Iraq: Former PM Reveals Secret Service Data On Birth Of
Al-Qaeda In Iraq
Reprinted from adnki.com (Italy) (May 23, 2005)
he number two of the al-Qaeda network,
Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited Iraq under a
false name in September 1999 to take part
in the ninth Popular Islamic Congress, former
Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi has revealed to
pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. In an interview, Allawi
made public information discovered by the Iraqi
secret service in the archives of the Saddam
Hussein regime, which sheds light on the
relationship between Saddam Hussein and the
Islamic terrorist network. He also said that both
al-Zawahiri and Jordanian militant al-Zarqawi
probably entered Iraq in the same period.
“Al-Zawahiri was summoned by Izza Ibrahim
Al-Douri - then deputy head of the council of the
leadership of the revolution - to take part in the
congress, along with some 150 other Islamic
figures from 50 Muslim countries,” Allawi said.
According to Allawi, important information has
been gathered regarding the presence of another
T
key terrorist figure operating in Iraq - the
Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
“The Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi entered
Iraq secretly in the same period,” Allawi affirmed,
“and began to form a terrorist cell, even though
the Iraqi services do not have precise information
on his entry into the country,” he said.
Allawi’s remarks come after statements to
al-Hayat by King Abdallah II of Jordan over
Saddam’s refusal to hand over al-Zarqawi to the
authorities in Amman.
On this question Allawi said: ‘’The words of the
Jordanian King are correct and important. We
have proof of al-Zawahiri’s visit to Iraq, but we do
not have the precise date or information on
al-Zarqawi’s entry, though it is likely that he
arrived around the same time.”
In Allawi’s view, Saddam’s government
“sponsored” the birth of al-Qaeda in Iraq,
coordinating with other terrorist groups, both
Arab and Muslim. “The Iraqi secret services had
links to these groups through a person called
Faruq Hajizi, later named Iraq’s ambassador to
Turkey and arrested after the fall of Saddam’s
regime as he tried to re-enter Iraq. Iraqi secret
agents helped terrorists enter the country and
directed them to the Ansar al-Islam camps in the
Halbija area,” he said.
The former prime minister claims that Saddam’s
regime sought to involve even Palestinian Abu
Nidal - head of a group once considered the
world’s most dangerous terrorist organisation - in
its terrorist circuit. Abu Nidal’s organisation was
responsible for terrorist attacks in some 20
countries, killing more than 300 people and
wounding hundreds more.
He added that Abu Nidal’s refusal to cooperate
with Islamist groups was the reason for his death
in Iraq, in the summer of 2002.