.Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
lysts initially were skeptical mà1s,an4 the people in the area da fighters with Ansar.
that Ansar posed much of a have seen that;" asserted Dza- Gen. Shawkat Haji Mushir, a
threat to U.S. interests; the offi; yee, the PUK militia's chief of ' senior PUK commander who'
cials said, but began changing staff. served as chief intermediary
their minds after the CIAset up Baghdad denies that it is col- with Ansar, said that there were
a base in Kurdistan and the National
Security Agency estab-
doesthe Iranian government. with the group; U.S.in~elligence
laborating with Ansar, and so about 150 al-Qaeda fighters
lished listening posts in the Senior PUK officials say that officials estimate that there
area to intercept Ansar and Iraqi
communications.
node in al-Qaeda's global mit- Abu Musab Zarqawi, consid-
Ansar also has become a key , may be several dozen.
"Ansar and Saddam don't work and that bin Laden opera- ered the leader of the al-Qaeda
have much in common," one official
said, "1M they do, have tory.
dad hospital last year: for a
tives pass through Ansar's terri- fugitives, was treated in a Bagh-
one thing: They both hate the "Ansar and al-Qaeda have a woundsuffered while fighting
United States." ,
friendship and are cooperating in Mghanistan, they said.
SOURCE: ESRI The Philadelphia Inquirer
PUl< officials say Baghdad
with each other," said Qays !bra- Jordan is seeking Zarqawi for
him Khadir, an Ansar sympa- the killing of a U.S. Agency for
little doubt that Ansar is likely smuggles arms and money to thizer who was arrested after a International Development offito
have a place in any U.S. plan Ansar, as do hard-liners in , failed bid to kill Barham Salih, cial in Amman in October.
to invade Iraq. , . Iran's Islamic regime. the PUK prime minister, in PUK officials' contentions
The officials, who spoke on PUK officials and a former April. are based on al-Qaeda docucondition
of anonymity,said Iraqi intelligence officer in Khadir, who in an interview ments recovered in Afghaniarranged
by the PUK said he stan; information from inform-
the group could pose a threat to their custody also contend that
U.S. troops using the Kurdish- Hussein has supplied the sought and received al-Qaeda's ers, defectors and prisoners; inblessing
for the attack: spent l tercepts of radio and telephone
controlled region as a staging group with crude chemical
area for a possible attack south weapons.
more than three months last conversations;' and intelligence
into Hussein's Iraq. They said "Through me, Iraq sent monthe
militant Islamic group also ey, weapons and 'raw materials PUK officials also charged providing before the Sept. 11
year with Ansar.
that the United States began
could threaten coalition forces ' to make chemical weapons," 'that two Iraqi intelligence offic- attacks.
occupying Iraq after Hussein's said the former intelligence ofouster
and any interim Iraqi ficer, who uses the pseudonyni latif al-Ani, who uses the nom Contact reporter Jonathan Landay
ers - Sadoon Mahmood Abdul- ------
government. ,
Abu Iman al-Baghdadi. de guerre Abu Wa'il, and a Lt. at 202-383-6012 or" '
Many U.S. intelligence ana-, "They've done tests on ani- Saad - were among the al-Qae- jlanday@krwashington,corn.
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,in the Kurdish controlled areas, worked for Saddam's Inteiiigei1ceagency,
htil sellt.ii. 2001, th'~'radical '1ntelligenœ,agent imprisönèd by Kurdish,
, 'I,slamié:group Ansa~,al~lslamwas authoritiès in northern Iraq,'a member of ~
" considereda localproblem. BaSed Ansar's'ruling councll,AIWWa'el; once
,of northern Iraq, with a membershlpof :though PUKofficials cannotconfirm the
militant fundamimtalists determined to ' " link: But some 'conne~tion"between
'impose:lslamic rule,:the grouprai~ed its' 'Ansar and lraqSMlms,ciear. , '
, ,profile three years ago by blowing up' The groupœntinues to" pose a threat
beauty parlors and sloshing acid in the ,'to the anfj~BaghdädKurds. Lasf year'
,facésof unveiledI