/Zarqawi associate later
admitted responsibility for making the bomb after his capture.

While the Bush administration contended there was evidence of a Saddam
Hussein/al-Qaida connection before the war, those assertions have come
under heavy criticism, especially from Democrats who contend they and
others were deceived about the presence of weapons of mass destruction.
However, as WND reported last year, pre-war documents posted online by
the Pentagon included a letter from a member of Saddam's intelligence
apparatus indicating al-Qaida and the Taliban had a relationship with
the regime prior to the 9/11 attacks.

A letter by the member of Saddam's Al Mukabarat to a superior, dated
Sept. 15, 2001, reported a pre-9/11 conversation between an Iraqi
intelligence source and a Taliban Afghani consul.

The information had been released on the orders of National Intelligence
Director John Negroponte, and the letter was reviewed by an independent
Middle East analyst who concluded it appeared genuine.

The letter indicated bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan were in
contact with Iraq ? noting a specific visit to Baghdad ? and said the
U.S. had proof Saddam's regime and al-Qaida were cooperating to hit a
target in the U.S.

The documents also suggested the possibility the U.S. could strike Iraq
and Afghanistan if an attack on the U.S. proved to be tied to bin Laden
and the Taliban.