The Link Between Iraq and Al-Qaeda; Saddam may not have known the details of 9/11, but a senior government official says the United States has uncovered key evidence that Iraq was funding al-Qaeda

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 14, 2003 | by Scott L. Wheeler

Byline: Scott L. Wheeler, INSIGHT

Senior investigators and analysts in the U.S. government have concluded that Iraq acted as a state sponsor of terrorism against Americans and logistically supported the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States confirming news reports that until now have emerged only in bits and pieces. A senior government official responsible for investigating terrorism tells Insight that while Saddam Hussein may not have had details of the Sept. 11 attacks in advance, he "gave assistance for whatever al-Qaeda came up with." That assistance, confirmed independently, came in a variety of ways, including financial support spun out through a complex web of financial institutions in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy and elsewhere. Long suspected of having terrorist ties to al-Qaeda, they now have been linked to Iraq as well.

The official says the United States uncovered the key "money-laundering operation" in the months following Sept. 11, 2001, when authorities raided the homes and offices of two Arab bankers, Youssef M. Nada and Ali Himat, principals at Nada Management (formerly al-Taqwa Management). Himat, Nada and the names of both companies are all listed on the U.S. Treasury Department's roll of "Specially Designated Global Terrorists." The lawyer for the two Arab financiers, Pier Felice Barchi, has confirmed to the Swiss press that his clients will be questioned again in coming days. He added that they "have nothing to fear and nothing to hide," although he confirms that authorities seized thousands of pages of documents. Insight's source, who has seen many of those documents, confirms that they detail financial relationships between al-Taqwa and Iraq. The official says the records show al-Taqwa was formed by Nada, Himat, Ahmed Huber and Mohamed Mansour.

Documents obtained by Insight say that al-Taqwa was created in the late 1980s by trusted members of a secretive Islamic extremist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, which is "dedicated to the overthrow of Western nations and the creation of a worldwide Islamic government."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center reports that Huber is a 74-year-old neo-Nazi who converted to Islam in the 1960s. The Chronicle of Foreign Service, published in Bern, Switzerland, says Huber has praised Adolf Hitler and the Ayatollah Khomeini and has been quoted as saying: "We will bring down the Israel lobby and change foreign policy. We'll do it in America. When it happens you'll understand." Huber also has been quoted as saying, "Muslims and Nazis were involved in the same fight."

According to the senior government official, Nada Management is part of the al-Taqwa group. In November 2001, President George W. Bush officially cited al-Taqwa as part of al-Qaeda's money-laundering activities. The citation included the following: "Al-Taqwa is an association of offshore banks and financial-management firms that have helped al-Qaeda shift money around the world." It is in al-Taqwa and Nada Management that the government investigator says he found the links to Saddam and Iraq. "Al-Taqwa was the recipient of illicit funds from Iraq's 'Oil for Food' program," the official tells Insight, and from there the financial resources went "through al-Taqwa to al-Qaeda." But in the Chronicle story Huber is quoted as denying that Nada Management (al-Taqwa) underwrites al-Qaeda.

Records show that Youssef M. Nada is, with Huber, a board member of Nada Management. An Egyptian expatriate, Nada is said by the government investigator to be central to the Iraq/al-Qaeda connection and "a known associate of Saddam Hussein and Ayman al-Zawahiri," al-Qaeda's second in command. The government investigator tells Insight that Nada met with Saddam and had a "business" relationship with the former Iraqi dictator. Nada's relationship with al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, is reportedly through the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization founded by al-Zawahiri, according to the government investigator. The senior government official tells Insight that Mohammed Atta, long thought by U.S. authorities to have been the ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackings, had frequent meetings with members of the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization to which the senior official says "Saddam provided assistance for years back, and right up until the end of his regime." The official says, "All al-Qaeda members active in Germany and Spain are members of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood" and therefore sponsored by Saddam.

Critics of the Bush administration have raised questions about the president's case for the war in Iraq, citing concern about an alleged lack of evidence linking Iraq to the Sept. 11 attacks and other terrorism. Indeed, for reasons of its own, the administration appears to have avoided making its case that way, though it has acknowledged a great deal piecemeal. This includes the capture of a training base for foreign nationals at Salmon Pak, near Baghdad, that included the fuselage of a jumbo jet believed by investigators to be part of training for hijackers.