Brits Claim Al Qaida Fighting on Iraqi Side

There have been volunteers from all over the Arab world fighting, not as you may expect for Saddam, but against the US/UK.

In other news: Theolein claims that typoon hasn't taken his medication again.

ie. This doesn't serve Theolein's agenda, so he discredits the report and diverts the discussion.

What medication is that? I know there have been other Arabs fighting with them against the US/UK. I'm just saying it's interesting that Al Qaida is there fighting since there has been several claims that there is a link between the 2 groups.

Their presence doesn't indicate that there is a connection. That is only one of the possible implications. Another is that they are there to sew discord and bolster any conflict agaist the west that thay can.

I might also note that there have been al-quada cells in the US, in the UK, in Germany, etc. Does that mean that these governments are complicit?

All this is is another piece of data. It is not, in and of itself, a "causal" link. Together with other data, I agree that the conclusion is more probable. But it isn't real solid yet.

It does indeed show they support each other.

One could show pics of Osama and Saddam in bed together and people would STILL say

"That doesn't prove anything"


No one that DOESN'T want to believe this, is going to believe this. Not because it's not true, but because of reasons of the ego. They would have to admit they was wrong.


Not saying this means there is a connection, but hmm, this is awfully convenient.

I'd place my bets on the old reliable... "Its none of our business what is done in their private lives."

The US is fighting on Al Qaida's side. Can we have a regime change now please.

There are Training Camps in Northern Iraq so This leads me to believe that there would be more of a link than most are willing to admit.

no Terrorist cells does not mean that the governments are working with them.

Yes, training camps in the PUK territory that has been protected from Saddam by the No Fly Zone.

There is clearly evidence that Islamist groups operating in Iraq have links to other Islamist groups such as Al'Queda. Particularly the new group Ansar al-Islam (which is only recently formed from a bunch of other splinter groups and has already splintered into other groups because radicals rarely agree on anything). PUK has allegded for years that Mujahideen fight along side them. Very possible. In fact, quite likely.

The tenuous part comes in when you try to link those groups to the regime.

The simple fact is that Saddam has killed more Islamic extremists in his tenure than Bush could ever dream of. Saddam was doing the "war on terror" thing way before it was popular. (If by "war on terror" we mean putting the smack down on Islamic extremists).

If Iraq goes the way of Afghanistan after the regime topples, the chances of Ansar Al-Islam or other similar groups getting their hands on WMD or operating with impugnity increases. Like it or not, that is a very distinct possibility.

Certainly Al Qaida and Saddaam had no love of each other. But there is an old arab proverb: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Having said that though most published "links" are rather tenuous. Certainly I can understand why some disbelieve them.

Having said that though, and recognizing that there is no positive evidence for a connection, the following is interesting.


DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources
report that its largest component is the Baath militia of 650,000 members with chapters in every corner of Iraq. In addition to a regular paycheck, each member drew an extra $200 a month for attending military training three times a week. Party members earned another $50 a head for any relative over 14 he recruited.

Their training included dare-devil driving tactics on a battlefield behind the wheels of pickup trucks, usually Toyotas, while firing heavy machineguns or light mortars. They were taught how to plant and detonate

explosives, mount ambushes and take part in coordinated sorties by groups of armed vehicles.

The militiamen were transformed into guerrilla fighters by an estimated 700 Iraqi military intelligence officers who had been in Chechnya in the 1990s for long training stints in guerrilla warfare with al Qaeda experts.

Uday is rumored to have made secret trips to Iran, Lebanon, Bosnia and Macedonia to bring 300 al Qaeda instructors over to Iraq. These rumors will remain unconfirmed until allied forces actually capture an al Qaeda instructor. What is not in dispute is that Saddam and Uday copied the deadliest practices al Qaeda and Taliban perfected in Afghanistan.

Both used dozens and sometimes hundreds of fast pickups armed with light

and heavy weapons to crisscross the country and repress Afghan tribes and warlords. Tribal chiefs were intimidated and kept obedient by their fear of the vehicles popularly known as white devils suddenly darting out at them.

When the United States invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, al Qaeda sold the pickups to finance its fighters getaway when they saw the vehicles charging up and down Afghanistan s winding mountain roads were easy prey for US aircraft and drones.

All the same, Uday chose the fast pickups to bedevil US troops in the open Iraqi desert. He knew the allied forces would be passing through since the US war command made no attempt to hide its preparations for invading Iraq from Kuwait and Qatar in the south.


Same caveats apply that I gave in the Syria thread. Debka has a strong Israeli bias.