RIYADH, 3 December 2003 — President Bush has said that the continuing acts of terrorism in Iraq against coalition forces, aid workers and innocent Iraqi citizens will not “shake the will” of the United States. “This collection of killers is trying to shake the will of America. We will not be intimidated.”
But just who are these “killers”? Where did they come from? Are they working in conjunction with each other or are they just rogue groups of angry men roaming the streets of Iraqi cities and randomly shooting at and killing US soldiers? Are the attacks on the United Nations, the Red Crescent aid workers, the Japanese, Italians and Spanish support personnel all unrelated actions?
In early March this year, The New York Times reported that the CIA had warned American policymakers that Al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq, including in Baghdad, were preparing to attack Americans after any US incursion.
This information was based on intercepted communications that suggested Al-Qaeda operatives and other groups were planning for the arrival of the Americans. The report went on to say, “Terrorist fighters may blend in with Iraqi civilians to strike during an invasion and may attack US forces trying to stabilize Iraq after an attack.”
The CIA also said Al-Qaeda operatives would not necessarily work in concert with the Iraqi military planners but that an increase in their communications indicated a terror network that appeared linked to the pending attack.
These cells, they contended, were organized by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda poisons and terror expert. In northern Iraq, it estimated, there could be up to 200 Al-Qaeda operatives working with several hundred members of another extremist group, Ansar Al-Islam. Whether the US took this information into consideration prior to the invasion and incorporated it into its occupation plans, no one will ever know. However, given the situation today, it is obvious that it should have done.
On Nov. 30 American forces captured three members of Al-Qaeda in Mosul, Iraq. According to Col. Joe Anderson, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, US troops have also captured 10 members of Ansar Al-Islam in northern Iraq over the past months.
According to Anderson they are among a number of terrorists that are operating in Iraq, including former regime loyalists and members of the Fedayeen. The Fedayeen were one of Saddam’s irregular militias. The targets selected by these groups for attack in Iraq over the past 60 days are also worth reviewing.
Beginning with the United Nations and the Red Crescent bombings. In attacking two impartial aid organizations the message from the attackers was clear, that they were determined to undermine any international efforts to rebuild Iraq.
It is most unfortunate that both of these organizations pulled out of Iraq, giving the attackers a victory. Following those incidents came the attack on the Italians, Spanish and Japanese. Dan Senor, a coalition spokesman said: “They clearly are targeting coalition members in an effort to intimidate the allies in Iraq and to discourage their participation in the reconstruction”.
Yusuf Polat, the Turk accused in the synagogue bombings in Istanbul, has confessed to belonging to a 10-man cell that is an extension of the Al-Qaeda terror network. As the suspects in the Istanbul bombings are interrogated a pattern emerges that shows connections between Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations prior to the attack against the US on Sept. 11. What authorities are discovering is that while not all terrorist organizations are linked, a number of them are. There is a pattern of these terrorists having trained during the Osama Bin Laden era in Afghanistan. Polat fought in Afghanistan, as did Feridun Ugurlu, a Turk accused of carrying out the attack against the British consulate in Istanbul.
The Turkish police are focusing on individuals who fought in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya. The suspected connection between Al-Qaeda and the attacks in Turkey fit the Bin Laden pattern of attempting to “send a message” with each attack. The involvement of Al-Qaeda in Iraq bears the hallmarks of the network; it is far more likely that Al-Qaeda is involved than that the attacks were random.
Iraq has something else to offer to Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A large open market with easy access to weapons. According to a Washington Times reporter who visited one of the Iraqi black market arms bazaars, obtaining weapons for these attacks is easy and cheap.
In a market near Baghdad, he claims to have purchased, with the help of a former Iraqi military officer, two Russian rocket-propelled grenade launchers for $110 each and the rockets that go with them for $20 to $30 each.
These RPGs are capable of penetrating light armored vehicles and can be used against low-flying helicopters. The rapid advance of the US invasion of Iraq resulted in large numbers of these and other arms falling into the hands of the Iraqis rather then being destroyed by the advancing troops.
The situation in Iraq is not a separate conflict from some of the terrorist attacks occurring in other countries. In this age of technology one terrorist cell can contact another terrorist cell by dialing their cell phone. The invasion of Afghanistan drove a number of militants across borders and into countries where they could and did regroup.
The invasion of Iraq has provided a new battleground on which to fight the United States, and it has also provided a new source of plentiful weaponry. The countries and organizations that support the war against terror, even if they did not support the invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq are all targets for Al-Qaeda, which continues to be the most dangerous and the most consistent of all terrorist groups.
— Adrienne McPhail is an American journalist based in Riyadh.
