| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq-Jordan |
| New Iraq Prime Minister Smeared by Former US Intelligence Officials |
| 2004-06-09 |
| From The New York Times Iyad Allawi, now the designated prime minister of Iraq, ran an exile organization intent on deposing Saddam Hussein that sent agents into Baghdad in the early 1990’s to plant bombs and sabotage government facilities under the direction of the C.I.A., several former intelligence officials say. Dr. Allawi’s group, the Iraqi National Accord, used car bombs and other explosive devices smuggled into Baghdad from northern Iraq, the officials said. .... the former officials said their recollections were in many cases sketchy [and] ... could not even recall exactly when it occurred, though the interviews made it clear it was between 1992 and 1995. I thought we paid our intelligence officials good money to keep secrets, but now I suppose I must be mistaken about that. The Iraqi government at the time claimed that the bombs, including one it said exploded in a movie theater, resulted in many civilian casualties. .... One former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was based in the region, Robert Baer, recalled that a bombing during that period "blew up a school bus; schoolchildren were killed." Mr. Baer, a critic of the Iraq war, said he did not recall which resistance group might have set off that bomb. Other former intelligence officials said Dr. Allawi’s organization was the only resistance group involved in bombings and sabotage at that time. ... The C.I.A. recruited Dr. Allawi in 1992, former intelligence officials said. .... In 1991, Dr. Allawi was associated with a former Iraqi official, Salih Omar Ali al-Tikriti, whom the United States viewed as unsavory. He and Dr. Allawi founded the Iraqi National Accord in 1990. Both were former supporters of the Iraqi government. Some intelligence officials have also suggested that Dr. Allawi, while he was still a member of the ruling Baath Party in the early 1970’s, may have spied on Iraqi students studying in London. Mr. Tikriti was said to have supervised public hangings in Baghdad. The former officials said the C.I.A. would not work with Dr. Allawi until he severed his relationship with Mr. Tikriti, which he did in 1992. .... The bombing and sabotage campaign, the former senior intelligence official said, "was a test more than anything else, to demonstrate capability." Another former intelligence officer who was involved in Iraqi affairs recalled that the bombings "were an option we considered and used." Dr. Allawi’s group was used, he added, "because Chalabi never had any sort of internal organization that could carry it out," adding, "We would never have asked him to carry out sabotage." What we are seeing here is the Chalabi supporters in the US Intelligence Community biting back and smearing the Allawai supporters. .... In 1996, Amneh al-Khadami, who described himself as the chief bomb maker for the Iraqi National Accord and as being based in Sulaimaniya, in northern Iraq, recorded a videotape in which he talked of the bombing campaign and complained that he was being shortchanged money and supplies. Two former intelligence officers confirmed the existence of the videotape. Mr. Khadami said that "we blew up a car, and we were supposed to get $2,000" but got only $1,000, according to an account in the British newspaper The Independent in 1997. The newspaper had obtained a copy of the tape. .... I have a premonition that the Arab media will have a field day with this. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #2 When will Baer and the rest of the "former intelligence officers" STFU? I'm sick of stories citing the same five named former CIA guys, including Baer, and numerous other unnamed intelligence officials. Isn't there something in their original employment agreements that requires them to button their lips? |
| Posted by: Tibor 2004-06-09 11:04:53 AM |
| #1 that the NYT is highlighting this shows how threatened they feel by the Allawi govt. Note the tactics - attack him for old Baath connections - how long has the NYT told us that Chalabis problems were that he had no contacts in the old regime, and thatdebaathification was isolating Sunni Arabs and laying the grounds for civil war? And car bombings - with the implication that civilians were killed - the only case where even the old regime (reliable source?) claimed civilian casualties, they can connect to Allawi only by innuendo. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-06-09 9:49:50 AM |