Iraq / al Qaeda Connection

One thing I heard on the radio toady (and seen on some websites as well) - and I do not know how trustworthy the source is - anyone who knows better than me I would appreciate hearing from - is that US intel sources indicate the tie between al-Qaeda and Iraq is the man who mastermined the assassination of the US diplomat Foley - Zarqawi.


Supposedly Zarqawi, an al-Qaeda leader, has obtained biological weapons from Iraq, which are to be used against Israel and/or the United States, to make the September 11 attacks the Americans are so "whining about" (quoting Iraq) seem like a picnic.

Anyone else hear these reports? Anyone more qualified than me able to shed more light on their accuracy or have other details?

I just watched news and there was nothing, but maybe there will be something tomorrow.

None of the guys in the ntel community here onthe board will be able to confirm/deny until there are at least two open source referrences to the data...and maybe not then. Sources and methods have to be protected.

I have not heard this... but my main source of nonstandard intel is on vacation at an undisclosed location.

To be honest, I was flicking between NPR (my liberal news source) and a right-wing talk dude (my conservative news source) and the conservative guy mentioned it. I did some searching on the web and found some mention of it, but none of the sites were what I would consider "mainstream".

The White House, through various voices and on multiple occasions, has said that there is a hard connection between Iraq and Al Qaida, but I have not heard any public announcement of specifics.

If such a thing were made public, I think the major networks would be carrying it and NPR and BBC would have it as part of their top-o-th-hour news bulletins.

Certainly if such a connection could be made openly and directly it would provide Mr. Bush with more than enough of a smoking gun to attack Iraq. Conversely constantly talking about such a connection without providing the evidence tends to undermine his claims.

I will be very interested to hear if this is part of the evidence that Mr. Powell intends to submit to the Secruity Council.

Secretary Powell is suppose to give this evidense on Wednesday. This must just be the pre speech buzz.

You've got to be careful about openly and directly providing intelligence. It doesn't take much to get a network of agents rolled up by the other side; I've seen it happen.

Most likely, they're waiting -- if the al-Qaida-Iraq connection is verifiable -- for corroborating sources that would not compromise their main intel pipeline.

Is there an al-Qaida-Iraq connection? Wouldn't surprise me in the least; there's been verified instances of Iraqi dealings with other Islamic militant groups. Since most terror groups have back-channel connections with each other, if only through their main funding sources (drugs and charity societies), an Iraq-al-Qaida connection, however tenuous, is probable.

I like How people want photos and locations to be given to the public, for evidence sake. As if when we tell the world where these Weapons are they won't be moved. These are the first, second, and third day targets we want them staying put.

There's a report on this over on ABCNews.com, claiming that the link may be pretty tenuous. There's also more on why the Iraqi people probably wouldn't welcome Western "liberators" with open arms...

If nothing else, there's the support that Ansar Al-Islam is getting in the North of Iraq. They're a branch of Al-Queda active in the Kurdish areas, and have had their numbers boosted by Arabs escaping from Afghanistan by way of Iran. They've mainly been busy lately with attempts to assassinate Kurdish leaders. Since that's somewhat of an odd target for Jihadis, the suspicions are that tehy're doing a favor for Saddam in exchange for having a safe haven. Here's what Google turned up when I punched in their name....