• Military
• WMD

• Intelligence Menu               

• Systems
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Imagery
• Links

• Homeland Security
• Space

K. Leadership Reporting

(  ) In Iraqi Support to Terrorism, the CIA stated that it did not have specific intelligence reports that revealed Saddam Hussein's personal opinion about dealing with al-Qaida. Instead, analysts looked at Saddam Hussein's record for dealing with extremists and assessed in Iraqi Support for Terrorism that he generally viewed Islamic extremism, including the school of Islam known as Wahhabism, as a threat to his regime, noting that he had executed extremists from both the Sunni and Shi'a sects to disrupt their organizations. The CIA provided two specific HUMINT reports that support this assessment, both of which indicated that Saddam Hussein's regime arrested and in some cases executed Wahhabists and other Islamic extremists that opposed him. The CIA also provided a HUMINT report DELETED that indicated the regime sought to prevent Iraqi youth from joining al-Qaida.

(  ) Consistent with inadequate intelligence on Saddam Hussein's intentions or views toward al-Qaida, the CIA had limited intelligence reporting on the al-Qaida leadership's decisions regarding a relationship with Iraq. DELETED the CIA used DELETED reporting from al-Qaida detainee debriefings, to judge bin Ladin's attitude toward a relationship with Saddam Hussein. The limited reporting available to analysts on al-Qaida's attitude toward cooperating with the Iraqi regime was contradictory. Some reports indicated a desire to seek assistance from Saddam Hussein and others indicated al-Qaida leaders were opposed to any association with the secular Iraqi regime. Information DELETED noted an internal struggle within al-Qaida over the wisdom of working with the Iraqis. The CIA explained this in Iraqi Support for Terrorism, noting:                                                              PARAGRAPH DELETED                                                             

(                ) The most important al-Qaida detainees that commented on interaction with Iraq were DELETED. Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, who was captured after the January 2003 publication of Iraqi Support for Terrorism, also commented on the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida. His comments tracked with other detainees' comments, and they are included here for additional corroboration.