American Secretary of State Colin Powell stated in his speech to the Security Council “the Al-Qa’ida organization has ties with Baghdad, and the CIA has strong evidence on the subject.” He added that an Al-Qa’ida official, Abu Mu’s’ab A-Zarqawi, also known as ‘The Chemist’, resided in Baghdad for a period of eight months during 2002 and today he was located in northern Iraq.
The London based “Al-Hayyat” reported on A-Zarqawi as recently as February 6th. A-Zarqawi is considered a key leader of Al-Qa’ida, operating as a link between Iraq and the organization. The following details of his activities since 1999 appeared in Powell’s speech and in reports in Al-Hayyat and the Israeli daily Ma’ariv.
The Jordanian Intelligence discovered his link with a plan to bomb Israeli and American targets and tourist centers. The Jordanians sent an agent, who caused A-Zarqawi’s network of terror in Jordan to crumble as well as leading to the arrest of 28 of his activists. A-Zarqawi himself managed to escape Jordan and was sentenced in absentia to 15 years imprisonment. Since then the western intelligence mechanisms have been increasing their pursuit of A-Zarqawi, a Palestinian born Jordanian. Apparently, according to Powell’s speech, the branches of A-Zarqawi’s international terror network are spread over many countries in Europe including France, Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and Russia.
In 2000 the CIA caught an Algerian citizen by the name of Ahmad Rasam who was planning to bomb an airport in Los Angeles. During the questioning Rasam admitted training with Al-Qa’ida in Afghanistan and even witnessed experiments using chemical weapons. Apparently, A-Zarqawi was one of those in charge of the experiments, some of which were even recorded on video.
A-Zarqawi then vanished for a while until the American attack on Afghanistan commenced at the end of 2001. There were reports that he had been wounded in his leg and was forced to flee to Iran. While residing in Iran, A-Zarqawi attempted in vain to send three suicide bombers to Israel via Turkey. He continued from Iran to Iraq where his leg was amputated in May 2002. The Jordanian regime knew of his whereabouts in Iraq and demanded he turn himself in, but the Iraqis turned down the request.
On October 28th 2002, A-Zarqawi, supposedly residing in north Iraq, ordered the assassination of the American diplomat Lawrence Foley, which was successfully carried out. The fact that he was in northern Iraq increased suspicions among the American intelligence that he was acting under the auspices of ‘The Defenders of Islam’, an organization which operates in suburban areas in northern Iraq and fights the secular Kurdish government. The American intelligence suspects that the organization is headed by Mula Kurikar and serves as a link between the Iraqi regime and Al-Qa’ida. In order to prove his loyalty to the organization, A-Zarqawi assisted in planning the assassination of one of the Kurdish leaders. The assassination attempt failed, but the ties between Al-Qa’ida and northern Iraq became stronger.
The American intelligence has testimonies from Iraqi prisoners concerning the link between Al-Qa’ida and Iraq. One of the prisoners stated he accompanied Dr. Ayman Al-‘Zawahiri, Al-Qa’ida’s number two man, while on a visit to Baghdad. Another prisoner said he smuggled missiles from Iraq to the Taliban movement in Afghanistan and also knew about smuggling a crate containing chemicals from Iraq to Afghanistan via Pakistan. The U.S. holds two Al-Qa’ida members who were arrested while trying to cross over from Iraq into Saudi Arabia.
Despite the vast amount of information the American intelligence supposedly possesses, the British BBC television network reported yesterday that it has received information from British security mechanisms, according to which they have no evidence to link the Iraqi regime with Al-Qa’ida. Nevertheless, British Prime Minister Tony Blair continues to insist that there is indeed a link, yet there is considerable debate as to its extent.