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Abu Ayyub al Masri in Iraq since 2002 for Al Qaeda
But here is one fact the press is not likely to trumpet: Abu Ayyub al Masri set up shop in Saddam's Iraq roughly ten months prior to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. His presence there was tracked by the CIA. The agency was even concerned that al Masri and his al Qaeda compatriots might be planning terrorist attacks outside of Iraq from Baghdad. In his book, At the Center of the Storm, George Tenet details some of the evidence the CIA collected on the relationship between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda prior to March 2003. Tenet revealed that the agency, which was divided on the extent of the relationship, had compiled "more than enough evidence" connecting the two. In other words, contrary to what is now the conventional wisdom, there was a relationship between the Baathist regime and the jihadist terror network. The CIA just wasn't sure how close the relationship was. In particular, the CIA tracked Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who would go on to lead al Qaeda in Iraq, as well as an al Qaeda affiliate named Ansar al Islam (AI). Tenet says that AI established training camps in northeastern Iraq and as many as 200 al Qaeda terrorists relocated to the camps, which became a "hub for al-Qa'ida operations." Posted by: trailing wife 2010-04-21 |
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