|
Iraq Suspects Said to Have al-Qaida Ties
Nine of 25 people arrested in the deadly car bombing that killed a prominent Shiite cleric have links to al-Qaida, a senior police official said Tuesday. One of the nine was arrested while carrying a message that read, ``The pig has been killedââ - an apparent reference to the Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, who died in Fridayâs attack along with scores of other people, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Thought he was seen sending this in a e-mail? Maybe his controller gave him the message to send and had to write it for him. If so, maybe he wrote down the address as well. The bomb was placed in a car stolen from an Iraqi government agency, which was parked overnight at the Imam Ali mosque before being detonated remotely as al-Hakim left at the end of Friday prayers, the official said. The nine include two Saudis and a Palestinian with a Jordanian passport, the official said. The rest were Iraqis, he said. I see a Palestinian, I think imported bomb expert. Their alleged links to the al-Qaida terrorist network had been determined through interrogation, the official said, adding that they told police they had plans to target oil pipelines, electrical and water utilities and other political and religious leaders. The police official said several of the men carried satellite pagers through which they were able to communicate both inside Iraq and possibly to nearby countries. The FBI should be able trace where those pageâs come from. Donât know if the messages stay in a server some where. Iraq has no cell phone system and most land lines of the old prewar telephone system have not been repaired. The official said 16 other suspects in the bombing had been taken into custody but their interrogation had been slowed because U.S. forces, under the direction of the FBI, had taken control of the investigation. He said the U.S. soldiers had forbidden local police to use their normal interrogation methods, which include physical violence. Of course, if we had let the locals handle it their way, the al-Guardian would be screaming from the mountain top about it. Seven senior members of Saddam Husseinâs Baath Party also had been arrested since the bombing, but it was not known if they were directly linked to the mosque attack, the official said. Thatâs OK, they need to be in the jug on general purposes. Posted by: Steve 2003-09-02 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=18248 |