Military

DATE=October 5, 2001

TYPE=Dateline

NUMBER=7-35399

TITLE=An Iraqi Connection?

BYLINE=Judith Latham

TELEPHONE=619-3464

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Neal Lavon

CONTENT=

INTRO: Ever since the terrorist attacks on the United States last month and the investigation into the involvement of the al-Qaida [al K-EYE-eh-duh ] network of Osama bin Laden, theories have been put forward suggesting a link to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Today's Dateline explores some of the pros and cons of an "Iraqi Connection." Here's Judith Latham.

JL: President George W. Bush has said that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network is "linked to many other organizations in different countries" and furthermore that "there are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries."

Laurie Mylroie [MIL-roy], author of the book Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein's Unfinished War against America, says Iraq is a key country in the bin Laden network, and the U-S government and regional experts ought to appreciate this linkage.

TAPE: CUT #1: MYLROIE [FM ON THE LINE] 0:27

"My concern is that they should understand that the principal state behind the network is Iraq. This is part of Saddam's ongoing war with the United States. Iraqi intelligence and Osama bin Laden work very closely together. Osama bin Laden served to provide a kind of deniability for Iraqi intelligence actions. Iraq is the major power behind terrorism directed at the United States."

JL: Ms. Mylroie says that both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein share common political goals and are members of the same branch of Islam.

TAPE: CUT #2: MYLROIE [FM ON THE LINE] 0:57

"Both bin Laden and Saddam are Sunni Muslims. They have the same goal to get the United States out of the Persian Gulf and overthrow the Saudi government. There are known contacts between Iraqi intelligence and bin Laden. And even in this attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, it turns out that one of the hijackers met with Iraqi intelligence in Czechoslovakia prior to the attack. It's a good thing to get bin Laden, but not to focus on bin Laden to the exclusion of the head of the snake, which is Baghdad. My concern is that, if the U-S becomes too preoccupied with bin Laden and forgets about Iraq, Saddam will become ever more remote from our consciousness. And we'll end up giving him a license to kill with impunity because everything always gets blamed on bin Laden, and the head of the snake is never addressed. I think in the second phase, as the Pentagon has indicated it would like to do, we go after Saddam and get rid of him and finish the unfinished business of the Gulf War."

JL: Laurie Mylroie is vice-president of the Washington-based Information for Democracy and the publisher Iraq News. Edward Peck, a Middle East specialist who has served in Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, and Iraq, says he is not convinced of a link between the Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden and the Iraqi leader.

TAPE: CUT #3: PECK Q&A [FM LATHAM] 3:22

"EP: The Iraqi government, the Ba'athi regime, which is a secular regime, is considerably at odds with Osama bin Laden and others because they are very strongly fundamentalist Muslims. So, I don't believe there's any connection between what happened here and Iraq. Although there are a lot of people who are searching desperately for some means of making the connection, so we can add Iraq to the list of countries that we're going to pound into the dust. And I think that's a serious mistake because I don't think it's going to advance our interests at all.

(OPT) JL: I suppose that rationale is that Iraq supports terrorism. Osama bin Laden is a terrorist. Both are virulently anti-American. Is it no stronger than that? EP: I would think. You mentioned the keyword terrorism. I would not be the least bit surprised to discover that Saddam Hussein may have done some things to facilitate what Osama bin Laden or other groups are up to because they would perceive it as being in their interest. (END OPT)

JL: About a week ago or so, Laurie Mylroie said in an interview that the principal state behind the network, and that's al-Qaida, is Iraq. It is Saddam Hussein. And Iraqi intelligence and Osama bin Laden work very closely together. If that were to be the case, would there be a legitimate reason to expand this war on terrorism to the Iraqi government, to the regime of Saddam Hussein?

EP: I would be far more loathe than Laurie Mylroie to leap to conclusions. In my own view, her views on Saddam Hussein border on the irrational, and she has found some new ways of accusing him of just about everything imaginable. But I seriously doubt her conclusions, and I question how she obtained the information. There are a lot of people in the United States who will rush forward to accuse him, and there are a lot of people prepared to believe anything. And he has, at least temporarily, been bumped from number one of the list of people Americans love to hate.

JL: Now the issue of Iraq is part of a larger question whether or not this attempt to get at the roots of terrorism should be expanded to include state sponsors of terrorism Iraq and other countries. And there is a considerable divergence of opinion within the administration as to how far this war should be pursued. The presumed wisdom is that the State Department and particularly the Secretary of State represent one side, which is to go cautiously. And the Department of Defense and particularly the Deputy Secretary of Defense represent another point of view, which is to expand the enemy and to include state sponsors of terrorism as well.

EP: You can stir up deep-seated, heart-felt, virtually permanent animosities. And so, I believe that Mr. Wolfowitz and others who are urging us to attack wherever we can find an excuse that we consider to be valid, I think they are terribly wrong.

JL: Ambassador Edward Peck is a specialist in the Middle East and North Africa. Resident Scholar Michael Ledeen [leh-DEEN] of the American Enterprise Institute says he believes Iraq is one of the countries linked to the recent terrorist attacks.

TAPE: CUT #4: LEDEEN [FM ON THE LINE] 0:24

ML: "I'm fully convinced by Laurie's book. We published it at the American Enterprise Institute, and we are very proud of it. I think that there are many countries involved. Iraq is the driving force behind the embassy bombings and behind these recent attacks here, as they were behind the original World Trade Center bombing and the plot to carry it out again two years later in 1995. So, Iraq has been driving a lot of this."

JL: Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute. Retired U-S diplomat David Mack served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs and was Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. He says he is skeptical of an Iraqi connection to the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

TAPE: CUT #5: MACK Q&A [FM LATHAM] 3:57

DM: I know of no evidence that would be at all persuasive. Personally, I would be delighted if we were able to pin this on the Iraqi regime, but I'm not at all convinced by the speculation I have seen about this. And I basically agree with some senior officials of the U-S government, as well as the head of Israeli military intelligence, that there's no evidence of a link at this point.

JL: Why is it the argument is being pursued, in your opinion? Or, are there people who believe there is indeed hard evidence?

DM: We know that Iraq in the past, if not at this very hour, has harbored terrorist organizations that have spread death and destruction in Western Europe and throughout the Arab World. (OPT) And there are a number of Arab capitals where the Iraqis have been responsible for assassinations and bombings. So, the Iraqis have a long track record of supporting international terrorism. And a lot of people believe that, if we're going to deal with this problem of international terrorism in an effective way, eventually we have to do something about the current Baghdad regime and its support for such organizations. (END OPT)

So, it's understandable that people would be looking for a connection.

JL: With respect to the current war on terrorism, do you think it's wise to expand the base of perpetrators of terrorism, specifically state supporters of terrorism, beyond what is now known to be the involvement of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida?

DM: You have to establish priorities. Both for the U-S government and so many Arab governments and other Muslim governments that are threatened by the al-Qaida organization the priority right now is to deal with this organization and those who are sheltering and supporting it. I think that makes a lot of sense. (OPT) Any organization that is committed to tearing down the existing institutions and governments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey to say nothing of spreading death and destruction in New York City and elsewhere is an organization that is dangerous to the whole world. So I think that is the proper focus. (END OPT)

JL: The two people who are highest on the list of people who are associated with terrorism in the American mind are Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. But what view do Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden have of one another and of their approaches to Islam?

DM: That's a very interesting question. Of course, those who are familiar with the recent history of Iraq and particularly of this regime know they have been ideologically closest to the former communist Yugoslavia and other regimes that are avowedly secular and have a long track record. As does Saddam Hussein himself, of rising to power by suppressing all religious institutions and religious leaderships that they thought would be independent from their control. I served twice in Baghdad, and I remember when Saddam Hussein was doing everything he could to suppress indications of religious leadership. That was part of his rise to power. As for Osama bin Laden's view of Saddam Hussein, he has been quoted as saying that Saddam Hussein is an atheist and that Saddam Hussein's god is the Ba'athi Party. When I was in Baghdad, I was told by an Iraqi official that "his god was the Ba'athi Party."

JL: So, you think that they are ideologically poles apart.

DM: Well, you couldn't rule out some measure of tactical coordination between Iraqi intelligence and some of the cells in this rather diverse network of al-Qaida. But, as far as their being some kind of coordination between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein or the senior leaderships of these two organizations, I think that's most unlikely.

JL: Ambassador David Mack is vice-president of the Middle East Institute. "An Iraqi Connection" was the subject of today's Dateline.