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| Europe |
| Mullah Krekar's got a memoir |
| 2004-04-22 |
| The founder of a Kurdish extremist group accused by the United States of trying to destabilize Iraq says in his autobiography that he sought money from Osama bin Laden to fight Saddam Hussein. In his new book, ``My Own Words,'' Ansar al-Islam founder Mullah Krekar says he met a Saudi prince in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1990 to ask for money to battle Saddam. The prince, who wasn't identified, declined to help. Bin Laden was also at the meeting, Krekar said. ``He sat at the far end of the table, but didn't say a single word,'' Krekar wrote. In his autobiography released Thursday, Krekar said the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan, the forerunner of Ansar al-Islam, later tried to get money from bin Laden through a mutual friend, Palestinian Abdullah Azzam. Azzam and bin Laden had founded a group to recruit Arabs to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan. ``He went straight to bin Laden, but bin Laden would not help us,'' wrote Krekar. He said bin Laden responded with ``my money goes to the Afghans' jihad'' - apparently a reference to the Taliban militia's fight against the Northern Alliance after the Soviets' departure from Afghanistan. Krekar did not say when the exchange took place. In the book, Krekar said it was his opposition to Saddam's regime, especially after a 1988 chemical attack by Saddam's army that killed 5,000 people in the Kurdish city of Halabja, that drove him to seek funding from bin Laden. Krekar also said only time will decide whether bin Laden's efforts benefited the Muslim world. But during a news conference Thursday, he rejected the Sept. 11 terror attacks ``as a mass murder of civilians.'' During an extended visit after he fled to Norway, Krekar founded Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq in December 2001 to foment revolution against Saddam. His book, written in Arabic and translated into Norwegian, shows the contrasts of a religious man who, after shooting down an Iraqi air force jet, kept the dead pilot's head as a trophy. During his detention, Krekar was questioned by the Pentagon, the CIA and the FBI. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has called Ansar al-Islam a ``very dangerous group.'' Krekar has denied being a terrorist or having links to al-Qaida and says the allegations against him were fabricated as part of a U.S.-led conspiracy to justify the invasion of Iraq. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
#2 the allegations against him were fabricated as part of a U.S.-led conspiracy to justify the invasion of IraqAnother legend in his own mind. We had plenty of justification without you, Kreky. Get a life. One that doesn't require killing "infidels." Wanker. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-04-22 5:02:42 PM |
| #1 Fred, would you like an autographed copy? |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2004-04-22 4:10:43 PM |