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Al-Qaeda-Iraq: Groups Are Tied, Kurdish Sources Say Kurdish sources say Iraq has direct links to al-Qaeda and has possibly smuggled chemical and biological weapons into Afghanistan, according to an article in the current issue of the New Yorker (see GSN, March 12). Iranian smuggler Muhammad Jawad said in 2000 he had an assignment from al-Qaeda to smuggle to Afghanistan canisters filled with liquid and attached to refrigerator motors provided by the Iraqi intelligence organization, the Mukhabarat. Jawad said he smuggled the canisters to Taliban officials at the Afghan border and, on al-Qaeda orders, killed the smugglers who helped him. Jawad said he did not know what the canisters held but assumed it was a type of chemical or biological weapon. Kurdish officials said they also could not guess what was in the canisters but said the matter “is something that is worth an American investigation.” Kurdish officials said Hussein’s regime has had ties to al-Qaeda since 1992 (see GSN, Feb. 8). Ties Through Ansar al-Islam Another tie between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime, according to Kurdish sources, is through the militant Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, or Supporters of Islam. The group’s several hundred members include Kurdish Islamists and Arabs who trained in al-Qaeda camps. Ansar al-Islam formed with a merger between two groups in September 2001, according to the London-based Arab newspaper Sharq al-Awsat. Those groups were al-Tawhid, which helped assassinate a prominent Kurdish Christian politician and orchestrated acid attacks on unveiled women, and Second Soran Unit, which had been affiliated with a Kurdish Islamic party. Three Arabs who trained in al-Qaeda camps oversaw the merger and provided $300,000 for the new group, according to Kurdish officials. The group now occupies 10 villages in Iraq and has fought with Kurdish resistance movements. Kurdish officials said the group receives direct funds from al-Qaeda and shelters al-Qaeda members who have fled from Afghanistan, including two men Kurdish intelligence believes are high-ranking al-Qaeda members. The Kurdish officials also said Hussein’s intelligence service has joint control with al-Qaeda members over the group. An Iraqi called Abu Wa’el is a key leader in Ansar al-Islam and is also a veteran of al-Qaeda training camps as well as a high-ranking Mukhabarat officer, Kurdish officials said. “He’s the actual decision maker in the group … but he’s an employee of the Mukhabarat,” said an Iraqi intelligence officer captured by the Kurds. Kurdish intelligence also has al-Qaeda members in custody, Kurdish officials said. The Kurdish officials said they have no evidence that Ansar al-Islam has been involved in international terrorism or that Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Iraq and Islamic Extremism Some analysts consider a close link between the secular Iraqi regime and Islamic extremist groups, such as al-Qaeda, unlikely, although Hussein’s support of secular militant Palestinian groups is well known. Since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, however, Hussein has developed ties with Islamic extremist groups, said Amatzia Baram, an Iraq specialist at the University of Haifa in Israel. Hussein now supports the Islamist-oriented Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Other analysts say Iraqi WMD assistance to terrorist groups makes sense, particularly given Hussein’s use of chemical weapons against Kurds and Iranians. Hussein is “the home address for anyone wanting to make or use chemical or biological weapons,” said Kanan Makiya, an Iraqi dissident and the author of Republic of Fear about the Iraqi regime. “He’s going to be the person to worry about. He’s got the labs and the know-how. He’s hell-bent on trying to find a way into the fight without announcing it” (Jeffrey Goldberg, The New Yorker, March 25).
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