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Iraq, al-Qaeda links confirmed
27/04/2003 16:31 - (SA)
Washington - Iraqi opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi said on Sunday that he has "specific information" about links between the terror group al-Qaeda and the Iraqi intelligence service Mukhabarat.
"We have specific information about visits that leaders of al-Qaeda made to Iraq in as late as 2000, and the requests for large amounts of cash," Chalabi said.
Chalabi, who heads up the US-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC), an organization that opposed Saddam Hussein's ousted regime, added that he could not elaborate "because we want to chase down specifically the information so there will be an actionable case for international authorities - specifically the United States."
Chalabi's comments came in response to a question about a report in Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper that secret Iraqi intelligence documents found in Baghdad have provided the first evidence of a direct link between Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and Saddam Hussein's regime.
The report said files found in Baghad on Saturday in the bombed headquarters of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service showed that an al-Qaeda envoy was invited secretly to Baghdad in March 1998.
The aim of the meeting was to establish a relationship between the Iraqi regime and al-Qaeda based on their shared hatred of the United States, the Sunday Telegraph said.
The meeting ended with arrangements being discussed for bin Laden to visit Baghdad, but the documents did not mention if any such trip eventually took place, according to the conservative London weekly.
- AFX
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