US: Proof of Iraq's terrorist ties
2003-04-16 20:17
Baghdad - The US military says it has produced substantial evidence linking Saddam Hussein with international terrorist networks but acknowledges that iron-clad proof of the ousted leader's ties with al-Qaeda is proving elusive.
Their most prized scalp is Abu Abbas, a factional head of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) who masterminded the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985 and was captured by special forces in Baghdad on Tuesday.
The arrest was trumpeted by US officials as vindication of their campaign to oust Saddam as a sponsor of terrorism in addition to a stockpiler of suspected chemical and biological arms.
Senior commanders also point to hundreds of captured foreign Prisoners of War (PoWs) and enough weapons "to start a revolution" as ample evidence of the cover Baghdad once afforded international terrorists.
Colonel John Pomfret admitted the presence of foreign PoWs who fought in the conflict did not automatically define such combatants as terrorists.
But he said supporting evidence was compelling and included the last pockets of resistance faced by marines at Saddam's bastion of Tikrit.
"All the combatants were Syrians. We found 70 suicide jackets filled with C4 and mercury detonators and 10kg of explosives in each. They were for terrorist activities," he told AFP.
"The jackets were quite thin and well tailored, and there were no Iraqis involved in the fighting, only Syrians," Pomfret said.
'Jihad'
Jordanians, Chechens, Egyptians and Syrians have figured prominently among the PoWs captured in the war. One marine doctor told AFP he had treated Syrian PoWs and had read their passports.
"The Iraqi entry visa in the passport was marked 'reason for entry: Jihad. Length of stay: Indefinite'," he said. Pomfret said all 21 PoWs captured in the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit held Syrian passports.
Abbas was arrested after advancing marines stumbled across a PLF training camp east of Baghdad. Photos of Abbas with senior figures from Saddam's elite Republican Guard, chemicals used in bomb making and documents were seized.
Italian courts have sentenced the Palestinian to five life sentences for his role in the hijacking of the luxury liner with 400 people on board.
During the ordeal, one elderly and wheelchair bound American was shot and his body thrown into the Mediterranean.
In Washington, the Abbas arrest was hailed by US Central Command as removal of "a portion of the terror network supported by Iraq and yet another victory in the global war on terrorism."
Still, very little has been offered to support claims by US Secretary of State Colin Powell that Iraq had provided a sanctuary for al-Qaeda cells after the September 11, 2001, terrorist strikes.
Al-Qaeda
His allegations that members of Osama bin Laden's network were here was also a highly motivational force among troops seeking retribution for the attacks on New York and Washington.
The marines' senior spokesperson in Baghdad, Captain Joe Plenzler, said newspaper reporters had uncovered some evidence of al-Qaeda training camps in Iraq but this had not yet been confirmed by the military.
"There are still plenty of links of terrorist training camps in this city," he said. But asked if the military had failed to confirm any links between bin Laden and Saddam, he replied: "I'm not qualified to answer that."
Others argue that al-Qaeda was just one reason for the United States to invade Iraq and that the evidence produced thus far in regard to terrorist links elsewhere was justification enough for US President George W Bush to go to war.
"The ties with terrorism I saw with my own eyes," said another public affairs officer (PAO) with the marines, who did not want to be named. "True, I haven't seen anything that serious in regards to al-Qaeda."
"But September 11 did not give America just a sense of duty to root out al-Qaeda but to root out all terrorism be that al-Qaeda or the PLF, it was a rallying cry against all forms of terrorism," he said.