FREEBIRD

[ergo sum]

IRAQ
Bush: Mission will be long
President warns that U.S. role will be 'massive and long-term'
Tom Bowman
The Baltimore Sun
http://www.thesunlink.com/redesign/2003-07-02/nationworld/191426.shtml
"Among these terrorists are members of the Ansar al-Islam, which operated in Iraq before the war and now is active in the Sunni heartland of the country," Bush said. "We suspect that the remnants of a group tied to al-Qaida associate (Abu Musab) al-Zarqawi are still in Iraq, waiting for an opportunity to strike."

No solid proof yet linking Saddam Hussein to Al-Qaeda Agence France-Presse
Washington, July 25
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_319143,00050001.htm


Ansar prisoners interviewed in Tawela, northern Iraq by AFP soon after the attack, insisted their group had no links to Saddam.
"I am a Kurd, all Kurds hate Saddam Hussein, he destroyed my family," said one of the prisoners. He and another survivor had been forced to join Ansar, which established rigid Islamic rules in its area. The prisoners also said they had seen no Arabs or other foreign Islamist fighters in their ranks.
US officials have yet to release evidence that the camp was used for building chemical weapons.
Meanwhile an alleged associate of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi standing trial in Germany has denied any connection with Al-Qaeda.
Shadi Mohd Mustafa Abdellah told a court in Duesseldorf, Germany on July 2 that he belonged to a group called al-Tawhid, which was "on its own and had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda."
The alleged terrorist, a 26-year-old Jordanian, is charged with plotting attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets in Germany.
Hundreds of pages of German police interrogations suggest the al-Tawhid organization had "its own goals and may even have been a jealous rival of Al-Qaeda," Newsweek magazine reported in late June.
Shadi Abdallah told his interrogators that al-Tawid "was one of several Islamist groups that acted 'in opposition' to bin Laden's Al-Qaeda," according to Newsweek.
Perhaps more important, two imprisoned top Al-Qaeda operatives, including Abu Zubaydah, captured in March 2002, have consistently denied any links with Saddam.
Zubaydah told CIA interrogators that bin Laden explicitly rejected working with Saddam because he did not want to be beholden to him, according to the New York Times.
The results of the interrogations have not been made public.